Athletes have been getting money from endorsements for a long time but social media created another avenue for them and other celebrities (or even regular folks with a lot of followers) to bring in extra money. You’ll often see sponsored tweets but to get someone as big as LeBron James to simply tweet your product is definitely going to cost you big bucks.
Opendorse, a company that specializes in executing and monetizing digital and social media campaigns for athletes, says a tweet from James, who has 23.2 million followers, has the highest value of any U.S. athlete. Each tweet from James has a media value of $139,474, the company said.
“We’re basically saying that the value of one LeBron tweet is worth $140,000,” said Opendorse CEO Blake Lawrence. “And with that, you will reach 23 million people. It would cost you five times more to reach that many people with a TV ad.”
Rounding out the top five athletes whose single tweet would provide a company’s product or service the most value are Kevin Durant ($66,553), Kobe Bryant ($42,389), Floyd Mayweather ($34,924) and Dwight Howard ($34,290).
Despite the big numbers, Lawrence said most companies pay athletes between $1,000 and $2,500 for a single tweet.
