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Serena Williams' Tweet

Social media and tennis seem to be in a “Love-Love” relationship these days. Perhaps more than any other sport, professional tennis players have embraced Twitter and Facebook over the past couple of years — and used those platforms with surprising success. Some examples? More than 6 million people have “liked” Roger Federer’s Facebook fan page and nearly 4 million people have “liked” Maria Sharapova’s (poor A-Rod, on the other hand, only boasts 50,000 fans). On Twitter, nearly 2 million people follow Serena Williams, and almost 500,000 follow Andy Roddick (by comparison, Drew Brees trails both with 400,000). These impressive numbers are fascinating for tennis alone — but they also reveal key insights for any “brand” looking to build a substantial fan base and voice.

Tennis’ enthusiastic embrace of social media is noteworthy for several reasons:

1. Tennis is historically resistant to change and often behind the times, due to being incredibly grounded in tradition. (Case in point: The rules of the sport have barely changed since the 1890s and equal prize money for men and women at Wimbledon only arrived in 2007.) But don’t let the game’s historically slow tendencies fool you: The sport has proved that even the most cautious of entities can rapidly scale up in social media once it fully embraces the concept.
2. Tennis doesn’t have the public face-time of other popular pro sports, like basketball, football or even golf. Outside of the four Grand Slam tournaments each year, the sport receives scarce television coverage — and the additional challenge of constantly changing global locales (and time zones) mean it’s hard for anyone less than a diligent devotee to closely follow. But social media has recently become a new outlet through which fans can consume tennis news anytime, anywhere — helping overcome boundaries that have existed for decades.
3. Unlike a football game, which is a one-night occurrence, or even a golf tournament, which lasts for only a few days, tennis tournaments frequently run as long as two weeks — presenting the challenge of long-term engagement. However, the right methods of social media have helped sustain buzz and interest for fans, even during lengthy tournaments. Fans can now get updates directly from the locker room at Wimbledon or even from official sources like the United States Tennis Association Twitter handle.
4. Paging John McEnroe! Even without the racquet-throwing, tennis has long been a sport about individual personalities. With only 2 or 4 people on a court at a time, personalities become as memorable as the match. Social media outlets have helped enhance and grow individual personalities — with opportunities to learn more about players directly through their Twitter handles or Facebook pages. Suddenly, fans have more access to their favorite players off-the-court, making their on-court activities even more interesting.

So I’m curious: What do you think it is about Roger Federer’s Facebook page and Serena Williams’ Twitter handle that makes them so successful — i.e., have both a large and engaged fan base? Can you think of any other way in which social media has — positively or negatively — affected professional sports?

The rise of the internet over the last fifteen years has resulted in remarkable new possibilities for government and citizen engagement. Leaders inside and outside government are using social media tools to realize the principles of participation, collaboration, transparency and efficiency to address the challenges facing our country. This movement, often called Gov 2.0., is explored each year at a two day event I attended called the Gov 2.0 Summit.

Jules Polonetsky, Co-chair and Director of the Future of Privacy Forum, led a session titled “the Future of Privacy” and he shared a particularly interesting point of view on responsible data practices. Throughout the Summit, there was disagreement regarding the use of data; some demanded privacy while others advocated openness and easy distribution. Jules, however, had a more unique perspective: citizens will be more comfortable with their data being shared as long as there is an obvious and relevant purpose that benefits that citizen — what he calls “featurizing data use.”

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The World Cup, the biggest sporting event in the world, is quickly approaching. Starting June 11^th, 32 teams representing different countries from around the world will compete for the soccer title that has been given every four years since 1930 (with an exception of 1942 and 1946 due to WWII). But 2010 is a particularly special and relevant year. Why, you ask? Because of social media!

Social Media as we know it did not exist during the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Twitter did not launch until July 2006. Facebook didn’t become public until September 2006. YouTube existed but videos looked like this #6 most popular YouTube video of 2006. Now, only 4 years later, Facebook has over 400 million members and more than 50 million tweets are sent each day. These platforms, which were infants during the last World Cup, are now globally available and hugely popular.

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