NFL players trade value goes up when they kill on Twitter, expert says
Mike Germano, a social-media adviser to the NFL Player Development Department, told the Boston Herald on September 19, “I believe that the NFL trades are based as much on a player’s social currency as on his performance record.”
Germano’s statement is one of the first bonafide, on-the-record comments by someone affiliated with a professional sports league that an athlete’s on-line appeal might be equal to his abilities to perform inside the lines. The fact is this: If your NFL team has a second-string quarterback ready to be dealt, he might fetch better picks if he’s outspoken and savvy with smart phones and such tablet devices as iPads than if he’s a social-media dud.
Germano, president and co-founder of digital agency Carrot Creative as well as adviser to the NFL, made his comments after reports that Bill Belichick, head coach and grumpy mastermind of the New England Patriots, recently asked wide receiver Chad Ochocinco to tone things down on Twitter.
If you are an NFL fan who wants to help their team in every way, you are not alone. And here’s one thing you can add to your repertoire: If you know your team is getting ready to trade out of a quarterback controversy, or likely to move any other player on your team, you might want to pump up the trade bait’s Twitter presence. You can do that simply by adding a Twitter follow to that soon-to-be-dealt player, and then tossing him some @ sign openers. Facebook, foursquare and a host of other smartphone- and tablet-accessible applications are also available to an NFL fan who wants to help the general manager get the highest value in a deal.
The trend of player values based on social-media abilities isn’t going to end. The NFL has become a game with a 360-degree view, and is perhaps the most advanced sport in using social media to enhance the fan experience. But, since social media is a two-way street, it only makes your 12th-man skills more valuable. There will forever be immeasurable value in your ability to help quiet the stadium when your team is at home, has the ball on the opponent’s one-yard line, with 30 seconds left of a tie game. But your ability to engage the players on your team with social media skills is becoming just as strategic.
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