A news article that come out from the US this last week is one that caught my attention straight away.  We know the UFC have been the most progressive of all sports, and probably most businesses, in its advocacy and use of social media.

The use of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube by the organisation has been long reported and talked about.  The specific social media training of their athletes is something to be admired and has been a great success thanks to its CEO, Dana White, and the social agency Digital Royalty.

Now they have taken it a step further and laid down the gauntlet to their fighters.  Dana has set aside a $240,000 pot over the next year to run an initiative.  The aim is a simple one, to give an incentive to fighters to go out and build up their individual audiences on social media platforms and thus furthering the reach of the sport itself…. not a bad plan!

How is this being done?  Well, the fighters/athletes are being divided into four categories based on how many twitter followers they have on June 1^st. 

At the end of every 3 months, the fighters who increase their number of followers the most within each category will receive a $5,000 bonus (simple eh?!).  Payouts will also go to those who up their percentage of followers the most, and the fighters who are deemed most creative with their tweets, with the creativity award being judged by Dana himself.

It seems to be going down well with the fighters….. “Wait for it… fighters are gonna flood twitter. They just mentioned the incentive program and everyone picked up their phones,” UFC welterweight Dan Hardy tweeted.

Is this something that could cross the Atlantic in the near future or make it into other US heavy-weight sports such as NFL or NBA?  The use of social media clauses in athlete contracts is becoming more widespread but this is the first time it has been part of a incentive strategy.