SportsBusiness Journal writer Liz Mullen asked athletes what attracts them to social media. The following are highlights of what she gathered from Kansas City Royals pitcher Jeremy Guthrie, Brooklyn Nets forward Paul Pierce, and New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira:
■ What lessons have you learned on how to use Twitter and how not to use Twitter?
JEREMY GUTHRIE: I set out to make Twitter as positive experience as possible and with that goal I decided I would always stay positive and only respond to positive tweets instead of engaging in Twitter warfare. I think this has served me well and in addition has deterred more of the negativity that would otherwise come my way.
PAUL PIERCE: Twitter is great for sharing and for promoting things I am doing off the court that people may not know that much about. I have learned to tweet selectively and not over-tweet. Quality, not quantity.
MARK TEIXEIRA: I use Twitter as a very efficient news aggregator. I can follow my favorite news or business sites and not have to search around the Internet. I learned very early on that as an athlete, it’s impossible to have a conversation on Twitter. There is too much noise out there and every third tweet is from somebody acting inappropriately.
■ What social media platforms do you use and why?
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Paul Pierce uses Instagram to post photos of events, family and road trips.
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GUTHRIE: I use Twitter and Instagram. I use Twitter because I think it is a genius idea and is the way most people prefer to communicate and receive information in this day and age. … I began Instagram to share my interest in shoes and travel, since people on Twitter seemed to be inundated with too many sneaker pics that I posted.
PIERCE: I am on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. ... Twitter, I’ll tweet when I’m rooting for a game, I always tweet out photos of my family on Halloween or on vacation, and I do use it to share what my corporate partners want to communicate. Instagram is photo-heavy and I use it when at events or on the road taking photos, and Facebook is a combo of the two. Facebook my management team usually manages for me, and they curate from everything that’s on Twitter and Instagram as well as good articles that are being written about me or my team and my foundation.
TEIXEIRA: As a huge sports fan, my favorite social media platform is SportsYapper. It’s the best way to connect with fans of my teams, especially during games. And they have a great filter system so I can actually have conversations and don’t have to read yapps from obnoxious fans.
■ Have you always done your own tweets and other social media posts or did anyone help you with it?
GUTHRIE: I have always managed my own accounts and made all of my own posts though I do refer to close friends and associates who give me sound advice when I’m blinded by the heat of the moment.
PIERCE: I’ve always done my own. I like to use it as an inside look into my life — whether it’s posting pictures of my family on Instagram or tweeting out support for my KU Jayhawks. I have always had my Facebook page managed by my agency, with my input of course.
TEIXEIRA: If there is something very official that needs to be sent out, like a charity press release, I will let my agent handle it. Other than that, I’m the only one sending out posts when I’m having fun.
■ What is your favorite tweet or social media post?
PIERCE: My favorite post is when I launched my Instagram account the day before my press conference in Brooklyn this past summer. I posted a series of my favorite photos from the course of my career as a Boston Celtic as a way to thank Boston fans for everything and make sure they knew how much they meant to me, game in and game out. ... I posted one single photo from the press conference saying #HELLOBROOKLYN right afterwards. I think I got over 45,000 Instagram followers within the hour of launching it.
TEIXEIRA: My favorite tweets are pictures with witty comments below them. They say a picture is worth a thousand words; you can say a lot with a pic and a tweet together.
