WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) has become the “Digital Company of the Year” after grabbing a number of much-fought over accolades at the Mashable awards. The one time wrestling company – now entertainment phenomenon – has in recent years utilised digital and social media online to become one of the most recognised worldwide brands.
The former Fed delivered a flying elbow to the competition in this year’s Mashable Awards, hosted by the social internet news site. Being awarded the titles of “Must Follow Brand on Social Media”, “Game of the Year” for Xbox and Playstation 3 brawler WWE ’12 as well as a special award for “Social Good Cause Campaign” for its “Be a Star” scheme.
Long gone are the days of Hulk Hogan spouting repetitive mantras on a weekly televised American show. Wrestling has evolved, headed by the new wave of grappling superstars such as John Cena (“Must Follow Athlete”) and returning star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (“Must Follow Actor” – and we do). Others, including outspoken WWE Champion CM Punk, now appear daily across the globe, continuing the on screen feuds and also giving us a look into their personal lives on the social web. This has helped boost the WWE’s online presence particularly through micro-blog site Twitter. WWE also widens its appeal to older fans by offering its classic programme through streaming on-demand video on the official website WWE.com.
WWE’s current programming is rife with social networking propaganda and the Stamford, Connecticut entertainment giant now leads 750,684 followers on its Twitter page with 7,127,321 Facebook fans on its main page alone (at time of writing). This not including the numerous individual superstar pages following fan favourites such as “Long Island Iced Z” Zack Ryder – who is in fact the self-proclaimed holder of an Internet Heavyweight Championship!
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