How Mike Tyson Became a Social Media Heavyweight

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How Mike Tyson Became a Social Media Heavyweight

April 12th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Iron Mike. Kid Dynamite. The Baddest Man on the Planet.

Whatever nickname you know him by, you’re probably familiar with the ex-heavyweight champion boxer and current celebrity entertainer Mike Tyson. But did you know he’s also made himself into a hit on social media?

Tyson has gathered some 4 million combined followers on Twitter and Facebook, and his YouTube channel has amassed nearly 23 million views. He posts photos to Instagram, too, and is one of a growing number of athletes to embrace social games as the next frontier in personal brand-building and marketing.

Recently, the 45-year-old Tyson functioned as WWE WrestleMania‘s “social media ambassador,” helping make the event a massive success that generated more than 100 worldwide trending topics on Twitter over a five-hour period. He’s also using social media to promote his one-man retrospective show, Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth—Live on Stage, which begins this weekend at the MGM Grand Casino Hotel in Las Vegas.

Tyson was able to carve some time out of his preparation schedule this week to trade emails with Mashable. Read on to see how he got hooked on social media, whether he wishes Twitter and Facebook were around during his fighting heyday, and what might be next for Iron Mike in the digital space.

QA with Mike Tyson

So how did you come to be WrestleMania‘s social media ambassador and what was that experience like?

I got inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame a couple of weeks ago in Miami, and that was an honor for me. It was wild. The social media was something the WWE asked me to do. They had their social media team follow me around for the weekend and I tweeted all of the behind-the-scenes stuff. I tweeted before the ceremony, I tweeted during the ceremony, I tweeted during WrestleMania — I tweeted like crazy.

How big a part of your life is social media now? You’re known to be huge on Twitter, but are there other networks you especially like?

I’m tweeting, Facebooking, all of it all day long now. Especially with my show opening on Friday, I have a lot to share with people. But I’m on Facebook, I’m on Instagram, I’m on YouTube — I do it all. I just like to be connecting with people. I also have an iPhone game called Mike Tyson: Main Event.

How did you become a social media believer? What’s the appeal to you, overall?

I love technology. Anything new I’m into it, I like to be ahead of the pack with the new. If you don’t embrace it, you fall behind, so I always like to try to new networks.

What have been some of your favorite things that have happened as a result of embracing social media the way you have?

It’s cool now, I have a lot of different celebrity friends tweeting me about the show: 50 Cent, Piers Morgan, Rosie O’Donnell, MC Hammer, Diddy, Pauly D. It’s a lot of love and support for Undisputed Truth. It’s amazing. I’m really humbled.

Thinking back to your fighting career, how has social media changed the way athletes interact with fans and media since then?

With social media it’s a whole different world. If you’re an athlete it used to be just the press conference after the game or after the fight, and that was where you said your piece. Now it’s 24/7. For where I’m at now in my life now, social media is great. I have a lot of positive things to share.

What about when you were a fighter? Do you wish social media has been around then, or is it a good thing that didn’t happen until later?

It’s probably good social media didn’t exist when I was fighting — you wouldn’t have wanted to read my tweets when I was fighting. I wouldn’t have had anything positive to put out there. I think a lot of other fighters might have been okay with it, but for me it’s good I came to social media late in life.

What’s next for Mike Tyson in the social media world?

Right now, my focus is my one-man show in Las Vegas this weekend. I am going to share some never-heard stories. You’ll see a lot of tweets about it this week, and I know some of my good friends will be talking about it, too.

After that, I am working with a few startups — one in particular, RockLive. They made my iPhone game last year and I really enjoy working with them. I believe in both the founders and know that they will do some powerful stuff when it comes to social gaming.

I’ve also been talking to a few early startups. I want to be involved and help in all types of ways, mostly with advising and consulting founders. It’s easy to be sidetracked in life; I want to advise young founders to focus on being the best at one thing.

Tyson uses Twitter in part to deliver motivational messages to his 2 million followers in 140 characters or less. Click through the gallery below for some examples: