>>Erik: How has working with sports stars
and professional sports leagues shaped your expectations on how social media can enhance
the entertainment experience? >>Mike: The great thing that is happening
with social media in entertainment is the fact that there is a reason why, unfortunately,
these tabloids exist like US Weekly, People [pause]not tabloids. They want to feel like
they want get to know the celebrity more. The entertainer, the sports star. These are
people you idolize. The reason you have a Don Mattingly baseball card in your room is
that you want to be like Don Mattingly. The fact is you put them on a pedestal. When these
athletes actually get involved in social media, what they are doing is saying. `I`m just like
you. I woke up, I had Cheerios. You know what, my kid wouldn`t sleep the night and I couldn`t
get any sleep.` They are able to express who they are. All of a sudden you feel a connection
you have never felt before. `Oh, this guy, oh my God, LaDainian Tomlinson goes through
the same things I go through. This is unbelievable!` You feel connected to that athlete at least
in fact that it makes them feel just like you, which is important.
That is one thing.
Number two, it is about getting the right information out there. We talk about this
all the time with athletes. They have an opportunity to break the news. Kevin Love plays for the
Timberwolves. He was able, on Twitter, to break the news the Timberwolves were not resigning
their coach. This is very scary for the press because where they are used to doing an interview,
clipping it, and getting whatever sound byte they want, the players and entertainers now
have the ability to talk directly to their fans.
That was the upper hand media always
had. They were the ones that facilitated the outlet and now the players have that opportunity.
We are now seeing a new breed of athlete that needs to understand what their public perception
is, what their public brand is, and how they interact with their fans. And more importantly,
what you will start seeing happen is, now we`re going back to before we were talking
about businesses, people have large market share are less willing to take risks in social
media than companies with less market share. People that are new to the league that do
not have that base are more active and willing to participate in it. Charlie Villanueva is
a great example of someone who is not necessarily an all star superstar but is a good player
and by talking about his experience and relating to fans, talking to them, he now has a different
type of base.
Maybe people are not cheering for his team but they are cheering for him
because they have personally connected with him because they`ve had that experience..