Joey Barton uses Promoted Tweets to apologise for red card

Everyone may be talking about Joey Barton for other reasons this week, but it has come to light today that the “colourful” midfielder has been taking advantage of Twitter’s paid for “Promoted Tweets” service. This would be the first time an English athlete has paid Twitter in order to have their own individual tweets reach a larger audience than just their followers.

Barton’s tweets tend to range from bizarre philosophical debate through to puerile insults, so it’s quite strange to see a player choose to pay to promote tweets that aren’t for marketing any commercial ventures. However, though Barton’s tweets may not be everyone’s cup of tea, his Twitter antics are clearly working in improving his brand profile.

This is a fascinating tactic and almost surely a first in the world of Football Social Media. Whilst Barton’s “bad boy” image might not win a future career as a pundit, almost certainly the publicity will come in handy should be pen an autobiography or whatever he does  after he retires from the game. Barton today used a promoted tweet in order apologise for his horrendeous sending off during QPR’s last EPL game against Manchester City. Perhaps, promoted tweets amongst athletes might become the new press release or media statement in the digital world?

It’s fair to say that Barton will never be an elite level player – he maybe lacks the ability to play at the highest level and arguably his blemished history would be a stumbling block for Champions League level teams. But, with that being said, Barton has managed to use Social Media (and controversy) to make a name for himself in an industry in which it’s increasingly difficult to hog the limelight.

Barton commands a huge 1.4 million followers on Twitter – higher than most athletes globally. And whilst his content and character may be called into question, he is clearly making the most of the opportunity. By using ‘Promoted Tweets’, Barton is continuing to expand his “reach”, meaning that his tweets will appear in timelines of football fans and Twitter users who don’t even follow him.

Barton’s self-promotion is a clever and innovative method and surely many other athletes will now be looking to find out how they can do something similar for their own ventures.

What are Promoted Tweets?

• Promoted Tweets are ordinary Tweets purchased by advertisers who want to reach a wider group of users or to spark engagement from their existing followers.
• Promoted Tweets are clearly labeled as Promoted when an advertiser is paying for their placement on Twitter. In every other respect, Promoted Tweets act just like regular Tweets and can be retweeted, replied to, favorited and more.
• All Promoted Tweets are first displayed as regular Tweets to the timelines of people following an account. The advertisers can then promote those Tweets to spark additional conversation.

Photo & story credit: http://www.barker.dj/

Thanks to @BeatTheFirstMan for making Digital-Football.com aware of this 🙂