The Social Media Juggernaut That is Lebron James Returns Home to Cleveland

The arguably greatest player currently playing the game of basketball has returned back home after a few rings and a vacation in South Beach.  He not only returns alone, but with the social media presence to be one of the most influential athletes on the planet.  In terms of mentions Lebron has been trending for weeks and days prior in speculations that he may go home and play in Cleveland.  With 13.6 million Twitter followers, 20.2 million likes on Facebook,  and 6.2 million Instagram followers Lebron James has a powerful reach.  By going back to Cleveland, a classy announcement via Sports Illustrated, and giving Cleveland a potential to end the championship drought, he has once again emerged a returning hero while he left somewhat of a villain.  Overnight the eastern conference power rankings shifted making Cleveland a viable play off contender.  Some have come out and criticized the move painting Lebron as a team jumper, but Shaq posted a funny picture on Instagram which showed that Lebron being scrutinized for two moves in his career, while Shaq had three times that and no one said anything.  The original speculation of Lebron going back home to Cleveland also started weeks ago when his wife tweeted, “were going home” which led the sports world to speculate.  The social media sentiment he has been receiving was both negative and positive, but despite what people may say this move will ultimately be good for his public image, his social media reach, and the overall marketing potential of his brand which he has increased with this move.  The irony in the announcement date is uncanny.  Lebron James has lost in the NBA Finals in 2007, 2011, and 2014.  His announcement day for the move was 7/11/2014.  If Lebron James wanted to, he can solely make a living from the strength of his social media accounts which in ad revenue and sponsorship would net him $100k or more a day.  This is the power of social media where when you have a community and people that listen, the money can be made.  Lebron has his ambitions set to become a billionaire after his career is through, so this move is the right one in terms of ad revenue and sponsorship as well.  The stadium in Cleveland once again sells out the arena, advertisers line up for advertisement in the stadium, and Lebron brings with him a flood of new jobs to a region hard hit by the recession.  Below you can see a little bit of the social media ecosystem that is Lebron. The velocity and connections of trending topics with size equaling the volume of mentions, orange meaning acceleration in volume, and green/red representing positive/negative sentiment.

From Bottlenose Labs

The Digital Marketing Benefits of Lebron’s Tumultuous Exodus and Long Hoped For Return

Lebron is a big brand and like many big names and companies they create ecosystems around them.  All the news outlets, sports stations, and bloggers were and are still eating up this story.  Timely material on one of the most epic sports stories of the summer adds great value to a site in terms of capitalizing off of  hyper trending content and piggy backing on the wave.  For example Sports Illustrated has this article shared about 253,000 thousand timeS.  About 109,000 were Facebook shares and 140,000 thousand shares on Twitter.  With social signals being important in today’s online ecosystem, this article both amplified Lebron and delivered a powerful kick in terms of back links to the site.  Although news sites are a different animal all together, this single article trumped most other shared pieces of content for this site this year.  The content created deep linking to a post page which increased page authority and also added to strengthening the overall domain authority of the site.  The more a subject is trending the easier it is to amplify it and get maximum value in terms of reach and effectiveness.  With trending topics and content you can make it your own.  Put your own spin on it which will add further value and also benefit your outlet.  Lebron James’s name is still being promoted as the umbrella topic but the overall topical spin may change when owning the subject.  A perfect example would be may hoaxes where websites announced that Lebron was taking his talents to other teams like the Lakers among others. Although he is going to Cleveland this kind of play on what is trending, if done right leads to a lot of potential traffic.  It is all about giving the people what they want in general or in this case at a specific part of time.  If you deliver what they need and it is shareable, the content will be amplified beyond your wildest dreams which is like the gift that keeps on giving.  Lebron is a powerhouse of an athlete and a formidable endorsement machine which will be talked about online, in print, and on air for years to come.