Twitter Mix-Up Earns Cricket A New Fan
During the last Ashes series in Australia, a case of mistaken identity on Twitter earned cricket a new fan from an unexpected area of the world. In 2010, Twitter user Ashley Kerekes, from Massachusetts, found herself bombarded by tweets about the 2010-11 Ashes series, with hundreds of cricket fans asking her seemingly random questions about something she knew absolutely nothing about. The reason: Ashley was an early adopter of the microblogging site, joining in 2011, her choice of username based on a nickname her boyfriend had given her – that nickname is “The Ashes”.
Cricket fans from the two competing countries, England and Australia, were mistakenly tweeting cricket related content mentioning @theashes, thinking it was the official Twitter handle of the famous sporting event. Kerekes at first reacted with surprise, then dismay and then frustration, tweeting the immortalised response “I'm not a freaking cricket match!”
Frustration quickly turned to amusement, however, as the Twitter campaign #gettheashestotheashes began to gain traction on the site, calling on companies involved in the 5 day series to buy plane tickets so that Kerekes could attend one of the matches. Australian airline Qantas responded, flying Kerekes from America to Australia, while Vodafone Australia bought her tickets to the game.
While all this was happening, Kerekes’ Twitter following ballooned to 7,000 (eventually peaking at around 13,500). The American even decided to merchandise her sudden celebrity, selling t-shirts with the slogan “I’m not a freaking cricket match!” emblazoned across the front.
"It's crazy but amazing," she said in an interview with Test Match Special. "Sydney is a beautiful city.
"I went down and visited the Barmy Army, and they sang some songs and had me singing along. They are having the time of their lives and they really know how to enjoy themselves."
Kerekes isn’t attending The Ashes this year, but she’s still in communication with many of her original cricket fan followers, who are updating her with the scores as play goes on. In fact, Kerekes still has well over 7,000 followers and, even though she primarily tweets about her day to day life in America, she has recently been in communication with British cricket journalist Jonathan Agnew, who asked “Must be the Ashes -
Following sporting events on Twitter is becoming ever more popular, with communities of avid fans updating each other with scores, team news and stats during matches. During Wimbledon this year, for instance, the IBM Slamtracker on Wimbledon’s website monitored all the tennis-related conversation on Twitter.
Twitter has taken advantage of the activity of the modern generation of sports fans, who are active on Twitter on one device while watching a match on another. Twitter Amplify, for example, allows brands to advertise their products before highlight reels embedded in tweets.
From a business perspective, this case of mistaken identity highlights the importance of a catchy and relevant username, as well as the advantage people gain by reacting quickly to the release of new products in the social media world. Football giants Manchester United, for example, only joined Twitter yesterday, with the username @ManUtd. Before, a number of fan-made accounts sprung up on Twitter, many of which are still active and boasting thousands of followers. It was up to these accounts to keep tweeps updated on Manchester United news on Twitter, despite having to source it second-hand themselves.
There is still a lot of confusion on the site, with dozens of Red Devils fans tweeting @MUFC, an account with no picture, no background, no tweets and over a thousand followers. An earlier adoption of the service, then, would have been mutually beneficial to the team and fans alike.
If you do want to follow the Ashes (the series not the person) on Twitter, @FollowTheAshes promises to be “tweeting mad for” the competition.
Have you used Twitter to follow any sporting events?
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Twitter Mix-Up Earns Cricket A New Fan
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Thursday, July 11, 2013
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