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Corazza: Teams could take a flyer on these free agents.

Story | Conversation | December 06, 2011

Check-in capability is now checking in with the NBA.

Fans who follow their favorite athletes and teams on social media might get a little perk, such as ticket or merchandise discounts with group buying opportunities.

Twitter has become huge despite a lack of advertising, but that's starting to change. A new service called FanWaves is aiming to help athletes and teams monetize their tweets.

Ryan Corazza's been following scores of athletes, sports personalities and leagues -- and the fans who do the following -- on the Web and has come up with a list of social media winners and losers from 2009.

Although they didn't blatantly flout the NBA's social media policy, Amare Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler were fined because others caused their Twitter feeds to be updated during games.

Watching old-fashioned TV will serve you well Thursday during the NBA draft, but social networking sites and other new media will expand the coverage with closer connections.

Don't believe what you read about social media's threat to reporters. Although athletes such as Charlie Villanueva helped Twitter's rise, we still need gatekeepers to filter the blogging and micro-blogging to uncover what's relevant and newsworthy.