ABSTRACT
The revolutionary impact of social media has redefined our communications infrastructure. In an era of rapid change, social media has had a tremendous impact on the way information is shared between individuals and industries around the world. The Pew Research Center suggests that among Facebook and Twitter users, 63% regularly use social platforms as a source for news (Barthel & Shearer 2015). Twitter in particular has become the choice media outlet for sport with a reported 70% of US Twitter users naming the platform as their go-to source for sport-specific content (Barthel, Shearer, Gottfried & Mitchell 2015). Indeed, sport consumers have embraced the Twitter platform enthusiastically. In 2013, sport events comprised 12 of the top 20 most-tweeted-about TV broadcasts in the US (Nielsen 2014). Perhaps more impressively, sport drove 50% of all Twitter traffic – in total over 492 million tweets (Nielsen Social 2014). Of this 50%, the sport of tennis has been well represented. Before the 2015 US Open Tennis Championship, Twitter promoted a public listing that featured the Twitter handles of 180 athletes competing in the prestigious event (Twitter 2015). In 2015, only the NBA and soccer reported more average followers per player (Adweek 2015).
