Sports Social Networks and the Modern Sport Celebrity

There is still an incredible buzz that surrounds socialNot only sports news, but recently the personal
networking and the latest thing to hit the socialnews of sports personalities has also been appearing,
network is the introduction of direct communicationdirectly from the personality themselves. Not so long
from celebrities and sports athletes. The rich andago Lance Armstrong informed his million fans
famous now take to their Twitter to 'tweet' outworldwide that his girlfriend had given birth to their
against the press with stories that have been writtenson, 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 swimmerAlthough online social networking is only in its infancy,
Michael Phelps, as he has one of the most popularit 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 onlinecompletely and allow for sport athletes to
diary, as a forum to communicate with his millions ofcommunicate directly to their fans in a way they
fans. He talks about his personal experiences, shareswant to.
videos of himself and uploads pictures of himself andShaquille 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 thenetwork sites. With over two million followers on
headlines, he took to his Facebook to apologize to hisTwitter, 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 networkago he even shared his thoughts with the online
generation wants to be able to communicate withworld regarding an NBA trade and even answered
their sporting heroes, something that was neverquestions directly to his fans.
possible in the past. The sports social network alsoOverall it is interesting to see where social
presents a new real time form of communication thatnetworking technology will end up taking us,
can react faster than the press. If a piece of realespecially within the sports industry. For now it offers
time news appears on someone's Twitter or othera fascinating window into the personal lives of our
sports social network then it can quickly spreadcelebrity -obsessed culture and shows no signs of
across the internet before the press has even foundslowing down just yet.
out.