Man, this has gone on much longer than I thought. When I started this whole series, I thought I could do it all in one sitting, but boy, was I wrong. It’s now spanned eight installments and will actually have a ninth on Wednesday. But I can assure you it will be the last one. The next time I do this, I will assign it to an intern to gather all of the information and then I’ll write it. Of course, the next time I hire an intern will be the first, but anyway.
If you want to look at previous posts in this series, go here, here, here, here, here, here and here. I’ve suggested 128 accounts thus far. We’ll have much more than that when all is said and done.
Tonight will focus on tennis and Sports TV public relations. Let’s get to it.
TENNIS
womenstennis — Marija Zivlak of the Women’s Tennis Blog does a tremendous job on her site. Maintaining the blog from her native Serbia, Marija keeps track of the entire WTA Tour and keeps readers on top of fashion, the latest news on the players plus videos showing their personal side. I’ve communicated off and on with Marija since 2007 and I’m pleased to see her site grow from a small site to one that is widely read. Marija’s account is mostly an RSS feed with an occasional personal tweet. She has 1,420 followers. Follow her to keep track of the WTA Tour.
thetennistimes — Another good site for you to visit, The Tennis Times based in Australia and the UK follows not just one tour like the Women’s Tennis Blog, but all tours, the ATP, WTA, the Grand Slams and all news that deals with tennis. The Twitter feed is mostly a clearinghouse for posts, but it also keeps you up to date on when the site is updated. The Tennis Times has 3,574 followers.
Clijsterskim — The official of champion Kim Clijsters, this is how an athlete’s Twitter account should be maintained. Kim provides news, reaction and interacts with her followers. It’s really a well done account. Just like Kim, it’s classy and every once in a while, she talks about being a mom. Kim has 109,252 followers.
radiowimbledon — The team of Radio Wimbledon prove year-in and year-out that tennis on the radio can work and work rather well. All of the broadcasters are British and they work other radio jobs, but when the fortnight rolls around, they work for two weeks calling all matches through the Finals. This year, Radio Wimbledon blew up on Twitter and the broadcasters read tweets in between points not only from the UK, but from all over the world. Radio Wimbledon has 1,776 followers now, but at its peak during the tournament, that total was much higher.
DjokerNole — This is the account of World’s #1 men’s tennis player and current Wimbledon champion, Novak Djokovic. This is done in both Serbian and English. There’s plenty of humor in the tweets and that is welcomed on this end. Djokovic provides plenty of personal tweets, pictures, retweets and heavily interacts with his followers. Very good account to follow if you’re a tennis fan. This has 243,898 followers.
carowozniacki — For the World’s #1 women’s tennis player, Caroline Wozniacki tweets in her native Danish, English, German and just about any other language she knows. Quite multilingual. And there is plenty of good stuff in this account. Caroline has 162,434 followers.
Jon_wertheim — Jon Wertheim is the tennis writer extraordinaire from Sports Illustrated. His account is chock full of information on tennis news plus offers links to his latest stories. Jon will live tweet matches that he’s covering. In addition, his weekly mailbag is one of his best features on SI.com. He’s extremely connected within the tennis world. Jon has 9,362 followers.
PatrickMcEnroe — This is for the ESPN tennis analyst who not only loves his tennis, but all sports. P-Mac will interact with his followers as well. He’s more than just a tennis guy and his Twitter account reflects that. He has 23,103 followers and you can be one of the tweeps that brings him closer to 25,000. I do enjoy Patrick’s tweets especially when he’s covering a Grand Slam tournament for ESPN2.
SPORTS TV PUBLIC RELATIONS
jksports — There is no reason for ESPN PR maven Josh Krulewitz to have the default Twitter egg at this point. He’s been on Twitter for long enough to have something else in its place, but I digress. Josh is the go-to guy for any statements, pictures of ESPN personalities and all-around information on the Mothership. Josh has 2,108 followers.
b_hofheimerespn — Bill Hofheimer is the ESPN contact for Monday Night Football and the World Cup. He also tweets about the World Series of Poker and is very quick with programming updates on ESPN. One of the more conscientious PR people I’ve met, Bill is constantly updating his Twitter account on all things ESPN. He has 6,332 followers.
MsPotts_ESPN — The lovely Keri Potts was once the PR contact for ESPN’s 30 for 30 series, but now is part of the college football PR team at the Alleged Worldwide Leader. Another person who’s tweeting about ESPN, but sometimes provides other information. While she’s no longer following me, I still follow Ms. Potts for the entertaining back and forth she has with Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch. Keri has 3,221 followers.
ESPNFrontRow — ESPN Front Row is the blog for ESPN’s PR department, this provides the posts for the site. There’s no interaction with any followers, this is just the feed for the blog. There are some posts that make for interesting reading. Overall, follow this site just to keep up to date on the blog. There are some posts that have made it into the linkage. This account has 4,520 followers.
NBCSportsPR — This provides any and all information pertaining to NBC Sports and the entire NBC Sports Group. The account will retweet sports media reporters and bloggers if it includes references to one of NBC Sports’ properties. I like how it does this. This account will also tweet ratings information which comes in handy. NBC Sports PR has 4,659 tweeps.
danpbell — This is for Dan Bell, Vice President of Communications for Fox Sports. Like the ESPN accounts, Dan provides anything and everything pertaining to the Fox Sports Media Group. He’ll tweet about the NFL on Fox, MLB on Fox, Fox College Football, NASCAR on Fox and he will defend Fox Sports personalities if he feels a tweep has gone too far. Dan has 769 followers.
FoxSportsLily — If you’ve watched Fox NFL Sunday, you may have gotten a glimpse of Lily sitting at the computer, maintaining the Twitter account for Fox Sports. She is one of the more delightful tweeps whom I follow. She tweets about the Fox Sports properties as well as retweeting Fox personalities. Outside of Fox, Lily has her own website highlighting her personal photography. It’s very well done. FoxSportsLily has 1,061 tweeps and she should have much more than that.
CBSSportsGang — We have the official PR Twitter account for CBS Sports. It’s not updated as much as it should, but it is a good follow for ratings info plus for any press releases that are provided from CBS Sports. This has 4,791 tweeps.
TurnerSportsPR — The official account of Turner Sports, this provides any press releases and announcements of the entire Turner sports portfolio. This is very good to keep track of if you’re into sports media. This account is followed by 2,738 tweeps.
TVvince — This is for former Fox Sports PR man Vince Wladika. Now that he’s free from having to spin numbers for any network, Vince has taken off the shackles and talks about anything. He’s not afraid to give his opinion and he’s quite interesting. Vince has 262 followers, but that should be way higher. Do your part by giving Vince a follow.
InsideNFLMedia — This is for NFL Network PR guy Dennis Johnson. Dennis is a good follow for the fact that he responds to followers, retweet others, and he can tweet with the best of them. I have come to appreciate his work promoting NFL Network from the West Coast. This has 11,049 followers and for good reason.
brennareneenfl — Our final account for tonight, Brenna Webb provides press releases on NFL Network programming. Brenna updates her account with NFL Network news plus she’ll retweet those she’s following. A good account to follow and it currently stands at 3,914 tweeps.
So with 20 new tweeps tonight, it means you have a total of 148 accounts for you to consider. That’s all.
