What NOT to Tweet

Last week's blog post was about two great examples of how athletes can use social media the "right" way. In this post, I wanted to look at the other side of social media.  As I was exploring the internet this week in hopes of finding a blog topic, I came across a quote that really stuck with me:

"What happens on social media stays on Google forever"

I read this statement over again a few times. What happens on social media stays on Google forever. As a student-athlete myself, I've had a few lectures on what kinds of things we should and shouldn't be posting online. In my head, I've always thought to myself "even if we were to post something bad on the internet, they would just ask us to take it down and that would be the end of it". Wrong. With technology today, for example, a tweet that was only posted for a single minute and then deleted can be screenshot and saved forever. Also, it doesn't matter if you're the star of your team, one of the worst people on your team, or not an athlete at all. Posting something negative can be saved and held against you in years later.

The best example I can use to show you how one tweet stuck with someone for years is the recently surfaced Cardale Jones of the Ohio State football team. Cardale Jones entered this past 2014 football season as a redshirt sophomore and was considered the Buckeye's 3rd string quaterback. Because of injuries, he made his first start at the end of the season in the Big 10 Championship Game. He led the team to a 59-0 victory and was named the MVP of the game. His second start of his college career came in the Allstate Sugar Bowl where he help his team beat #1 Alabama and advance to the National Championship. His third college start came in this championship where he let is team to yet another vicotry over the Oregon Ducks. Jones even considered entering the 2015 NFL draft but has recently decided to return to Ohio State next season.

While Cardale Jones had a lot of surprising success on the field in 2014 and 2015, the name Cardale Jones was being related to a different topic in the media. The buzz was about a tweet that Jones had sent out two years ago.

In 2012, Jones tweeted "Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain't come to play SCHOOL classes are POINTLESS". At the time, Jones was 3rd on the depth chart and hadn't played a single down for the Buckeyes. Most people that hadn't followed him in high school didn't even know who we was yet. The tweet was taken down the same day but many media outlets had captured the tweet before it was gone. Jones was suspended for one game for his words.

While the tweet was posted two seasons ago, it was a hot topic from the commentators during this year's National Championship when they were discussing Jones' college journey. Luckily, Cardale Jones has learned form his mistakes. I currently follow Jones on twitter and his tweets are much more appropriate and entertaining now. His "bad" tweet was featured in a textbook at Ole Miss as an example for what not to do on social media sites and Jones has since commented and apologized for his actions. The lesson learned from this story: be careful with the content you provide the public because as soon as it's posted, it's out there for good. 

Walked Out That Exam Like 🚶Keep The ✏️
— Cardale Jones (@CJ12_) December 15, 2014

3rd String 😏 pic.twitter.com/fxdFbFSJeR
— Cardale Jones (@CJ12_) January 2, 2015

Iowa Grown: Harrison Barnes & Lolo Jones

This week I wanted to take some time to talk about some of the most influential athletes in my life. While I have a long personal list of athletes I look up to, I decided to talk about two of Iowa's own in this blog post, as I am also an Iowa native myself. Harrison Barnes and Lolo Jones are probably two of the most well-known names when it comes to athletics in the state of Iowa. For the few of you that don't know who these people are, here is a quick bit on each of them and how they relate to me:

Lolo Jones- Lolo Jones was born in Des Moines, Iowa and is considered one of the best American track and field athletes. She won 3 NCAA titles as well as several All-American honors while competing at LSU. She competed in several Summer Olympics but could never clinch the gold medal in her hurdles events. In 2014, she entered the Winter Olympics as a member on the USA Bobsled team in hopes of finally winning a gold medal. Pictured below is Lolo Jones competing in the 2011 Drake Relays held in Des Moines. While I didn't actually take the photo, I was in the same vicinity! My personal connection with Lolo Jones took place at the Drake relays because I also competed there several years in high school as a high jumper and got to watch Lolo compete first hand.

