Want to pay LeBron James to tweet out your product to his 23.3 million followers? It won't be cheap.
One tweet from James endorsing a sponsor's product could yield the basketball king $212,000 according to sports marketing company Opendorse - a company that specializes in executing and monetizing digital andsocial media campaigns for athletes.
But it's also considered a good deal for the company paying the athlete, as they could reach James's followers for considerably less cost than through television advertising.
The five most valuable athletes on Twitter, Opendorse claimed, were James, Kevin Durant ($137,000 per tweet), Bryant ($86,000), Mayweather ($71,000) and Dwight Howard ($69,000). The most valuable female athlete on Twitter was Serena Williams, who could earn $62,000 with a single post.
"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."
Despite the big numbers, Lawrence told ESPN most companies pay athletes between $1,000 and $2,500 for a single tweet. The most his company has sold a one-off tweet for was for $20,000 during last year's NFL playoffs when a New England Patriots player, who he said he can't disclose, took the bounty.
"The big guys are looking for a fully integrated endorsement deal that includes social media," Opendorse chief executive Blake Lawrence told ESPN. "But there are only so many athletes that can get that type of home run."
Opendorse values the tweets themselves for a marketer's negotiation and then manages the social part of contract, including putting in the tweets themselves into an athlete's timeline.
"I think a lot of companies think they can't get a star athlete for less than $100,000," Lawrence said. "You can get [Baltimore Ravens quarterback] Joe Flacco to tweet about your company for less than $1,000 right now."
