He many be no angel but he knows his way around a football
pitch and can also create a social media storm in 140 characters or less, at
least in one go.
Note to Rio: There's no shame in coming second.
Joey Barton’s use of Twitter has helped him fend-off stern
competition from the likes of Rio Ferdinand and Cristiano Ronaldo (who’ll just have to console
themselves with their on-pitch accolades) to win TDF’s Man of the Year gong.
Barton’s use of the social network to share his learnings
from philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche and also rival Sky’s Gary Neville as one of the
country’s most outspoken pundits was already a well-known phenomena.
Joey Barton was not awarded MOTY for this .
However, it was on the final day of last season when after
being sent-off for violent conduct during QPR’s
crunch match with Manchester City – in one of the most talked about games
in Premiership history – that Barton etched himself into TDF history.
Joey Barton: Football's first true social media pundit?
During the multi-tweet
tirade Barton apologised to QPR’s fans for his actions but also alleged that his attack on
Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez was provoked by the Argentine.
However, that said, he did
finish off his missives by congratulating his former club on claiming their
first Premiership crown.
The click-count rocketed as
football fans took to social networks to both share their thoughts on the day’s
action while watching it on their screens.
The post still ranks as one
of the most popular on the blog and for that Mr Joey Barton Esquire claims the
crown of TDF’S Man of the Year 2012.
Just as Wayne Rooney prepares to re-enter the England-fold
against Ukraine this evening, he has launched an official website to aggregate
his social media feeds.
The site, imaginatively named Official Wayne Rooney,
combines the star’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube feeds so users can trace the
posts on each forum in a chronological order.
For instance, yesterday the England and Manchester United star used the website to comment on his widely expected return to the England starting line-up as his national side prepare to line-up against Ukraine in the side's final group game of the UEFA championship, see below.
The site also contains a timeline featuring highlights of
the player’s career such as his first team debuts, even those dating back to
his youth whenever he was a mascot
for his boyhood club Everton aged ten.
The site was created by digital agency Lightmaker, which was
also behind a number ofManchester United sites, and in a Q&A attributed to Rooney,
the striker said it was meant to bring him closer to fans, see below.
"I want it to be the place where
my fans and partners can see what’s really happening in my world. There will be
some big things happening on the site to mark the 10th anniversary
of my Premier League debut on 17 August and lots more to come after that…"
– Wayne Rooney
In the interview, Rooney goes on to say the website, which
has been optimised to be used on desktop and mobile devices, will be a place
where fans can see what’s really going on in his world.
However, in a world where footballers have become brands in themselves, the more cynical elements within the Total Digital Football’s team can’t help but wonder if this is another exercise in PR control.
After all having a central hub for all Rooney’s
user-generated content gives the player’s PR team a perfect opportunity to vet
said content before it becomes publicly available. Although, we can never be certain.
Let’s face it in the days when the press have limited access
to top-flight footballers a single tweet from a high profile player, such as
Rooney, Rio Ferdinand or the ever-provocative Joey Barton, can be enough to
generate acres of media coverage.
Given the fact that Rooney is prone to the occasional
outburst of temper, this seems like a sensible move from the player’s own brand
management team, remember the below verbal attack on a certain section of England supporters post England's 2010 FIFA World Cup 2010 game against Algeria?
Joey Barton used Twitter to explain his role in one of the
most tumultuous 90 minutes in Premiership history that saw Manchester City take
title from Manchester United, writes Ronan Shields.
Barton used his Twitter account, which boasts almost 1.5m
followers, to issue an apology (see below) for his sending-off and subsequent
violent conduct earlier today during QPR’s crunch match with champions
Manchester City.
The dramatic game, which saw Barton’s QPR side come from
behind to lead the league winners at one point but not before the player, who has served time in prison on
charges of violent conduct, was sent off and then subsequently confronted other opponents.
In his series of Tweets, he presented the reasons for his
actions, directly below, although he also used the medium to take aim at Carlos
Tevez accusing him of starting the mellee, see second image below.
Although, Barton also used Twitter, the medium he has used
best to rebuild his reputation, to congratulate his old club on winning its
first top-flight crown in over 40 years, which it achieved by scoring two injury time goals to emerge 3-2 victors and claim the title.
Eager to ride the wave of positive publicity, Manchester
City’s PR machine also wasted no time in spreading the marketing message by
issuing images from the Etihad celebrations on Twitter.
Of course, some of the marketing was a little more overt
than the rest with the club wasting no time in using it to remind fans to
pre-order their memorabilia, no doubt the stadium's official gift shop will remain open a bit longer tonight and doing a brisk business for much of the next week.
It will be interesting to see how quickly it takes for the
club’s merchandise unit to issue a recording of this afternoon’s game on DVD.
Understandably, Manchester United’s players have been
reticent about using Twitter thus far given the narrow nature of their loss but
the club’s goalkeeper David De Gea
did use Twitter to say the team would come back stronger next season.
However, Bolton-defender Fabrice Muamba, who suffered a Cardiac Arrest
while playing on the pitch earlier in the season, did find time to make light
of his earlier troubles on Twitter, see below, despite his side joining
Blackburn Rovers and Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premiership drop zone.
