Former Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button has hit out at sports stars who hand over control of their social media channels to outside agencies.
Several high-profile sportsmen, including numerous Premier League footballers, do not control their own Twitter and Instagram accounts, with messages posted by social media teams who can post messages on their official platforms.
Manchester City midfielder Phil Foden was reported to be disappointed after his 'social media team' posted a message directed at Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappe ahead of City's Champions League semi-final clash against the Frenchman in April.
The message was later deleted, but Button has told us that all sports stars should take responsibility for their own social media accounts.
"I've always done my own social media and I will never have anyone do my social media," said 2009 F1 champion Button, speaking to Female First in association with Dare 2b.
"I know some people do, but I don't see the point. For me, if you're going to do it, it should be yourself. It's me taking a picture with the kids or me out running or me around the F1 weekend. I enjoy it, I like that interaction with the fans.
There are lots of positives to be taken from social media, but there are always negatives from everything like that when you're putting yourself out there and people can have an opinion on your posts.
"There has been a lot of negativity lately and a lot of sportsmen have not posted at certain moments because there has been too much hate, and I agree, there has been.
"I'm very lucky actually, I don't really get any hate, and if I do I immediately delete and ban them from ever commenting again. It's easy enough, you can either follow me and like what you're seeing, or just don't follow me.
"I would never put a negative comment on someone's picture or something, I just don't understand people that do that, so be nice or don't be anything, you know what I mean? So I think it's a useful tool because it's direct to your fans and you can say it how it is and it's not taken out of context, so I think that is positive."
Button regularly posts images of his family on his social media platforms, offering a snapshot into his life with partner Brittny and their two children Hendrix and Lenny.
He also uses his social media following of four and a half million to promote causes he champions and commercial partners.
"I have a passion to promote environmental causes and using your social media channels to do that is one way to make positive use of it," he added.
"I also put pictures of my kids and Brittny on there and we are happy to let people see what we are up to out here in LA, which seems to be popular with my followers.
"You can also use social media to promote partners and that what I have done with Dare 2b.
"I love to go out running in the hills around our house here, but it's not so easy to fit that in now that we have two young kids. So it's either early morning runs before they've woken up or if I can get half an hour in the day.
"So it's nice to do take a few photos when I'm on a run and posting the Dare 2b gear on Instagram. The tee-shirt is the one that I like in this latest collection as there’s lots of different colours. I always go for a bright colour because I like to be seen."
Check out Jenson Button's Dare 2b collection here.
Words by Kevin Palmer for Female First. You can follow Kevin on Twitter @RealKevinPalmer.
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