The internet can be a very strange place. The evolution of social media can give almost anyone a voice.
Sites such as Twitter and Facebook are loved by millennials because they are public diaries the entire world can see.
Managing two high profile athletes such as LSU junior running back Leonard Fournette and former LSU forward Ben Simmons is tough for coaches, but when the players step off the field and hardwood they enter into a different world — the world wide web.
Over the past year, Fournette and Simmons have arguably become college football and basketball’s biggest stars, simultaneously on the same campus.
One wrong tweet or picture could be seen around the world in seconds, which can cause be a throbbing headache from a public relations standpoint.
“It was different for us,” LSU Associate Athletic Director and Communications Director Michael Bonnette said. “We never had a guy like Leonard come along with social media being so prominent in everyone’s life. [For social media] the rule of thumb is, don’t post anything on there that you wouldn’t want your mom to see. There’s a responsibility there.”
To prep players to avoid online drama that consumes their fame, different internet and media trainings, presented through LSU, ready the players to handle their online “responsibility.”
“We do a lot of media training. Dr. Tommy Karam spends a lot of time with our guys,” Bonnette said. “[With] social media you’ve got to be smart, common sense [with] a lot of it.”
Karam, an editor of the Wall Street Journal’s “The Business of Marketing and Sports,” and marketing professor at the University, educates the athletes on proper marketing techniques.
After leading the NCAA in rushing yards per game in the 2015-16 football season, there were roughly 546,000 posts on Twitter about Fournette during the season and his personal Twitter account grew from 44,000 followers to more than 133,000 followers, according to data compiled from the social media software program, the Crimson Hexagon.
Both the LSU football official Twitter account and men’s basketball account experienced a rise in followers, as well, behind product placement of the star athletes across all mediums.
Behind Fournette and Simmons, the amount of followers on LSU’s football account increased 16 percent and the LSU basketball account experienced a 33 percent rise.
“We’re trying to build a brand,” Bonnette said. “You’ve got to be strategic and use your tools to your advantage. Having Leonard certainly helped grow our social media accounts across the board. Same thing with Ben. It benefited us all.”
Fournette and Simmons combined to accumulate six billion impressions — totaling the number of followers of each Twitter author for a specified topic and time period — on Twitter within the past year.
Simmons, a potential No. 1 overall NBA draft pick, had his name mentioned on Twitter just as much as Fournette, drawing his likeness more than 506,000 times during the men’s basketball season.
“Ben was another high profile athlete,” Bonnette said. “That required a lot of attention. The [amount of] requests for senior associate communications director Kent [Lowe], who handled his publicity, everyday [were high]. [He received] international requests. It’s great for the program. You can’t buy that kind of publicity.”
With hundreds — and sometimes thousands — of notifications daily, it can be hard to filter through the mass of messages. But, when Fournette does, he tries to give a few words of inspiration.
“I may read, some days I may not read it,” Fournette said. “But the people who try to reach out to me, talk to me, I try to go back and read what they’re going through, their problem or situation. Just to talk to them and give them words of encouragement.”
Players also have to be careful what they read and react to, sophomore running back Derrius Guice said.
Guice said he’s seen Fournette receive different types of trash talking, including some thrown his way as well.
“The crazy stuff I see is about Alabama,” Guice said. “We block that stuff. We are active on Twitter, but you have to know what and what not to react to.”
There’s also the super, honoring fans reaching out to Fournette and Simmons. On April 12, Fournette saw first hand how some social media users go all-out for his attention.
“Recently when a young lady dressed up as me with a beard on my face,” Fournette said. “She had a pillow and she put my daughter’s face on it. She acting like she was me and Lyric.”

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Ari Ross

LSU sophomore runningback Leonard Fournette (7) does a dance before the Tigers’ 48- 20 victory against Western Kentucky on Saturday, Oct. 24, 2015 in Tiger Stadium.