In the age of social media, the general public are growing used to making connections with their idols online. Whether it’s your favourite soap star, band, or athlete; we’ve grown accustomed to reading all about their daily lives, and not just relying on TV appearances or articles.

Twitter has brought us closer than ever to the action, with lots of users now choosing to dual-screen whilst watching live TV sporting broadcasts, with one eye on their Twitter stream. We saw a massive boost in sport social media during the 2012 London Olympics, with over 150 million Tweets being sent throughout the 16 days. Some impressive stats were recorded by Twitter, with the biggest moments of the competition being measured in Tweets per minute:

• Usain Bolt (@UsainBolt) of Jamaica wins gold in the 200m sprint: 80,000+ TPM

• Bolt wins gold in the 100m sprint: 74,000+ TPM

• Andy Murray (@andy_murray) wins gold in the men’s tennis singles: 57,000+ TPM

• Jamaica wins gold and sets the world record in the men’s 4×100 relay: 52,000+ TPM

• Team USA beats Spain to win gold in men’s basketball: 41,000+ TPM

Some athletes like to keep things professional, offering in-depth analysis into their sport, others like to offer a more personal insight into their daily lives, tweeting out pictures or funny stories. The most popular athletes are fun, interact with their fans and keep the public updated with their career.

With the importance of athletes on Twitter quite evident, we’ve decided to look at which sports stars are the most popular on Twitter in 2013.

What next for athletes on Twitter?

As social media continues to boom, the impact on sports events and athletes will only continue to be projected further into the public eye.

Social media has helped propel athletes that may not have received as much coverage, into the limelight, meaning their sponsorship opportunities grow tenfold. For example, we saw British diver Tom Daley receive a massive 900,000 likes on his Facebook page as a result of his Olympic success and he now has 1 million Facebook fans.

But, as we all know, social media can also bring its problems. We’ve seen numerous sports personalities furiously tweeting their heated opinions, for example, Rio Ferdinand was fined £45,000 by the FA for improper conduct after re-tweeting a racist post regarding Ashley Cole. A split second decision to post a spiteful update can ruin an athlete’s piggy bank, or even worse - their career.

Athletes are inevitably going to be attracted to the lure of social media, from both a personal perspective and to potentially enhance their career opportunities. Creating engaging content for their devoted fans will help boost their social profiles, but they will always need to bare in mind the potential consequences of getting carried away. Staying off Twitter may mean less risk, but the impulse to share and boost popularity is far greater to most. The tricky part now, is that Twitter is a crucial aspect of the sports world, and it is only increasing in importance to the fans and the media.