Three WPS players chime in on the growing professional sports trend, Twitter

These days, everyone is all a-Twitter about Twitter.

In just the past few months, Twitter has become the hot new media platform to link professional athletes directly to their fans. By receiving messages from athletes online and directly as text messages to their phones, over 800,000 fans are following NBA players like Phoenix Suns center Shaquille O’Neal or legendary cyclist Lance Armstrong. Followers of professional players’ “tweets” are allured by the behind-the-scenes access to an athlete’s every move.

Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) has been ahead of the trend, integrating the communication tool into the league site and its grassroots approach as much as possible. Over 20 WPS players are officially tweeting, giving fans a new take on their daily lives, including one trio of English internationals.

The Boston Breakers’ Alex Scott (@Alexscott2) and Kelly Smith (@kjs8eng) and the Chicago Red Stars’ Karen Carney (@karenjcarney) are regularly tweeting, giving Twitter followers bouts of friendly banter each day about their training and the league.  Consider their recent exchange about the Chicago Red Stars thrashing of the Boston Breakers on April 25.

Smith tweeted, “finally back to Boston after a dreadful performance v. Chicago.” Scott posted, “still hurting from getting beat 4-0, a game to forget, good goal Karen, will see you for a rematch soon, hehe.” Fans also got an update from Karen about Chicago’s bye week, “On my way to training…no game this week = running.”

However, these three players are not about to stream live status updates during a match – they say that, for them, it can be a distraction. But they do see the value of forming a unique connection with the league’s fans.

“I think I heard about Twitter on TV and was curious as to what it was,” said Boston defender Scott. “Since I signed up it has now become an everyday habit for me to go on there and update what I am doing, to talk or have some banter with Karen Carney.”

Scott, Smith and Carney have a combined total of over 400 followers on Twitter. Los Angeles Sol midfielder Aly Wagner (@alywagner) has over 600 followers on Twitter and WPS (@womensprosoccer) has nearly 4,000 followers, numbers that rise daily. The WPS website also lists several other players’ Twitter accounts for fans to connect to.

Twitter updates, Scott says, give fans fresh insight into what players are doing on and off the field and an opportunity to learn more about the players; Carney agrees saying the more exposure the players and their teams get, the better for the league. During the season, fans can view live game updates on each of the seven WPS teams Twitter pages as most teams send live in-game texts to wanting recipients.

While the status updates are a cost-effective way for the league to disseminate minute-by-minute messages, the greater effect is generating relationships and a direct connection with WPS supporters and fans. Twitter takes out the middleman and allows players, coaches and even team owners/staffers as well as league executives to issue their own play-by-play out to curious followers. Now that’s something to Tweet about.