Social media popularity can mean bigger paycheck for athletes

Did the interesting, entertaining, sometimes cutting edge Tweets by “Double D” (Darnell Dockett) play a factor in his new $48 million contract extension? Who knows, but one thing is for sure, he has used Twitter account well as a communication platform…

USA Today: Thanks to a compensation formula introduced by her HuckNRoll.com adventure sports team, Rusch can add her social media skills as a source of income.

“Our fans are those hundreds of thousands of people who live for the two weeks a year when they can go skiing or ride their mountain bikes in the real mountains,” says Jon Atencio, the “team wrangler ” for the HuckNRoll squad. “We have skiers, snowboarders, trail runners and bikers. Our athletes have to do more than be at the top of the podium, we want genuine people who care enough to create conversations with their fans through social media.”

Under the HuckNRoll.com plan, its top athletes get a salary that is augmented by payments for their skill at getting fans to read their media offerings and also make purchases from the HuckNRoll.com retail website.

“My career is absolutely a business and I have a degree in marketing,” says Rusch, who is also sponsored by Specialized Bicycles. “There is more to my job than just training and racing. I am constantly looking for opportunities for myself and my sponsors to increase exposure and value.”
Read more at: usatoday.com

An interesting new twist in social check-in apps… tracking your physical accomplishments across the globe. According to Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz…

“EpicMix has the ability to track your physical accomplishments, similar to Nike+, and then combine it with the community experience of location-based social media, similar to applications like Gowalla,” said Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz. The app was unveiled earlier this week, and it officially launches November 5 at Keystone.

There are a number of other ski apps, and even a few launched by specific areas or resort operators, like Snowbird in Utah. But based on the demos Vail Resorts debuted this week, EpicMix goes far past those in terms of functionality. It’s the first to combine the physical performance with social media elements, and it offers a peek at what might lie in the future for participation sports.

Read More http://www.wired.com/playbook/2010/09/vails-epicmix-app/#ixzz0yO0VI2Rd