NiceBallz - Play Ballzy

We are huge fans of social media whether it be Twitter or Facebook or video sharing sites like YouTube and the like.

For a golf fan (or any sports nut really) it’s opened up a whole new world – one where we can actually interact with some of our favorite athletes.

Not long ago we put forth some Twitter Do’s for LPGA and PGA players, who at the time were joining Twitter in droves.  We still think that list makes up some generally good advice (especially points #6 and #8) - even with the overarching caveat of ‘there are no rules in Twitter.‘

Lately though we’ve begun to notice two trends on Twitter when it comes to how golf fans and players are interacting with each other:

• We’ve noticed that people can be kind of jerks. Shocking, I know.
  
• And we’ve noticed that some players at times, can come off as having fairly thin skin. Maybe so thin they’re bailing on the microblogging service.

Trend 1 - People are jerks

Ok, this isn’t really a trend, more a statement of fact.  But tweets to LPGA and PGA Tour players have ranged from saying they are cheating when using a laser range finder in practice rounds, to accusing Christina Kim of not having a very solid grasp on the English language. If you were one of these players, would you sign up for this?

A while ago, Stewart Cink took exception to a tweet directed at him that said he never replied back, and called the fan on it.

He’s right to be huffy at the claim. Cink has the most followers of any PGA/LPGA player currently and still does actively reply to his followers. Not to mention he gave up some fun and very much behind-the-scenes tweets after winning The Open Championship.

How else are people jerks? Oh, let us count the ways…
 
Complaining about how someone doesn’t reply or follow-back: Sure we agree in theory that more pros should use twitter as a means to ENGAGE with fans. But if they don’t? Their loss. They don’t get the benefit of building their personal brands like Cink, Paige Mackenzie, Christina Kim and others are doing so well. Basically if they want to waste their time by doing lame, non-engaging tweets then so be it. If you really want to send them a message, hit that unfollow button.

Constant tweeting at players: Some followers behavior becomes uncomfortable to observe. They are usually the first to tweet “Hi so-and-so!” to a player when they log on, and almost always the first to bid a player “Goodnight so-and-so!” I don’t know how some players deal with it as it feels like borderline stalkerish tendencies. I don’t mean people who are having casual interactions and conversations – that’s cool. But if you look at your updates and more often than not they’re @ replies to your fav player, ask yourself – Would your neighbors describe you as ‘a quiet man/woman who didn’t bother anyone’ if they were interviewed by the local news?

Playing Advice: No joke. I once saw someone tweeting putting tips to @PGA_JohnDaly. Seriously? Even if you’re some ridiculously skilled amateur player, what in your right mind would convince you that a touring pro wants your swing advice? Please, shut it.

“Buy my, try my, use my”: These are the people with the next big thing in golf. Whether it be swing aids, training aids, mental tips, how to use golf to make you taller, sexier, get a promotion, be smarter, better in bed, etc. They are shameless self promoters and will tweet to the pros asking them to try their service, use their product, give their POV on their big thing and so on. 

So what’s the point?  Basically people are people no matter what the medium. The same person who constantly is sending tweets at Morgan Pressel and is bummed when she doesn’t get right back to him/her, is the same genius yelling ‘Get in the hole!’ at a golf tournament. The law of averages insists that if you have hundreds, or thousands of people following you, at least a few are going to be jerks. So accept it and just be ready to ignore them…or if you don’t think you can ignore, maybe Twitter isn’t for you. And, that’s ok too.

Which leads to Trend #2 - Are athletes (or just golfers) too thin skinned?

But more on that later…

We catch our own amount of flak and we only have about 1,200 followers on Twitter between us (many of which are following both of us).  We’ve been told we’re presumptuous, arrogant, don’t know what we’re talking about and are the worst bloggers around. And, that’s from people who (we think) like us. So if you want to pile on follow us at http://twitter.com/NiceBallz or http://twitter.com/GolferWriterGuy. 8756243231