Yesterday, being Sunday and all, and because we all know that preseason isn’t real NFL football, I tried to fill my NFL fix by following as many official team pages that I could find on Twitter. I figured it would also be good to see what unique promotions teams will execute via Twitter this upcoming season.
I was surprised to find it was actually quite challenging to find authentic NFL team pages among the sea of imposters and fan resources. As stringent as the NFL has become at shielding “The Shield,” you would think that more than one team (the Carolina Panthers), would be taking advantage of Twitter’s new verification process.
Twitter is beta-testing its new authentication which will make it obvious to users following well-known celebrities or organizations that they are legitimate. Unfortunately, Twitter is currently only allowing a handful of Twitter-ers a shot at verification. So, for now, Joe Schmo, nor OSM Guy, can get verified. Learn more at http://twitter.com/help/verified
Once this goes mainstream, it will also be a great tool for athletes to protect their identities. Today, Greg Jennings, WR for the Green Bay Packers, became one of my first followers! I was flattered, but am a little suspicious that it’s actually him. By the way, did you know that GJ (he lets me call him that because he follows me on Twitter) appeared on the show Criminal Minds on May 5, 2010? That’s an example of the hard-hitting facts that you will only find here at OSM Guy (and his Wikipedia page).
Talk to you soon,
Ryan Sleeper+, Online Sports Marketing Guy