Twitter’s global media works with federations, players, clubs and football media all of the time. We help them to reach the widest possible audience using Twitter. We offer advice on best ways to use the platform. So yes, that continues during the World Cup, but it’s part of an ongoing commitment we have to those partner organisations.

There are 500 million tweets every day on Twitter. So you do need to make your voice heard. The best way to do that is by offering an exclusive viewpoint on your own subject. Federations who are competing at the World Cup could tweet exclusive news, or photographs or Vine videos from behind the scenes. That would get them retweets which put their brand in front of people who do not already follow. Journalists can also break news on Twitter. Players can tell fans how they are feeling in the build-up to the game. They can also talk amongst each other – fans love to read the players discussing their thoughts on Twitter. And photos also work well for players in terms of building an audience – rich media such as pictures or videos, like Vines, can really increase engagement with tweets. The advice I often give to our partners is that “unique access + rich media = engagement.”

You can follow the team you hope will win the World Cup. 31 of the 32 competing nations are on Twitter. The Italian team’s main account is @Vivo_Azzurro. Also worth saying the Italian team just today (11 giugno 2014), launched an English-language account too (@Azzurri). You can also follow your favourite players, such as my favourite player in the Italian team, the great Andrea Pirlo, who tweets from @Pirlo_Official. If you are an Italian fan, there is a whole list of accounts to get you started at https://twitter.com/TwitterSports/fwc14ita/members, or just follow the players, at https://twitter.com/TwitterSports/italy-2014-wc-team/members. Also, whoever you support, be sure to click on the hashtag #WorldCup or #CoppadelMondo to get the latest tweets from around the globe!

Twitter is a public, real-time, conversation tool. Players should always be aware that what they say on Twitter is public. It’s an incredibly powerful platform that brings fans closer to the players and players closer to the fans, but we would always recommend that it’s used knowing that it’s very much public and global.

With 500 millions per day, one of our challenges is to surface the best and most relevant content to the widest amount of people. We hope our World Cup timeline experience, which fans can get to by searching or clicking on hashtag #WorldCup or #CoppadelMondo, will do that.

Tweet your beat! Journalists can break news on Twitter, offer exclusive insights and opinion, and post photographs and Vine videos from behind the scenes (where appropriate). Fans cannot always go to the places journalists go to, so the journalists can take the fans there using Twitter.

We are excited to see how the players connect to each other and to the fans at the World Cup. We are also excited to see how the fans connect to the players. At World Cups in the past, players often used to say they were unaware of the atmosphere back in their home country. Now they can take their home fans with them using their phones, and Twitter. And the fans can get close to their heroes like never before. Not many events get as many as excited as the World Cup – we cannot wait to watch that play out on Twitter.