At one time, the going rate was a penny for your thoughts. It also used to be the $64,000 question. Now it's the million dollar question, and your thoughts – depending on who you are – are worth much, much more than a penny. At least when they are in tweet form.
Social media outlets like Twitter, have allowed people to get to know their favorite athletes and celebrities as never before. Twitter has given people the chance to connect with celebrities, and for those celebrities to build their fan base to unprecedented heights.
Some are very good at it. They tweet their thoughts during the day, after practice and games, and share pictures giving fans and inside look at the life of their favorite players. Those players tend to have a lot of followers. Some even have millions giving them the kind of attentive audience advertisers dream about. Depending on the athlete, that could translate into a pretty decent money making opportunity.
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Opendorse is an online platform that works to connect companies and marketers with athletes. With the power of social media on the rise, they connect companies with athletes willing to use their social media presence to market their product.
The value of such an endorsement depends on the social media presence of the athlete. Not every popular athlete takes full advantage of Twitter (Lionel Messi only has 30.2K followers; his last tweet was in March, 2014), but many do. LeBron James does. The King has over 23.2 million followers on Twitter, and according to Opendorse a single tweet from him would be worth $139,474.
Sound like a lot? Well – he's not the most expensive! That honor goes to international soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo. The Real Madrid superstar's tweets – which go out to 37.6 million followers – are worth a whopping $260,490.
LeBron James is the second highest at $139,474. The rest of the top ten are as follows:
-Brazilian soccer superstar Neymar (19.6 million Twitter followers): $135,900
-English soccer superstar Wayne Rooney (11.8 million Twitter followers): $81,690
-German soccer superstar Mesut Ozil (9.86 million Twitter followers): $68,380
-NBA superstar Kevin Durant (11.6 million Twitter followers): $66,764
-Argentine soccer superstar Sergio Aguero (9.02 million Twitter followers): $62,540
-Columbian soccer superstar Radamel Falcao (8.97 million Twitter followers): $62,210
-Columbian soccer superstar James Rodriguez (8.54 million Twitter followers): $59,100
-Tennis superstar Rafael Nadal (8.41 million Twitter followers): $58,240
