Athletes have a variety of ways to boost their publicity through the World Wide Web. That publicity can turn out to reflect positively on one’s image, but can also result in negative consequences. Facebook, Myspace, AccessAthletes, etc, put the power in athletes’ hands to do as they wish when they create their profiles, upload pictures and videos, and more.
An unconventional way to connect with fellow athletes and fans is for athletes to write their own blog (or have someone else turn their thoughts into words). There are lots of different platforms available for them to get started and different sites will likely do a blog platform comparison to help people choose the right one for them. The likelihood is that there won’t be a specific platform for athletes but each platform will have benefits that affect each athlete personally. The movement to athletes blogging has picked up steam within the past year, as many professional leagues now offer to sponsor player blogs. Yardbarker made huge strides by acquiring the rights to Greg Oden, Mike Conley Jr, Donovan McNabb, and others on their blogging platform.
But when you talk about athletes blogging, the conversation would be incomplete without mentioning Gilbert Arenas. Will Leitch of Deadspin talked with Arenas for “extactly 7 minutes and 16 seconds.” Even though it was a brief interview, it was rich with information [Our (Brief) Interview With Gilbert Arenas]. Here are a couple of my favorite snippets:
Do other players come to you and tell you they want to set up a blog, or talk to you about it?
I don’t think they know how big it is. There were three other players who blogged, but it didn’t really catch on. The business people know about it, but I don’t think the players do.
Was the idea to do the site yours?
They actually came to me about it. At first I didn’t think I had the time for it, but I thought if Chris Paul has the time to do it, I can.
Agents should always consider how they can leverage the power of the internet to their clients’ advantage. One of those ways is by promoting their clients to connect with their fans through blogging. While one of my clients, Kyle Monroe-Dison, has not been blogging much of late (he is focusing on working out and training), we set him up with a Yardbarker account so that he can blog whenever he chooses to do so. It is important that as an agent, you are looking for opportunities for your clients at all times. As Arenas notes, it wasn’t originally his idea to start the blog. I am sure that he is happy that his advisors presented the opportunity.
-Darren Heitner
