Interesting topic. Many athletes are definitely using social media, specifically Twitter, in the wrong way. The key is training. They should seek out training just as they do for traditional media, and as David commented above, having a larger online strategy is key.

Athletes need to learn to keep their “beefs” and personal issues off their Twitter, they should be just as careful in social media as they are with traditional media.

Brian

The problem with most athletes’ use of Twitter is that they use it, or live video streaming, or any number of other things online without any sort of larger strategy or understanding of why they’re doing it. They just do it because other people are. At the end of the day, much of the content that athletes produce is pointless, arbitrary, or as you point out, damaging.

I’ve written a fair amount about this on our company’s blog, most recently in regard to Stephon Marbury:

http://insight.athleteinteractive.com/2009/07/30/lessons-stephon-marbury-experiment/

All of that said, when an athlete understands why they should use Twitter and uses it in the context of a larger strategy in a responsible fashion, it is an incredibly powerful and useful tool, and great for both fans and media. Just take a look at –

Steven Jackson
http://twitter.com/sj39

Lamar Odom
http://twitter.com/reallamarodom

Derek Fisher
http://twitter.com/derekfisher

– for a few more good examples of Twitter used effectively.