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What if Lebron James “Followed” His Next Team

sports Twitter By AJ Vaynerchuk Jul 7th |

Lebron James finally made the plunge yesterday and became a Twitter user. Within a few hours of the move he picked up a 6-figure following and created a news frenzy. All eyes are on “King” James these days, and I have a fun way for him to capitalize off this new found Twitter attention: Follow your next team.

Reports are indicating that Lebron plans on announcing his decision via a 1-hour special on ESPN tomorrow night. That’s all well and good (and will surely generate massive ratings), but I think it would be far more interesting if Lebron would make the subtle move of boosting his “following” count for 0 to 1, with the 1 being the team he plans on playing for in the coming years.

I understand that this concept is far less mainstream than a 1-hour special, but wouldn’t it be amazing if Lebron took over the news by simply clicking a single “follow” button?

Filed Under: sports, Twitter

Author: AJ Vaynerchuk

AJ Vaynerchuk is a co-founder of VaynerMedia, a social media agency that focuses on community management and emerging technologies.  AJ runs day to day operations at VaynerMedia while also serving as the key contact for many VaynerMedia clients.  In addition to his responsibilities at Vaynermedia, AJ serves as an advisor to several startups including WakeMate and Forrst.  He enjoys spending time with his family, reading on his iPad, and following the New York Jets.
  • http://adamokane.com Adam O'Kane

    I love this – but not LBJ's style. Subtlety has never been his thing.

  • http://www.ajvaynerchuk.com/ AJ Vaynerchuk

    Hah, thanks Adam. To be honest, the concept doesn't make a whole lot of business sense, but it's something that I would love to see sometime in some capacity and I figured it was worth throwing out there :)

  • Craig

    This is absolutely nuts and I love it. Can you imagine he is on a double edge sword. If he leaves, he has to win the NBA Championship next year or it will go down as the biggest bust of all time. He won't be a bust but his decision to leave a winning organization and still come up short will be a bust. Like you said, ratings will be at a all time high and basketball season just ended. Can you imagine LBJ getting more rating at his press conference tomorrow than the NBA finals last month? And your right, he has taken over the news. Wow.

  • http://www.ajvaynerchuk.com/ AJ Vaynerchuk

    Craig, thanks for the kind words, like you said, it is definitely a bit nuts.

    To be honest, if he leaves Cleveland (which I think he should), I wouldn't consider it a bust unless he wins 0 championships for the duration. As a hungry Knicks fan, I would take 1 title.

    Also I think this 1 hour special can outdraw a finals game, the man is the biggest Free Agent in the history of sports!

  • TheGreatWazu

    He should have announced that he was going to declare his team on Twitter and then have a special an hour later.

  • http://www.ajvaynerchuk.com/ AJ Vaynerchuk

    The opportunities are endless when you are that big of a brand!

  • http://twitter.com/jordanmessina Jordan Messina

    I'd have to totally disagree with this, I'd be so mad if that's how he did it. We can't detach ourselves from society this much. People love Lebron and want to see him in the flesh, not his web presence. We use his web presence as a fallback when we can't get enough. Twitter is a tool for these stars to stay connected with fans, but to hide behind a computer or phone and make an announcement this way would upset a lot of people.

    The man is Lebron James, he takes over the news anyway, just throwing twitter in the mix doesn't make it anymore fun or exciting.

    Maybe I missed the point though.

  • http://www.ajvaynerchuk.com/ AJ Vaynerchuk

    Jordan, thanks for the comment and I don't think you missed this point. I agree with you that this would make plenty of people upset (then again him holding a TV special has a ton of people upset), I just threw this notion out there as something that you may see in the future and something that I thought was different. It's far too early for anything like this to make sense (afterall, Lebron is going to generate a lot more buzz and $$$ to be sent to charities through ESPN), but it may come.

  • http://twitter.com/jordanmessina Jordan Messina

    AJ,

    I hear ya. At least he's on Twitter now, it's one more tool he can use to help spread his message and get some viral publicity.

  • http://www.ajvaynerchuk.com/ AJ Vaynerchuk

    I'm interested to see how he will use it. My confidence in him carrying it out past this bonanza and into the regular season is low.

  • TheGreatWazu

    I wish he would become a Knick. When the Knicks blew game seven way back in the day it really broke my heart thanks to John Starks who never saw a shot he didn't like. I dunno AJ….you're probably right about him not using Twitter past this bonanza but ya never know. He does have an ego. I think that the only way NBA players are really ever remembered if they don't win a championship is if they play for the Knicks, the Celtics or the Lakers. That is all. It's got to be more than the money for Lebron. He has plenty already. I'm really really really hoping he choses the Knicks!!!!!!!!!

  • christackett

    AJ, I love this. Here's how he'd have to do it, though. Do the live ESPN event if that's what he & his people think is the best way to make a real show out of it, if that's what they want to do.

    But a few moments before it is announced, Lebron gets on his phone and follows the new team & even does the “Follow @name” as a new tweet or something like “Hello, New York.” The fans on Twitter will see it and love it, he still gets to do his live announcement, and then later leads to additional coverage when people learn of the tweet. Win-win, I think.

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