We were the first to report that Kobe had taken his talents to twitter (@KobeBryant Joins Twitter), but as quickly as it began it ended.
The reason is pretty simple, Kobe wasn’t ready.
The account wasn’t a fake (our sources were correct that it was legit) it just appears to have been some miscommunication between Kobe Bryant and his yes men.
It appears one of the yes men got a bit trigger happy, but before I get more into that, here are the specific details.
In a brief period of a couple of hours on Wednesday evening, Bryant launched a Twitter account, amassed more than 35,000 followers and then abruptly shut the account down.
A source close to Bryant told ESPNLosAngeles.com that Bryant’s Twitter feed will return in the future and that a social media professional assisting Bryant in setting up the account “may have jumped the gun.” The source said Bryant will spend more time familiarizing himself with Twitter before the account goes live again.
I understand why Kobe would have a “social media professional” assisting him. Anything he does is going to be magnified to the highest degree, but here is my advice to Kobe.
If you aren’t going to personally handle your twitter account there is no reason to ever start one. While I am critical of some of the things that athlete’s say on twitter, I always respect they are giving their opinions. It is ok to disagree with an opinion, that is healthy.
The point of twitter is interaction, if you need a “social media professional” to tell you what to tweet or to tweet for you, that account might as well be fake.
Kobe should just chill and when he is ready he should start his account like everyone else. If he can’t handle that he should take his Mamba and stay off the internet.