Bautista’s secret to making Business Week’s Power 100 Athletes list? Twitter
Published On Mon Jan 30 2012 FRED THORNHILL/REUTERS Morgan CampbellBusiness Reporter
Toronto Blue Jay Jose Bautista's.
Two seasons after rocketing to baseball stardom Toronto Blue Jay standout Jose Bautista has finally arrived – last week Bloomberg and Business Week announced he had made theirPower 100 Athletes list.
After failing to make the cut last year Bautista now ranks 74th on the list, which ranks the strength of athletes’ personal brands based on formula that includes on-field performance but relies more heavily on off-field factors like likeability and trustworthiness.
Those characteristics can be difficult to quantify butBautista’s Twitter account(148,795 followers and counting) andFacebook fan page (53,145 likes and rising) show the all-star outfielder doesn’t just have plenty of fans, but that he’s serious about interacting with them.
Analyst David Newman, who helped research the rankings, says Bautista’s dedication to social media sets him apart from other pro athletes, and makes him more marketable than some of his more famous peers.
“That was a huge component that was missing last year. That was the new add,” says Newman, VP of analytics at the marketing research firm CSE. “Social media is such an essential extension of the brand and that connection with the sponsor. That’s why it was so critical to see what kind of (crowd) is following a particular athlete.”
As a group, the Blue Jays have embraced Twitter as a way to communicate directly with fans with Bautista (@joeybats19) leading a group of active tweeters that also includes pitcher Ricky Romero (@RickyRo24) and catcher J.P. Arencibia (@jparencibia9).
Blue Jays social marketing manager Rob Jack says at one point last season the Jays had more players using Twitter than any other team in the major leagues.
“It’s nothing we make them do. It’s stuff they’re doing on their own,” Jack says. “The players are having conversations with each other…and it’s kind of neat for fans to see that. It’s kind of a peek behind the curtain.”
But Bautista takes his social media presence a step further, tweeting candids from photo shoots and charity events, and closely monitoring what comes into and out of his account.
“We were at dinner with him last week and he’s sitting on his phone reading his tweets,” says Angelo Solomita, vice president of Radegen, the marketing agency representing Bautista. “It’s something he takes very seriously. There’s other people who don’t.”
Bautista’s dedication to social media is part of a broader range of factors that both drive and reflect the 31-year-old’s growing popularity.
Twelve months ago Bautista was coming off a breakout season – 124 RBI and a major league-leading 54 home runs – but endorsements and widespread fame didn’t materialize immediately. Potential sponsors hesitated to invest in a player based on a single outstanding season, and fans outside Toronto weren’t eager to embrace a player whose impressive stats prompted media speculation that he had used steroids.
One year, 43 home runs and16 clean drug tests laterboth fans and sponsors are much more comfortable with Bautista, and Solomita says this year his profile and endorsement portfolio will continue to expand.
They’re both already growing.
A month after collecting a record 7.5 million votes for MLB’s All-Star Game Bautista beganappearing in ads for Booster Juice, with a slogan (“Bats right, throws right, lives right), that took a not-so-subtle shot at people who suggested his success was fueled by steroids.
On Monday Sony will officially announce that Bautista will appear on the Canadian cover of their baseball video game, “MLB ’12: The Show,” although Bautista tweeted from the photo shoot last week.
And since his contract with New Balance expired, Bautista has been working out in Reeboks while his representatives finalize a deal with the shoe manufacturer.
“He’s clearly not at the level of notoriety of (New York Yankee shortstop) Derek Jeter, but he’s taken tremendous strides since last year,” Newman says. “He’s certainly at a level of (U.S.) national recognition.”