The End of Athlete Blogs? (Part 2 of 2)

Posted by Octagon Digital on January 21, 2009 – 2:52 pm

In our last post we discussed whether athlete blogs really were worth the effort, given an athlete’s demanding schedule and the competition from pro or semi-pro bloggers to build an audience.  The answer, we decided, was “It depends.”  For some athletes, like Gilbert Arenas, it makes sense (please start posting more Gilbert!), but for most others, blogs are just not worth it.  This does not mean athletes should not try to develop an online presence.  Given that online platforms provide athletes a chance to control their message to the fans, and provide an online marketing and PR channel, today’s athletes must look at their online options beyond blogging.  One option that athletes are starting to embrace is Twitter.

By now, it is well-known that Shaq is on Twitter, and sending out some classic tweets.  (One of our favorites: “Its co sold in porltand i catn even tpye straight”).  But other athletes are getting in on the act now too!  Golfer Natalie Gulbis, New Jersey Devils player Patrik Elias, and Lance Armstrong are all on Twitter.  Even Britney Spears (granted, not an athlete, but more famous than all athletes except a few) created a Twitter account.

It is easy to see why athletes would use Twitter instead of blogging.  It’s faster, easier, and cheaper (i.e., the same reasons everyone else is starting to use it).  For sports fans, Twitter is a godsend.  Freed from the burden of drafting a longer blog post while in front of a computer, athletes can now shoot from the hip, telling their real feelings about a topic as it pops into their head.  Even better, because all an athlete needs is a cell phone, athlete tweets provide an immediacy and intimacy that blogs (even those written by pro bloggers) cannot match.

For example, imagine your favorite player tweaks an ankle and is carted off the field.  Would you rather read a blog post the next day about his or her status, or have that athlete send a Twitter message from inside the locker room (“Don’t worry, the ankle is going to be OK!”).

I’d say Twitter wins over blogs, and it’s not even close!


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The End of Athlete Blogs? (Part 1 of 2)

Posted by Octagon Digital on January 16, 2009 – 5:41 pm

An interesting thing happened over the last several years as blogging went mainstream – athletes decided that having a website was not enough, they needed a blog too.   Name an athlete with any bit of name recognition, and chances are they have a blog.

In theory, this made sense.  What better way to connect with fans than through a blogging platform?  And, it would give athletes a chance to control their message more than they could by speaking to the press, while developing an online marketing and PR channel.

In practice, though, an athlete-written blog is an incredibly tough to actually pull off.  First, being a professional athlete is often (especially during the season) all consuming.  Given the choice between resting for 20 minutes or hammering out the beginning to a blog post on that day’s game, most athletes will (rightfully) choose rest.  If an athlete posts 1 time per week, they are doing a great job.  Meanwhile, for many bloggers, blogging is their job (or at least what they do while at their actual workplace).  They are posting 3, 4, 5, times a day, and probably live blogging during the game as it unfolds.  Not surprising, then, that athletes have trouble building an audience that returns on a consistent basis.

Ah, but the athlete has information that bloggers do not, you say, and that gives the athlete an advantage.  True, but how often does an athlete really give away a nugget that’s not already being reported on ESPN.com, SI.com, etc. (especially considering the lag until an athlete gets a chance to blog).  And, while some athletes have amazingly entertaining blogs because they are willing to say just about anything (I’m looking at you Gilbert Arenas and Chris Cooley), most athletes are (again, rightfully) not as willing to be so controversial or brash.

So at the end of the day, does it even make sense for athletes to have blogs?  Arenas and Cooley have shown that for some athletes, the answer to that question is a resounding “Yes.”  For others, though, given the time constraints caused by their day job as a professional athlete and the competition they face from pro bloggers, athlete blogging may not be worth the time and effort.   But, just because blogging is not the way to go, that does not mean athletes should abandon developing an online presence.  They just need to be smarter about it, which we’ll go into in the next post.


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