So the King has entered the Twitter building! I’m sure somewhere in San Francisco there was a company toast at Twitter HQ, but is the decision by LeBron James and his LRMR marketing team (headed up by Maverick Carter) to hop on the social media tool the right timing? More importantly, is LeBron’s marketing team really prepared to handle all of his online PR during “The Decision” tonight on ESPN?

The details behind this digital move are fuzzy.  Will LeBron answer questions in real-time via Twitter during the 1 hour long ESPN special? Probably not. Will he simply answer a few carefully vetted questions post TV announcement? If the LRMR team really wanted to push the social media envelope, they could integrate Twitter live on the TV screen during the announcement. Of course, that’s way too risky considering the polarizing nature of “The Decision” (and not my recommendation).

Facebook recently introduced an opt-in list of “Suggested Pages” as another step in the new user registration process. In stride with the recent decision to replace the “Become a Fan” button with “Like”, this appears to be an attempt by Facebook to encourage new users to express their interests and become active.

The phrase, “Connect with your favorite celebrities, businesses and brands to hear the latest news from them”, is displayed above the list.

Who’s the top athlete on Facebook? Is it an international phenom like Cristiano Ronaldo or Roger Federer with millions of fans? Or maybe an engaging personality like Shaun White or Steve Nash with creative, authentic content?

That’s a question Activ8Social set out to answer early in the new year and in the process, we decided to rank the Top 30 professional athlete Facebook Pages as of February 2010. Top caliber athletes from all over the world and from a variety of sports made the grade. Read our full blog entry for more details.

Activ8Social invites you to network with sports professionals in the Washington, DC area at our first event of the year. This will be a great opportunity to meet new people, exchange ideas, and talk sports.

It is FREE to attend and all are welcome, whether industry veteran or just starting out.

Where: Greene Turtle (Verizon Center), 601 F Street NW, Washington, DC (map)

When: Thursday, February 25, 2010 (6:00 pm – 9:00 pm)

A few weeks ago, I contributed to an e-book put together by fellow sports and social media enthusiast Jason Peck. The focus of my post was industry predictions for 2010 and given the nature of our work at Activ8Social, I decide to focus on individual athletes. I came up with three primary growth areas to keep an eye on: Promotions, Live Video, and Mobile.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed a few examples and decided to point them out to better demonstrate my predictions. Here’s my original post, coupled with a recent example of each primary growth area. Drop me a line and let me know how you see sports and social media growing in 2010 (hopefully by leaps and bounds).

Well-known sports and social media blogger, Jason Peck, released an ebook today that aggregates the opinions and predictions of 16 thought leaders in the sports and social media space.

We are excited that Activ8Social Partner Steve Cobb was included in the first annual release of the compilation. You can find his predictions on pages 21-22.
Sports Social Media Predictions 2010

Activ8Social wants to give a special shout out to Rajon Rondo, starting PG of the Boston Celtics, for taking the time to make a trip overseas and meet with injured US troops from Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan. Rondo and his family visited Ramstein Air Base in Germany before training camp.

On his popular Facebook page, Rondo told fans “It was a humbling experience and i was just glad to be there for support and see the smiles on everyones face. Truly thankful.”