Ann Pegoraro, School of Sports Administration, Laurentian University, 935 Ramsey Lake Road, Sudbury, ON, P3E 2C6, Canada Tel: +1 705-675-1151, ext. 1011 E-mail: apegoraro@laurentian.ca Naila Jinnah, Department of Kinesiology and Health Studies, Queen’s University, 28 Division Street, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada E-mail: naila.jinnah@queensu.ca Twitter: @NailaJ Sponsorship: Research paper Tweet ’em and reap ’em: The impact of professional athletes’ use of Twitter on current and potential sponsorship opportunities Received (in revised form): 25th January, 2012 ANN PEGORARO is the Director of the Institute for Sport Marketing (ISM) and holds an appointment as an Associate Professor and Director of the School of Sports Administration, all at Laurentian University.Ann received her doctorate from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and her research focuses mainly on sport communication and sport consumers, including how different forms of media are used to establish connections with consumers of sport at all levels from amateur to professional.Dr Pegoraro’s work has been published in the International Journal of Sport Communication, American Behavioral Scientist, Journal of Sport Management, the International Journal of Sport Marketing and Management and the Journal of Sponsorship. NAILA JINNAH is a second year master’s student at Queen’s University in Kingston,ON in the Department of Kinesiology’s Socio- Cultural Studies of Sport, Health and the Body stream, and a research assistant at the Institute for Sport Marketing (ISM) at Laurentian University.With a background in journalism (Concordia University, BA 2008), experience in television sports production and online branding consulting, Naila is uniquely suited for research in the intersection of social media and sport. Her thesis focuses on the use of Twitter by NHL athletes and digital fandom. Naila has published many journalistic articles and has several pending book chapters and journal publications. Abstract The rise of social media over the past few years has provided sponsors and sponsees with an additional tool for activating sponsorships. Sport teams and athletes embraced social media at a very rapid pace and early research indicated that athletes were not using the medium to activate their sponsorships nor were sponsors taking advantage of the fan followings of their athlete sponsees. Social media provide fans with unmediated access to athletes, thereby increasing their interactions as well as increasing the athlete’s ability to influence their fans.This paper uses case studies to examine how some athletes and sport world leaders are using one particular social media platform,Twitter, to enhance their personal brands to increase and leverage sponsorship opportunities. Lessons for both athletes and sponsors are drawn from these case studies. Keywords social media, athletes, sport, branding, sponsorship, social networking, case study, best practices,Twitter, fandom, technology, activation © HENRY STEWART PUBLICATIONS 2045-855X JOURNAL OF BRAND STRATEGY VOL. 1, NO. 1, 85–97 APRIL–JUNE 2012 85 JBS_012.qxd 3/27/12 4:06 PM Page 85