So you might have heard Tiger Woods joined Twitter. It was quite a big deal on the micro blogging site Wednesday, when Woods unsuspectingly opened an account and started tweeting. He gained 30,000 followers within the first hour, and currently already has more than 100,000 followers. Ironically, it was the same website that drowned him in criticism during his mistress ordeal last year. After a few awkward press conferences, Tiger Woods has been very quiet. Public withdrawal happens a lot when celebrities receive a big reputation blow. Just take a look at Kanye West, he basically disappeared from the earth for months after he famously interrupted Taylor Swift's speech at the VMA awards.
Tiger Woods has had a similar silence, but it seems to be broken this week.Woods returned to talking mode by turning to social media with a simple message "What's up everyone. Finally decided to try out twitter!' These few words seemed simple, but apparently they were pretty powerful. The New York Times says his tweet "created waves like a cannonball." His tweet first created a lot of skepticism on Twittersphere, was this really Tiger Woods? Despite the skepticism, people retweeted and followed Woods en masse. And today, Woods is back to confirm that, yes, it really is him tweeting. "Yep, it's me. I think I like this twitter thing. You guys are awesome. Thanks for all the love." These tweets seem to be the first few steps in Tiger Woods' image repair.
I think he should act slow and very careful. Just remember the media frenzy his affairs created just a year ago. His missteps will always be a part of who he is, but he can definitely repair his public image. As long as he is diligent, honest, and patient, he will be OK. His PR team (a lot of smart people are needed for this) seems to think so too, and they've kept Woods busy this week. He is tweeting, he had an interview on ESPN Radio, and he wrote an essay on NewsWeek.com. So, it looks like we will be hearing a lot more from Woods as his PR team is slowly trying to repair his image.
