While sporting news sources often only use Twitter to pump out headlines (@espn, @bbcsport), and some celebrities don’t actually use it themselves (@britneyspears), it’s been interesting to watch some rather famous athletes get involved on Twitter sharing ‘microinsights’ into their daily lives. So far I’ve seen Shaquille O’Neal (@THEREALSHAQ), Lance Armstrong (@lancearmstrong), Andy Murray (@andy_murray) and Will Carling (@willcarling) twittering away.

Seeing these sporting personalities on Twitter raises a couple issues—

First: Authenticity

How do we know it’s actually the personality and not an impersonator or (worse) his PR person? Apparently Shaquille O’Neill started twittering in response to a fake Shaq. It can be difficult to tell, and sometimes interacting with fake personas can be as fun as interacting with the real thing.

Second: Content

How much can and should sporting personalities share? It’s all well and good for them to talk about the sponsors they’re meeting with or business interests they’re promoting–but is it the sort of thing the public wants to hear about? Do people want to hear Shaq’s stream of consciousness thoughts (which are actually quite entertaining), or do they prefer workout tips? Will advertisers start paying athletes to mention products? Hopefully people will reply and ask for more of what they want and less of what they don’t, and the sporting people will be transparent enough to disclose any paid tweeting.

Third: Longevity

How long will these sporting personalities keep twittering? Will they lose interest and stop, or will they become so popular that they can’t keep up with everyone who wants to interact with them? Barack Obama stopped tweeting on election night (though this seems most likely due to the expiration of a contract). Companies that use Twitter for customer service (@comcastcares, @jetblue) have been able to keep up with all the tweets as their volume has increased. We’ll see what happens when these sporting personalities begin to have tens or hundreds of thousands of followers who all want an acknowledgement or question answered.

For now though, we can enjoy these short bursts of insight into these people and their sports.

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