“Ban Twitter” Bandwagon Rolls On
Twitter and professional sports. On recent evidence it seems as good a combination as fish fingers and whipped cream.
And I’m not talking about the blatantly obvious mismatch of a website heavily adopted by the online elite and an activity that would require one to actually step outside their bedroom/parent’s basement (choose as appropriate).
No, I’m talking about the fact that sports teams and the organisations that govern them seem to be jumping on the ‘ban Twitter’ bandwagon. A band wagon that started rolling when Marc Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks was fined for his use of the micro blogging website to critisise a referee on his performance. His tweet cost him a healthy $25,000 – perhaps the NBA should talk to Twitter about monetisation strategies.
A few months later the band wagon gathered speed with the NFL banning the use of Twitter before, during and after games. And like most trends originating in the States, this one soon found its way across the Atlantic.
Former Spurs player Darren Bent was trying to help smooth his transfer from Tottenham Hotspurs to Sunderland by articulating his intentions to chairman Levy on Twitter:
“Do I wanna go Hull City NO. Do I wanna go stoke NO do I wanna go sunderland YES so stop f****** around levy”
Ryan Babel, perennial benchwarmer at Liverpool FC, got so sick and tired of collecting splinters up his backside he decided to broadcast his disappointment on Twitter:
“Hey people, I got some disappointing news, I m not travelling 2 Stoke.. The Boss left me out the squad. No explanation..”
His cry for attention cost him a week’s wages, alleged to be $60,000 – making Cuban’s fine seem like peanuts. And people thought Kim Kardashian’s tweets were expensive.
This news was shortly followed by the announced from both Manchester United and Manchester City, in a strange act of unison which will certainly have displeased some sections of their fans, that their players are prohibited from using social networks.
“The club wishes to make it clear that no Manchester United players maintain personal profiles on social networking websites.Fans encountering any web pages purporting to be written by United players should treat them with extreme scepticism.”
Shortly hereafter a PR spokesperson for Manchester City presented a slightly more nuanced view than had previously been reported:
“I think there was a little confusion in the Manchester Evening News article which suggests we forbid players from setting up social networking sites. I would like to clarify that this is not the case. We have a Code of Conduct for our players and one guideline states that we expect players not to disclose sensitive club information via such sites. But we do not forbid their usage.”
In any case, this begs the question —> how should sports teams approach Twitter? It seems for now it is seen as a threat, rather than opportunity – is that likely to ever change?
As always we’d love your thoughts.
Follow us on Twitter, sign up for our weekly e-mail or watch the ViralTracker social video metrics demo.
Related Posts
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
[...] was ontstaan over zijn commentaar op de trainer. Manchester United schijnt haar spelers te hebben verboden profielen te beheren op sociale netwerken. Bizar eigenlijk als je kijkt naar de potentiële waarde van Social [...]
This is just another not so inventive method of keeping people to hush their mouths because you are the one issuing them a paycheck. Will it work? I doubt it. The very quiet subdued person or even the blabbermouth is just waiting for an opportunity to indirectly lash out at you, if they already haven’t done so, a simple tweet can put the icing on the cake and let the world know at the same dang time.
Nice read Daan, I lol’d at the mistakes organizations make. And I think this not only accounts for sports team, but in general (it’s just that these athletes earn so much the fines are that high don’t you think?).
As most athletes are young they grew up with social computing (or at least adopt it early). So why not create a good set of guidelines (see how IBM did it). That will make things a lot easier and provide solid grounds to fine when rules are broken.
Completely agree Niels – you are right in saying that this is not just limited to sports teams.
Companies all over the world are banning Facebook, Twitter, etc. In some cases they may be right to do so, in many cases it happens as they are afraid of the unknown and are missing out on a great opportunity.
Guidelines and guidance in the long run will be far more effective then banning. These players are ambassadors of your club and could provide a great way to engage with fans.
[...] prove to be damaging to their employers, for example certain soccer players in the U.K. have been fined by their clubs for inappropriate whining about not being picked to play. A global audience means that you have to realize that the global [...]