Yes, I know Facebook has been around for ages and it is no shock that sports stars are on the platform.  What has been noticeable though is that although many have taken to Twitter over the past couple of years (there are too many to mention now) there have been fewer who have gone onto the bigger platform.

This last few months has seen a shift with Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney, Tom Daley and Kevin Pietersen (as of last week) launch their own Facebook pages, or in KP’s case account.  All them are still on Twitter and have been some of the biggest advocates of the 140 character way of communicating with fans and friends.

So is this a move by them to extend their reach and build up their ‘brands’?

It would certainly seem so.  Facebook does offer certain functions that Twitter cannot.  For example tweets have a shorter lifespan and thus needs to be updated on a more regular basis.  You can add in events, tabs for extra content or competitions, etc.

But rather than look at whether it should be one or the other, why not have both?  This is a good move for all of those athletes named.  They are already well known and now have another platform where a more controlled, visual message can be put across and will help in raising awareness but also create new revue streams both now and in the future.

It will be interesting to see who is next and how many, especially footballers and Olympians, make the same move.

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