NBA adds Twitter handle to Spalding match ball to encourage tweets to athletes
The NBA official Spalding match ball will this season see a minor alteration with the addition of the sport association’s Twitter handle in a pioneering move acknowledging the importance of social media engagement to the league.
NBA's Twitter features exclusive content created by its superstars
The ball will feature the @NBA social media handle encouraging match viewers to take part in online conversations in a decision which will likely set the precedent for sport associations across the world.
The NBA, which has over 25m likes on Facebook, 10.8m followers on Twitter, 3m on Instagram and a substantial audience in China on social network Weibo, established the flourishing Twitter account in 2009.
Since then it has accumulated a substantial 8,000 photo and video posts across 78,000 tweets.
Speaking to Mashable, Melissa Rosenthal Brenner, senior vice president of digital media at the NBA, said: “It's really about acknowledging our social media-savvy fans."
"The ball is the instantly-recognizable symbol of our game, and now our fans have a place there too, where they belong."
Brenner attributes the sport’s online popularity to several factors: "First, it is our tech-savvy and prolific players; second, we work very hard to provide our young and passionate fans with all the information, stats and highlights they tell us they want; and third, it is our leadership that encourages us to use new tools in order to continually enhance the fan experience."
The addition of the Twitter handle is one of few changes which have been made to the Spalding ball since the sponsorship agreement was first arranged in 1983.