| Shaquille O'Neal's New Media Stats | |
| Free Throws Made | 6,176 |
| Free Throws Attempted | 12,935 |
| Rebounds | 14,741 |
| Total Points | 32,120 |
| Minutes Played | 47,750 |
| Twitter Followers | 51,707 |
Yes, Shaq tweets, joining the ranks of people like USC Football Coach Pete Carroll. It is not that what he says makes much sense at times, or is very legible (imagine saying that about typed words). The cool thing is that there is no doubt that he is doing his own tweeting, and it is not being done by some unknown PR person or agent.
Do his 51,000 plus followers fee they get any value out of his tweets? That cannot e answered. What can be said is that 51,707 people/fans are directly connected in a more personal way to this behemoth of a man.
There is of course risk associated with using social media, and the list of prominent sports and sports media personalities publicly using social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace is small compared to the general population. But will it grow. The question is how fast and how soon?
Well Shaq is doing his best to help it grow, as he tweeted yesterday:
Im tryn talk steve nash into joining twitter
As I told Tim Brando a few weeks ago, after he said Facebook is for kids and that he is too old for it, you are never too old to participate. And if you don't, you miss an opportunity to tap into new fan bases and to connect with friends and colleagues, new and old.
So if you are a Twitter user, go ahead and start following Shaq and Coach Carroll.
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