Twitter an athlete’s best friend and enemy

That’s a lot of tweets to reply to…/ geralt

#isthishashtagtoolong?

In the ever-expanding technological world that we live in, social media, especially Twitter, has become the biggest medium for getting news to people all over the world, and is a good way for fans to connect with their favourite athlete or celebrity.

For example, just the other day, NHL player Tyler Sequin tweeted that he wanted someone to bring him a burger while he was at practice and, sure enough, one of his fans delivered a cheeseburger to him at the rink.

For all the good things, like burgers, that can come from sharing tweets it has gotten a lot of people into trouble over the years. Tyler Sequin as another example, when he found out he had been traded to the Dallas Stars, tweeted a homophobic joke about Texas that obviously didn’t go over too well. Lucky for him, or his friend that supposedly tweeted off of his phone, Twitter also happens to be the best place for public apologies, and judging by the quick delivery of some In-N-Out burgers, the people of Dallas have forgiven him for his mistake.

For some people, social media is a great way to show a different side of you that people wouldn’t normally see. For Florida Panthers goalie Roberto Luongo, that side is a comedic one. He always has hilarious comments on things going on in the hockey world, the entertainment world and his own life. A good example of this is when a guy tweeted to him about getting a happy birthday from the world’s greatest goalie, he then tweeted Carey Price and asked if he minded wishing the guy a happy birthday. One of my personal favourites is his tweet saying “Great to be back on the ice doing what I love again,” with a picture attached of him pulling a puck out of the back of the net while the red light flashed.

Whatever you use it for, whether it is delivery of burgers, news updates or jokes, social media can be a great way to share as long as you do it within reason. No one wants their newsfeed to be filled up with one person all the time.

Take the Rams new head coach, Mike Gibson, for example. Seriously, though, giving us updates on Rams news, or how games went is cool, but every day counting down the days and/or hours until the next Rams game is a little excessive. Former coach Frank McCrystal is the polar opposite of Coach Gibson when it comes to tweeting, with only about ten tweets ever, while Gibson has about ten tweets in the last two days. I would definitely rather have some sort of updates than none at all, but there has to be some sort of middle ground between how current and former coaches use social media. So, Mike, if you could just tone back the amount of tweets you make per day a little bit, that’d be great.