Last week, when I first told you about finding Natalie Gulbis on the social site, Twitter, I mentioned she'd be talking about it in an interview...with the New York Times, no less. Well, the interview is here, and it's quite interesting.
It profiles Natalie's Twitter style compared to that of another famous athlete, the larger than life basketball star, Shaquille O’Neal. Yep, he's on there too.
The way these two stars communicate on Twitter is quite different, but the fact is, each is reaching out to a new audience in a new, and much more direct way.
As the article points out, this kind of intimate communication is not without risks, but the rewards can be great too, as it establishes an affinity and an accessibility that will certainly create more dedicated fans.
I give them both Kudos for taking the plunge and Twittering. And I look forward to reading their "Tweets" in the future.
It's good to see that there are athletes out there who want to connect with the fans.
ReplyDeleteI get the impression a lot of athletes really don't understand that it's the fans who bring them to where they are. Some of them hardly seem aware they have fans. It'll be interesting to see how many more athletes join Twitter.
The LPGA needs more players like Natalie. They have so many great player with terrific personalities and amazing stories. It would be great if these girls could be encouraged to be more visible and in touch with fans...like Natalie is. I know it's got to be tremendously difficult just to get out there and play at that high level week after week but if they could just connect a bit more with the fans I think it would do so much for the tour.
ReplyDeleteGood work @golfgirl. Yours is going to be one of my favorite 2 or 3 golf blogs. You are providing a great digest of a lot of good material that I would never find.
ReplyDeleteGlen @glenzgolfvi
your blog is very good......
ReplyDeleteThe celebs and athletes will hopefully follow some fans and not just collect followers.
ReplyDeleteThat's the thing that can be frustrating on Twitter. Often the more "famous" people don't engage much with others. They only follow a small circle of friends and rarely have a conversation. Seems lots of them are just using Twitter to say they're down with the fans but they're really just there to occasionally announce something about themselves. Would be more effective if they communicated. :o\
ReplyDeleteNatalie is awesome. Only if we had about 20 more of her on tour....talk about ratings!
ReplyDeleteI agree, twitter is an excellent way to keep people up to date and can be a very powerful tool. You could be at the golf tournament and tune into what everyone is tweeting about in the area. Its like an up to the minute discussion board about how wonderful someone is performing or even how horrible that last shot was.
ReplyDeleteNot that I'll be twittering with Natalie anytime soon, but I am a closet adidas whore... so if you find any oversized Gulbis-designed golf shoes, let me know.
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