Latrell Sprewell Wants To Pay You To Follow Him On Twitter [Opinion]
NBA Superstar Latrell Sprewell was just on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz and offered to pay them, and anyone else, to follow him on Twitter. Sprewell has had an interesting history on Twitter throughout the ups and downs of his career. It started off when he came out in support of President-elect Donald Trump and was subsequently and mysteriously suspended from Twitter. Afterward, a new Twitter account with his name popped up and was subsequently banned as well. A third Twitter account, which was a Twitter Verified account, was also made and in contact with a journalist when it was mysteriously suspended too.
Sprewell is making great strides at entering the public’s consciousness again, and much like Donald Trump, he is using the power of Twitter to growth-hack that success and turn his account into a business of its own. Now, he’s leveraging his professional network and their collective Twitter network to help build his vastly diminished net worth.
On the radio show, he had called in and offered to pay Dan Le Batard and Stugotz to follow and promote him on their Twitter accounts, almost whimsically. They offered to do it for free. There are plenty of ways to get free Twitter followers, but Sprewell doesn’t have the media relations team behind him anymore. Instead, he’s basically running his own influencer marketing campaign and using his history and his contacts to get himself started.
This NBA superstar famously said about an NBA contract that $21 million wasn’t enough to feed his children, and shortly afterward, he found his two homes being foreclosed on and found himself banned from seeing his two children. His estimated net worth currently sits at around $50,000. Over the course of his career, he accumulated over $100 million, but through a series of unfortunate decisions, media appearances, and political statements, he found himself ripped from it all. Apparently, you have to be an actual billionaire to survive the wrath of the media.
His lack of funds isn’t stopping him from trying to pay people one at a time to market him, but it will prevent him from simply buying followers online in bulk, of which there are many options. Previously, many politicians including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump have been accused of buying fake followers. Even celebrities like Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Brittany Spears, Rhianna, Justin Bieber, Shakira, and many more have purchased fake followers.
Why does Latrell Sprewell want to pay people to follow him on Twitter? Why do people buy Twitter followers anyway? Having a huge following for your persona or brand adds something called “social proof,” which is a marketing term used to describe the trust a new user subconsciously feels when encountering you for the first time. Essentially, if someone looks at your brand’s online presence and finds a lot of other people following and engaging with the brand, they will feel a lot safer and more comfortable when they see a huge crowd already following your person or brand.
There are plenty of reasons why people, celebrities, businesses, and brands will buy followers online or use influence marketing to build the network they aim to have access to. The real question is how will he go about achieving his goal while managing his personal life and family all on a relatively small budget. He did already manage to lose his $100 million net worth, his two houses, and his family. People often have to hit rock bottom before they make the significant life changes and altered their perspectives and motivations enough to bring the necessary evolution. Most of his fans, his friends, and his extended family all wish the best and hope that he has better luck with his current ambitions and goals. Perhaps he will turn his account into an influencer account himself and be the one charging for sponsored mentions!
[Featured Image by Lawrence Lucier/Getty Images]
