4 Things Sportswomen Should do to Succeed on Twitter

If you’re a female athlete and you’re not on Twitter, you should be! It’s great for chatting up journalists, engaging with fans and building your profile to be more appealing to sponsors and the media.

Here are 4 things you really should be doing to win at Twitter.

1. Interact! Make conversation!

People on Twitter will expect that you tweet about yourself and your sport. In fact, it’s probably one of the few places where fans can get any news about you at all! The mainstream media being what it is.

Chat to your teammates, others in your sport, athletes you’re a fan of… and not just sport, you have other interests, right?! Talk to your favourite shows, bands, writers, artists; especially the smaller or more niche ones, they’re way more likely to talk back. A bit of chatter goes a long way and it is called social media after all.

Here’s a list of all Australian sportswomen on Twitter.

2. Respond when people tweet you!

If someone mentions you in a tweet, for goodness sakes, reply to them! Now, I know the more followers you gain the harder this is to do, and you can’t talk to everyone, so just pick out a couple to chat to when you have the time.

You’re not above doing this. No matter how famous you become.

But what if someone is being nasty you ask? Ignore them, block them. If you’re worried it’s more than just words, take it to your club, association, federation, governing body or the police.

3. Should you follow people back?

Twitter is for conversation. How will you join in if you’re not following anyone?

You’ll especially want to look for journalists, relevant magazines, websites, tv shows and brands that relate to your sport. Also, fans. Not all of them to be sure but many will be interesting and potentially influential people! Check your new followers’ profiles every now and then and follow away.

4. Don’t talk about just you

Like I said, people do expect to hear about you and what you’re up to but they also want to know what you’re interested in: what are you watching on YouTube? Tweet about that! What are you reading online? Share that! What do you think about a current issue? Opinionate!

If you want more people to know about your sport in general (you should!) then RT or share articles that others are posting. A good start is to follow people reporting on women in sport, follow your sport’s governing body, your team and key journalists.

What if you don’t have the time?

Make the time. I’m sorry but do you think that your profile is going to raise itself? This is tough love from me but if you don’t take responsibility for this, no one else is going to do it for you. Yes, you could pay an agency, but as a female athlete, unless you’re a gold medal Olympian (and not always even then), or Ellyse Perry, they’re unlikely to take you on. Also, your fans come to social for authenticity – and only you can give them that.

This might help: How I work out the best time to tweet and the tools I use to make it all easy (or easier).

It’s not always going to be like this, things ARE getting better but in the meantime, you need to take control.

Want more help with Social Media?

Join my Sporting Sheilas group on LinkedIn. It’s a private group for elite Australian sportswomen and that is THE place to ask me and other athletes for advice.

Here are some other things I’ve already covered:

• How to get more media coverage
• Social media workshops for sportswomen
• And, most seriously, what the Spice Girls can teach sportswomen about social media

The inspiration for this post came from this article on LinkedIn. Images via link-creative.