Harrison Barnes: Harrison Barnes was born in Ames, IA and is currently an NBA player for the Golden State Warriors. Barnes was a multi-sport athlete at Ames High School and was considered the #1 high school basketball player in the nation in 2010. He played college basketball as a University of North Caroline Tar Heel for two season before he entered the 2012 NBA draft. He was drafted as the #7 pick to the Warriors where he is still currently playing. My connection with Harrison Barnes comes from high school. Harrison Barnes played for Ames, which was in the same conference as Mason City, the school I went to (Go Mohawks!) so I got to watch Barnes compete every time he came to town. Pictured below is HB as a Warrior today and also HB competing in his last high school athletic event- the long jump which just so happened to also be at the Drake Relays in 2010. Clearly the Drake Relays brought many successful athletes together.

Besides their incredible commitment to their sports and success they've both had, I've realized that these are two athletes that I admire because I feel like I can connect with them. Both Harrison Barnes and Lolo Jones take time out of their day to show appreciation to their fans. Not only do they talk to their fans personally, they are both active users of their social media accounts. Many athletes today have turned to Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to provide their fans with access into their personal lives outside of sports. People in today's society are interested in knowing what their favorite celebrities do in their spare time. These sites are also a great platform to promote charities, events, and products they are associated with.

One of the best uses of social media for popular athletic figures is connecting with their fans. In a recent Facebook article, Jones and Barnes were both named for being some of the most loyal Twitter users to their fans. In an interview, Jones explains that she loves replying to her fans and its usually at random times, like between sets of weight lifting. Periodically Barnes will announce that he will be having a Q&A.

Q&A while I'm stuck in traffic?
— Harrison Barnes (@hbarnes) August 23, 2013

This screenshot of one of Barnes' Q&A sessions on Facebook shows that he is committed to answering as many fans as possible, and you can see he has replied to every post in the comments!

Here are a few other posts that give us an inside look at their everyday life, and provide us more personal insight than any other media sources could provide.

well done @mikaela_foecke on becoming the first prep athlete from Iowa to win this. @hbarnes and I are proud of ya http://t.co/5qCzubbXD1
— Lolo Jones (@lolojones) December 18, 2014

Harrison Barnes uses Skype to verbally commit to UNC

Social media has become a common base for fans to connect with people they don't know personally. Television and news articles provide us with scores, stats, and basic updates of athletes but social media has helped take the step towards getting a better picture 'behind the scenes' in celebrities everyday lifestyles,

So if you haven't already, go ahead and click the follow button on the embedded tweets above, search their names on Instagram, or even like their pages on Facebook to  get a look at the daily life of these two incredible athletes that root back to Iowa. Who knows, maybe they'll even reply to one of your questions!

Super Bowl Social Media

Last weekend was one of the most celebrated sports days in America. Whether or not your favorite team was playing in Super Bowl 2015 (sad Packers fan here), I'm guessing many of you tuned in to the game at some point on Sunday. Other than the game, many viewers were interested in catching the latest commercials, as Super Bowl Sunday usually provides some of the best commercials of the year. Following my twitter account and searching different hashtags about the game and the commercials almost provided more entertainment than the game itself.


One of the commercials that caught my attention the most was the Nationwide commercial during one of the timeouts of the game. As I was on Twitter, I found that I wasn't the only one that was caught off guard with the message being portrayed by this popular insurance company. If you missed the commercial, go ahead and take a minute to watch it here:



Here were some of the tweets that followed it:

So why would Nationwide go through with publicizing this risky ad? The reason big companies like Nationwide pay big money (the 2015 rate was about $9 million per minute) during the Super Bowl is to connect with the sports fans. Companies know football is one of the biggest entertainment providers today so they took this opportunity to reach out to these football fans and catch their attention and inform them about what their company has to offer. These viewers then turn to social media where they can discuss and connect with other fans. The point of the eerie commercial was to get people talking, to get their name out there, and to create awareness of their product. Social media created a great platform for this goal.

The following was released a few days after the ad and provides a great explanation for why the company did what they did and shows just how effective social media's role was in spreading the word.

Nationwide created a lot of attention and got the audience talking. They met their goal of getting a reaction from the people. If you heard anyone talking about the Nationwide commercial, or any other commercial aired during the game (that Budweiser puppy is always a crowd fav), than the company succeeded. After this year, I am anxious to see what the marketing department for Nationwide comes up with for Super Bowl 2016!