I am on twitter a lot these days listening to what others have to say about their lives and the things going on. There are some things I see that make me smile, others that evoke positive emoiton and then their are other things that just make me shake my head. The crazy thing about twitter is that you can take complete control of your image if you want to.
Athletes often forget in order for you to reach you maximan potential as both an athlete and making money as one. You have to make yourself marketable. This means standing for things that companies would want to put their seal of approval beside. When the whole Tiger Woods cheating scandal got out why do you think brands dropped him. Brands do not want to be associated with a person who was behaving in the way that he had. I always remember being told “If you don’t want your picture and name with the tweet on a bill board dont say it”. Plain and simple, think about the things that you say before you say them.
What You Should Do
Stand for Something
People should look forward to your tweets for something. They could be funny, inspiring, interesting, crazy and a whole bunch of other things. Just like many things in life if you try to get everyone at one time you end up with no one. Target your audience and go after a specific group of people that will like your tweets. For the CG twitter I make it so that it attracts athletes who want to be motivated in both their lives and careers. If athletes do not need that motivation then chances are they dont need our twitter.
Care About Others
The worst twitter accounts are the ones that are all about me. People could careless what others say all they want to do is tweet non sense that no one else really cares about.
Would you ever go to a dinner, eat food and not say one word to anyone and then leave. No way that is so rude. You got to the dinner you socialize and you make sure to be curteous of others. Twitter is no different have some respect for other people and show that you can do more than just care about yourlife.
Be Yourself
Clearly no one can be you like you. But the problem is that people think that being you means you have to let the world know every detail of life. Especially when you are angry there is no reason to make it known to the world that you are angry. Thing about what you think in your head when you see people on twitter letting all their emotions out to the world.
Be yourself but do it in a way that exemplfies your positive side. Show the world the things about yourself that everyone can love.
What You Should Not Do
Be Contradictory
Now this is probally one of the worst things I see on twitter. In consecutive tweets I will see people talk about God and the righeous life they are living. Then the next tweet they drop is cursing and talking about the sexual things they will do to plenty of woman.
Now if you want to talk about either of those things fine that is your choice. But you must understand how much of an idiot you make yourself look like when you contradict yourself. No one will believe anything you say.
If I dropped a tweet saying Rest is really important and it takes sacrifice to get to the top. Then my next tweet was “Not coming back until at least 2 this is going to be one crazy night at the club”. No one would listen to a word I say.
Be Unaware of the Image You Build
Just simply remember that everything you do or say willl impact the way people see you. If you truly don’t care then by all means say what ever you want. But before you hit that send button just think what you would think of someone else if they said that.
I can not count the amount of times I erase tweets before I send them. There are so many crazy things that I want to say and I want to joke about but at the end of the day, in my eyes that one or two laughs or smiles I could get will never be worth the tarnishing to my image.
Tweet on Emotion
For the same reason they say don’t make important decisions when you are angry; is the same way you should not tweet when angry.
So What…
Just because you can say something does not always mean that you should say it. I hope to have given you a few things to think about next time you log on to twitter. Be smart and use your 140 characters wisely!
