Over the last few weeks it has been difficult to move without seeing a headline about a sportsman getting in trouble for tweeting.
Most recently it has been Ryan Babel, re-tweeting a picture of Howard Webb, photoshopped into a Manchester United kit. Before that it was Jose Enrique letting slip that he was injured and would miss a couple of Newcastle games. And of course there was Kevin Pietersen having a rant about being dropped from an England squad.
Three different types of message – a joke, some inside info and a rant. All pushed out from players through Twitter and all reported in the mainstream press before subsequent retribution from the appropriate authorities.
Sports marketing savant Professor Simon Chadwick (a must-follow at @prof_chadwick) argues that someone in sport must get to grips with Twitter. I agree. And here are a few reasons why clubs and authorities are storing up problems for the future by not addressing the power of Twitter:
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They flat out don’t understand it
The main problem is that people involved in sport don’t understand social media. In much the same way they didn’t understand PR or the need for media training 10-15 years ago. How often do you hear it described as a medium for people talking about what they had for lunch?
Certainly more often than you hear it described as the single most important new information exchange in decades, that’s for sure.
And if you don’t understand it, you can belittle it. And once you belittle it, you don’t need to treat it with the respect it deserves.
- They only see the problems, not the benefits
Following on from the first point. If people in sports organisations don’t understand Twitter, then the only time it is brought to their attention is when someone says something stupid and gets himself or the club into trouble.
So immediately Twitter becomes something to be clamped down on.
The mentality is that it is either a) puerile or b) harmful. And therefore the policy becomes “How can we stop this causing us problems?” rather than “How can we harness all that is good about it, while minimising the potential problems”.
- Players have no other outlet
Sport is an emotional thing. Both in terms of on-the-field passions and the relationship between fans, the club and its players.
Players these days have no real outlet for expressing emotion. They are held on a tight lease, told what to say and when to say it. Their only real bonding moment with fans is a small walk in a circle clapping the fans at the end of a game. Or, heaven forbid, kissing the badge after scoring a goal.
So, when an immediate, easily accessible form of communication to the fans is available, it is understandable that players use it to vent, to rant and sometimes give a bit of inside info.
So, what to do. Well, back to Prof Chadwick:
Competition & team ethic means careful use of necessary; but total ban on athletes/players tweeting is surely counter-productive? Right to free speech, but also good communication/relationship building tool but teams, clubs, federations need to get grip on what acceptable/what not, formulate strategy carefully, then implement proactively.
And for me, the last couple of words are the most important here – implement proactively. A simple ban is pointless. It is unfair on fans and also on those players who are engaged enough to chat to the people who pay their wages. A free-for-all approach will lead to more trouble.
So, the key thing for me is that social media needs to be taken seriously as a part of the media training landscape. Clubs and organisations need to up-skill internally so that understanding of the landscape is prevalent throughout.
Only by understanding the techniques and tools available can sport start to sidestep some of the pitfalls and also harness the considerable benefits of social media.
Alternatively, they can just keep hilariously dismissing it as “Twatter” and hope for the best.
Simon Banoub's Marketing Blog. 