Boosting your Twitter profile to match your Sporting talent.

Jessica Zoo
Nov 2, 2014
4 min read

We often get requests from professional athletes on how they can improve their Twitter profiles to attract sponsors. It is crucial that professional athletes understand how to manage their social media profiles effectively. An athlete’s social and digital following has become one of the more important criteria for brands considering endorsers.

According to Forbes, consumers are 164% more likely to purchase a sponsor's product if they have seen it or engaged with it on social media. Furthermore, sports fans that are exposed to a brand message on social media are 78% more likely to have a positive association with it.

Twitter has proved to be the best social media channel for athletes and celebrities to communicate directly with their fans because of its playfulness and usability. Even with limited communication skills, you can still be very effective at marketing yourself with Twitter. This is because it is a channel which makes interaction very easy, so you can quickly start speaking with your fans or potential sponsors.

The important thing to remember is that just because you are a talented athlete doesn’t necessarily mean that you are a good investment for a potential sponsor: they measure returns in how much traffic you can generate to their brand.

The holy grail of Twitter achievement is getting a verified accounts (the ones with a small blue tick). These are very valuable because they cannot be bought and they qualify the owner to a VIP status. To sponsors this very valuable as verified accounts attract many followers and gives companies a good image

Here are 5 easy ways of the make your Twitter account appealing to potential sponsors & endorsements and to start turning your sporting talents into a brand.

Profile Picture

First impressions are everything and it cannot be repeated enough. As a professional athlete you are a role model to your fans. You could represent an important endorsement if you allow yourself to be more professional with your public image. Professional, does not have to be boring, it just means putting yourself in the best light to fit your sport and personality, such as:

1) An action shot in high resolution
2) An official headshot from your sports club or agent
3) A photo of you in a recognizable relaxed environment

Cover picture

Your cover picture is as important as your profile picture and gives more opportunity to show yourself in action. 95% of Twitter users on mobile devices with a small screen so try to avoid having text or very small details, and look for a photo which is narrow and panoramic.

Bio / description

This is the short paragraph under your profile picture. Write as much factual information about yourself and main sponsor in 160 characters, leaving a bit of space to show your personality. Always refer to your sponsor and club using their Twitter handle (name with the @ sign). Though it’s important to mention your sponsors, make sure it does not appear too sales. Having your website is important, but don't refer to it in your bio, there is a separate section for this.

Tweet Structure

Structuring your tweets so they look readable is very important if you want interaction and retweets, which is ultimately what sponsors are looking for. When tweeting, follow this structure:

Main main body or sentence
Mentions within the sentence ( @theaccountyouaretalkingabout )
Use Bit.ly to shorten links and make them look neat before tweeting
Relevant #hashtags (3 or 4 max)
Add pictures when possible, remember they use 23 characters of your tweet. You can add up to 4 pictures to 1 tweet, if you add more than 1 picture it won’t use any extra characters. Tag up to 10 users in your picture

Engagement

Engagement is the amount of interaction tweets receive: replies, retweets and favourites. This is where the money lies in your Twitter profile. The more engagement your get the bigger the reach (amount of people who see your tweet) .

In the past, potential sponsors and brands would just look at the volume of followers a Twitter account had. Now they have become wiser by targeting their audiences. For example, a well-informed marketer for a local sports nutrition company will be more interested in athletes that has 100K followers based in their local area than an athlete that is meant to appeal to the UK market but has 1 million followers scattered around Eastern Ukraine and Thailand.

To increase targeted engagement it’s important to use relevant #hashtags that are trending in your local area or fan base, tweeting at the right times of day and during peaks of interest around a specific event.

Once you have set up your twitter account so it puts you in the best light possible, it’s important that you tweet regularly - about 4 – 5 times a day. Consistency is key to keep your followers engaging with you and generating new followers. The rules of tweeting are few but essential:

Always keep it positive (they get x5 more engagement than anything negative
Never refer negatively about a brand or professional
Avoid politics or rants (brands will see you as a liability)
Even though tweets can be deleted, anyone can take a screenshot
Only tweet what you would feel comfortable being printed on a front page of a magazine
NEVER drink & Tweet (aka don't be a #Twunk)