Twitter brings fans along for U.S. ride,
Celebrities give Team USA assist on social media
SAO PAULO Tweets with the @ussoccer hashtag started trending on Twitter several hours before the U.S. team arrived at the stadium Monday for its game against Ghana. Fans tweeted their support, and in return were sent a digital jersey customized with their name.
With celebrities such as Conan O’Brien and Tiffani Thiessen getting on board, the campaign has been a hit. Nearly 9,000 personalized jersey tweets had been sent to fans through Wednesday. Those tweets were viewed by other Twitter users more than 197,000 times.
U.S. Soccer sent about 30 actual jerseys to celebrities and prominent athletes, who then tweeted pictures in force. The athletes’ list was impressive: Aaron Rodgers, Michael Phelps, Danica Patrick, Robert Griffin III, T.J. Oshie, Mike Trout and Mikaela Shiffrin, to name a few.
Patrick and her boyfriend, fellow NASCAR driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr., watched the Ghana game together but will miss the Portugal match because of Sunday’s race in Sonoma, Calif.
“I hope to be able to see the game against Germany the following Thursday,” she wrote in an e-mail to USA TODAY Sports. “It’s exciting and it’s every four years and anything can happen. I’ve got my US Soccer jersey, and I’m cheering for them. I’m a big fan of U.S. Soccer.
“My race helmet has a lot of the United States flag in it and has for as long as I can remember. I never played soccer growing up but a good friend was really into it. I’m excited to see what they can do.”
Phelps caught Monday’s game and is a fan of the English Premier League and FIFA World Cup video game. With a meet this week in Santa Clara, Calif., the swimming icon, too, will try to catch as much soccer as he can.
Given the followers on Twitter that athletes and stars have, the gospel of soccer is spread to a new audience, U.S. Soccer communications manager Neil Buethe said. “Overall, it’s a great way to reach the non-soccer, or as we say, soon-to-be soccer fans, by connecting through social media,” Buethe said. U.S. Soccer has also focused on bringing its die-hard fans along for the ride.
To create the virtual jerseys, U.S. Soccer and Twitter worked with Digigraph, a company that connects fans to stars with digitally autographed photos. For this project, they build a custom Twitter card that sends the jersey tweets back to fans.
“Simplicity and timing breed success in social media,” said sports digital strategist Craig Howe. “This campaign accomplished both.”
Fans can buy wearable versions of the shirts for $89.99, which Howe calls a “pretty sizable purchase price for discovering a campaign through social media.”
As part of its “One Nation, One Team” campaign, U.S. Soccer also asked fans to send messages of support via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. A selection of those messages has been plastered everywhere the team has traveled. They’ve appeared on players’ luggage tags, in locker rooms, even on the game ball for the final friendly against Nigeria.
Before the game against Ghana, this message from @meghan brennan was on the locker room wall: “We Can. We Will. We Are One Nation. One Team.” At the team’s Sao Paulo FC training base, there’s this quote from @nickverlaney: “When you take the field, you take us with you. Pound the crest with pride.”