Social media has the power to make players almost as famous as skill on the field these days and the Philadelphia Phillies are tapping into this with a social media competition between players aimed at increasing their social media presence.

In a new initiative installed by new team manager Gabe Kapler, players with better social media followings are being paired up with lesser-known players to grow their social media presence and keep fans involved with the whole team online. Additionally, the move will build team camaraderie as the pairings compete to have the largest increase in following for the lesser-known player.

Becoming a social media influencer can increase the popularity of the whole team and has started to become almost as powererful as skill at the sport now that fans enjoy the inside look at the personality of the players that social media offers and other sponsorships can bring in more and more cash.

Phillies players are capitalising on their own influence as well as offering randomly selected fan prizes for following their partners. The teams were paired up and split into two group to compete either on Instagram or Twitter for the win.

The further challenge will be up to the lesser-known players themselves to create the entertaining content that will hold on to these followers after the competition ends. Social media influence is not just about getting the followers, it is about holding on to them and it will be up to the players with higher follower counts to show the young guns how to accomplish this.