Harsha Bhogle has more than three million followers on twitter. That’s the largest following for a sports commentator across all of Europe and Asian countries, says a Twitter India spokesperson. Bhogle achieved what he has predominantly using text as a medium of communication and not photos or posting videos using Periscope, a newer offering from twitter.
And Bhogle claims to have done that using the micro-blogging platform on a Windows phone (his words, not ours). That comment happens as he is wondering aloud why most developments on the micro-blogging site are only for iOS and Android users, with very little attention paid to the small, yet probably influential, segment of Windows phone users. Though he half-jokingly admits that he was gifted a Windows phone and he did not buy it.
Bhogle’s tryst with Twitter is something that one can learn from. Though one would expect Bhogle to be extremely tech-savvy, he admits that when he first joined Twitter in October 2009, it was someone else who actually created a Twitter handle for him. He was speaking at a Twitter sports marketing event #OwnThePlay.
Also, it would be natural to assume that he would be engaging in cricket and only cricket talk through twitter. However, his golden tweet (the one that’s most popular among his 31,800-odd tweets) is actually a tribute that he made to the late President APJ Abdul Kalam. During a conversation with Twitter’s Rishi Jaitly, Bhogle says that to be successful on Twitter, one must have some idea of the constituency that they are catering to. “One must know how to relate to their audience,” says Bhogle. Content can travel really far as is evident from his experience with Twitter. Among other things, Bhogle has realised that one sure shot method to get maximum retweets is when he mentions the word Pakistan.
Timing it right Also, you need not always go with the popular mood. He recalls that during a particular phase when everybody seemed to be targeting Pakistani cricketer Misbah ul Haq, one of Bhogle’s tweets came out in support of the cricketer and managed to get a lot of traction on the social medium. He says that light banter during commentary with fellow commentators like Matthew Hayden often creates good fodder for tweets. His experience has also proven that when someone is tweeting live, the response is almost immediate, pointing to a recent encounter between Pakistan and England that went all the way into the super over.
Bhogle is often said to be extremely timely with his tweets that people wonder if he is tweeting while being present in the commentary box. Bhogle dismisses any such thought and says that it would be unprofessional to be tweeting while one is doing their duty at the commentary box.
There are also some strict no-nos. He says that when he has tried to push brand messaging to his followers, he has always met with resistance. However, if he genuinely feels he needs to compliment a brand in public for its good deeds, he uses the tag #unsolicited before making his tweets. Like Bhogle supposedly once commented, “Remember the good. Forget the bad.” That’s one strategy that could certainly work on social media. Especially on Twitter.