Wimbledon aims to smash Twitter
While most of the world is glued to this summer’s engaging World Cup, in London there’s another regular competition under way.
It’s time, once again, for tennis to come to the fore and the annual Wimbledon Championships at the All England Club to take place. Returning champion Andy Murray (@andy_murray) caused the first social media stir of the tournament by taking part in the #WelcomeBackAndy hashtag.
The official Wimbledon account, @Wimbledon, invited fans to Tweet them with the hashtag to receive a personal photograph signed by the man himself. More than 3,000 users took part in the promotion, which took one of five images and superimposed a user’s first name in front of a pre-written message. Mine took less than 10 seconds to come back, although a quick Twitter name change meant it wasn’t quite as personal as the promoters probably planned.
It’s not big or clever, but I thought pretending to be last year’s beaten finalist would make this look a bit crueler than intended.
Murray promptly won his first match in straight sets, so probably didn’t lose any sleep over the fact that this photo looks rather gloating.
Henman Hill vs The World
When it’s not showing live pictures of punters who couldn’t get tickets for the courts themselves, Henman Hill has become the social hub of this year’s Wimbledon.
The big screen is hosting live Twitter votes and pitting users who aren’t at the venue against those sat watching the screens in the grounds. Questions are asked on the screen during the change of ends, with answers displayed to the crowds when appropriate.
Can #Djokovic overtake #Federer's 17 Grand Slams? Tweet us #yes or #no using #TheWorld The stats so far… pic.twitter.com/j7xynW8r7w
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) June 23, 2014
Image taken from @Wimbledon
