| There is still an incredible buzz that surrounds social | | | | Not only sports news, but recently the personal |
| networking and the latest thing to hit the social | | | | news of sports personalities has also been appearing, |
| network is the introduction of direct communication | | | | directly from the personality themselves. Not so long |
| from celebrities and sports athletes. The rich and | | | | ago Lance Armstrong informed his million fans |
| famous now take to their Twitter to 'tweet' out | | | | worldwide that his girlfriend had given birth to their |
| against the press with stories that have been written | | | | son, Max. The proud father then went on to show |
| about them and to confirm or deny the latest gossip. | | | | off pictures of his newborn and all this has been |
| It is the same for the sports social network world. | | | | made possible with social networking. |
| One good example would be Olympic swimmer | | | | Although online social networking is only in its infancy, |
| Michael Phelps, as he has one of the most popular | | | | it is easy to see how quickly it has adapted and how |
| Facebook Fan Pages in the world. | | | | a sports social network can now bypass the media |
| Phelps uses his fan pages on Facebook as an online | | | | completely and allow for sport athletes to |
| diary, as a forum to communicate with his millions of | | | | communicate directly to their fans in a way they |
| fans. He talks about his personal experiences, shares | | | | want to. |
| videos of himself and uploads pictures of himself and | | | | Shaquille O'Neal a player for Cleveland Cavaliers is also |
| pictures of sponsorships he is involved with. Recently, | | | | another athlete who is not shy to sport social |
| when controversy struck Phelps and he made the | | | | network sites. With over two million followers on |
| headlines, he took to his Facebook to apologize to his | | | | Twitter, this sport celebrity speaks daily about his |
| fans. | | | | thoughts on news in the sport world. A few months |
| It just shows how this new social network | | | | ago he even shared his thoughts with the online |
| generation wants to be able to communicate with | | | | world regarding an NBA trade and even answered |
| their sporting heroes, something that was never | | | | questions directly to his fans. |
| possible in the past. The sports social network also | | | | Overall it is interesting to see where social |
| presents a new real time form of communication that | | | | networking technology will end up taking us, |
| can react faster than the press. If a piece of real | | | | especially within the sports industry. For now it offers |
| time news appears on someone's Twitter or other | | | | a fascinating window into the personal lives of our |
| sports social network then it can quickly spread | | | | celebrity -obsessed culture and shows no signs of |
| across the internet before the press has even found | | | | slowing down just yet. |
| out. | | | | |
