From Selfies to Dub Smashes, Sporting Heroes Find New Ways to Connect With Their Fans
Sports-persons are making their presence felt on the social media in a bid to connect with their fans, strengthen their brand value and project their off-the field persona.
Yuvraj Singh dedicated his debut performance to Narendra Modi's first year as Prime Minister, Saina Nehwal soon followed with her snippet of a film dialogue and now Sania Mirza is the latest to join the 'dub smash' brigade. In fact sports persons are looking at new and innovative ways to connect with their fans as they realise that their persona as a sports person is now well beyond the playing field.
Twitter, YouTube and Facebook are as much about connecting as about personality building. Roger Federer's visit to India last year for the International Premier Tennis League generated so much buzz thanks to his Twitter request. Federer asked his Indian fans to help pick places for him to visit in India by Photoshopping him in it. The result was fantastic and the response, overwhelming.
In fact the social media has been a great platform for sports-persons to project what they want to about their life off the field by being about to filter it themselves. Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James, Neymar are amongst the most sports celebrities on Twitter. For India, Virat Kohli tops the charts followed closely by Sachin Tendulkar; the only female sportsperson on India's top 10 list is Sania Mirza who comes in at No.7.
What's more, one can understand the importance of this social connect in sports even on a macro level. Have you realised how quickly the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's twitter account reacts to a sporting result? Whether it's congratulating Saina Nehwal for becoming World No.1 in Women's Badminton or giving the Men in blue a pat on their back despite their loss in the World Cup semi-final in Australia- @PMOIndia is certainly playing 'fastest finger first'.
The 'Ice bucket challenge' was another example of how the sports community can come together for a common cause on the social media like cricketer Chris Gayle, tennis star Caroline Wozniacki and golfer Michelle Wie. PM Modi's 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan' took a leaf from that and had India's top sports celebrities like Sachin Tendulkar and Saina Nehwal sweeping in their efforts for a cleaner India.
So from selfies to 'dub smashes' to challenges and updates, sports persons are ensuring that they are not left behind when it comes to their presence on the social media; after all we live as much in the virtual world as the real world today.
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