Photo courtesy of Will DiTullio

Twitter is opening up opportunities for fans to develop relationships with professional athletes and celebrities on a personal basis – an opportunity that barely existed before social media came about. It gives a chance for not only fans to interact with professional athletes and celebrities, but for them to get to know their fans.

Chad Ochocinco, wide-receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals, is a perfect example of using Twitter to reach out to his fans. In fact, he made a promise to take Patriots fan Will DiTullio and his wife Julianne out to dinner in Providence via Twitter, and followed through.

Will, known on Twitter as @WAD1980, got in touch with Ochocinco through Twitter and asked him if he was going to meet any New England Patriots fans when he got into town. He then received an email from Ochocinco telling him to come down to Providence so they could meet up, find a venue, and get food.

“Chad kept reiterating that Twitter is such a great tool so he can reach out to his fans,” Will said.

Will has been on a social media winning streak lately. He ended up striking up a friendship with then- Jets safety Kerry Rhodes, who in turn left seats for last year’s Patriots/Jets showdown. It doesn’t end there though! Last year Shelden Williams, then of the Boston Celtics, had a contest on Twitter to determine the winner of three NBA Finals tickets to game 4. Will ended up having the most unique Twitter avatar (profile picture), which was determined by Shelden’s Twitter followers.

Will is Boston’s newest celebrity thanks to the opportunities he has been given through Twitter. He was featured on TMZ.com yesterday, and has been interviewed on many radio shows around Boston.

How Will feels about his new friend: “As far as Chad, I continue to say, what you see on TV is exactly what you get in person. He could not have been any nicer. There were really no awkward pauses in the conversation and he engaged us with questions, too. When we were leaving he was accommodating everyone else that asked for a photo or an autograph.” He even retweeted the picture of himself with Will! Talk about an unforgettable experience, all thanks to social media!

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Under the NFL’s social media policy, a player is prohibited from posting messages on a social media site on game days during a period of 90 minutes before kickoff and ending when postgame interviews are completed.

Ochocinco was fined for possessing an electronic device and posting tweets on Twitter right before and during the Bengal’s preseason game Friday against the Philadelphia Eagles, according to the NFL’s website. The first of Ochocinco’s tweets was posted at 6:50 PM ET and the second was posted at 9:53 PM ET. The game kicked off at 8:07 PM ET.

Ochocinco tweeted twice about the incident today. In his first tweet he stated, “#OCNNnews I’ve been fined by the league a substantial amount of money for tweeting, 1^st time twitter hasn’t made me money by cost me money.” His second tweet was an apology, where he said, “Dear NFL I apologize for tweeting during the game but that was 2 monthsof my Bugatti payments you just took from me, I won’t do it again.”

What are your thoughts on this? Should Ochocinco have been fined?

As my first week passed as a new user, I tried extremely hard to “fit in.” It wasn’t working for me. This was when I took into account that Twitter was different from Facebook and all other social media platforms I was used to. I had to figure out the strategy of Twitter in order to survive on it. Businesses must do the same thing. Everyone’s strategy is different, and it takes time to figure it out. Once you figure out your strategy, you’re not done. You should always continue to evolve and get into different places.

For my personal Twitter account I like to tweet about social media news and converse with others on this. I also throw in a personal spin, such as tweeting about sports and the weather. One must realize though, Twitter isn’t to be used for status updates- my followers don’t care that I am painting my nails. If you feel you want to share that you are painting your nails though, tweet at a salon owner for their opinion on tones that work well with pale skin in the winter. You will likely get a response from a salon owner and other people that are following you with their advice and opinions. Another example is tweeting about NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL trades. You have the ability to converse with others on trades you agree with or disagree with and why. This also allows you to build your own community on Twitter.

So the next time you hear someone talking about how much they cannot stand Twitter, realize this: they cannot stand it because they either don’t know how to use it correctly or they are afraid of it. What are you doing still reading this- start tweeting!

-Lauren
Follow me on Twitter @LaurenBarber7