The Post Game Podcast

I just posted a podcast about athletes having social media clauses in their contracts, please take a listen.

Here is the link to the podcast:
http://soundcloud.com/megan-hossler/comm-497d-podcast-assignment1

Here is a link to the article that I reference in the podcast:
http://sports.espn.go.com/action/news/story?id=6175659

Off the Court Fouls

After talking about all the ways that athletes can improve the way that use social media properly, I thought that I'd take some time to talk about how if social media is abused it can have some dire consequences.  After poking around on the Mashable website, I came across a video describing the Top 10 Athlete Gaffes Aided by Social Media.  So I thought I'd talk about some of the best of the worst? or is it worst of the worst?

After the tsunami in Japan, WMBA New York Liberty player Cappie Pondexter (@cappa23) tried to offer a holy explanation to the natural disaster by tweeting the following tweets:

"What if God was tired of the way they were treating their own people in their own country.  Idk guys he makes no mistakes."
"u just never knw!  They did peral harbor so u can't expect anything less."

Rashard Mendenhall also had one of his own Twitter blunders.  On the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack of 9/11 Mendenhall had his own theory about the attacks tweeting:

"@dkeller23 We'll never know what really happened.  I just have a hard time believing a plane could take a skyscraper down demolition style"


These are just some of the examples of the exact reasons why athletes need some one coaching them off the court about how to use social media.  There are lots of fans (especially young ones) that look to athletes for guidance, or as role models and that is exactly why they should monitor what they say on such a public sphere.  I'm not saying that Pondexter or Mendenhall cannot have these beliefs but they should not be using social media to make these comments.  It's a price that comes with being such a public figure.



Here's the link to the Mashable Top 10 Athlete Gaffes Aided by Social Media video that inspired this post: http://mashable.com/2011/12/08/ten-athlete-gaffes-aided-by-social-media/

Social Media Training for Athletes

In light of a recent class assignment that had me examine celebrities Twitter pages and discuss whether I thought that the content they posted was genuinely from them or if they had a ghost-tweeter.  A ghost-tweeter is a person who helps compose tweets for someone else, to either make the tweets more engaging, funny or simply so that the actual celebrity does not have to take the time to do it themselves.  As I was looking at some different celebrities and athletes I thought that some of them could actually BENEFIT from having someone ghost-tweet for them.  I will admit that I myself, in the past, have tweeted about some things that later I thought that maybe should not have but I if I had a ghost tweeter helping me they would have been able to read over it and make necessary edits. 

Personally I think that a lot of athletes could use a ghost tweeter, at least until they learned how to tweet.  Most athletes I don't think understand the true purpose of Twitter (to be honest I catch myself wondering if I truly understand myself).  Fans are following them to feel closer to them, to get a little more of glance into the person that these players are when they are not on the field or court. 

One athlete that I get some what annoyed with both on and off the field is Chad Ochocinco.  The fact that he changed his name to his jersey number to me just stamps "not a team player" on his forehead, but any ways....  I have checked out his Twitter page a few times and there are times when I think that he is using it perfectly.  Just today he tweeted : "Standing in line waiting to get tickets to watch @tylerperry new film "Good Deeds" nothing like catching a matinee, what are y'all doing?" and a few hours before "Just FYI if anyone sees me out in public today yes I'm wearing the same outfit I had on yesterday, don't judge me I got my cargo shorts back".  I think that these are COMPLETELY appropriate tweets for any celebrity or athlete to be making, it gives us ordinary people a sense that these famous people are just like you and I.  Even an NFL player will wear the same clothes as he did yesterday sometimes!

However upon venturing down his feed a little more I come across just the type of things that we do not need to be seeing on his page such as what appears to be fights or arguments between him and his (ex)girlfriend.  Talking about personal details and even using somewhat graphic language that should probably be used in private, not on the internet for the whole public world to see.

Any athlete or celebrity who tweets their own tweets should be monitored by at least a publicists so that they do not my make stupid or regrettable choices in words posted, to remain on the internet for the rest of their career.

Super Bowl Social Media

I was reading this article from Digital Trends that talked about how well the relationship between social media and sports is doing.  I have to agree that there are lots of upsides to this new and flourish relationship.

One of the greatest things that social media provides us with is people.  People to talk to.  People to share photos with.  People to make new friends with.  Now thanks to apps like PlayUp sports fans are using social media to connect with other sports fans.  This particular outlet allows fans to create chats (open or private) with other fans of a particular sports team, DURING the sporting event.  Which I have to admit, as simple of an idea as that is it's pretty novel and genius.  Personally I can't tell you how many times I wish that I could enjoy a game with friends, but either no one else likes my team or it's just not physically possible for my friends to join me.

But the more important thing that I wanted to talk about this week was of course one of the biggest events in sports... THE SUPER BOWL.  Now I have to be honest I don't really care which team wins or loses, I'm going to be watching for the commercials.  Whether for the commercials for for the games people will be using social media this weekend, according to Twitter during the Super Bowl last year people tweeted over 4,000 tweets per second (TPS)!!!!

It will be interesting this year seeing as companies are not only advertising during the game but are also sponsoring tweets and hashtags during the game.  Then there are companies like Coca-Cola who are taking it a step further by having their iconic polar bears "watch" the game with fans.  If you check out their website CokePolarBowl.com you can learn a little more about it.  I highly recommend checking it out!  Not only are the videos cute but according to Coke the bears will also be watching the game with us on Sunday and be having real time reactions to the game.

So I hope that you will join me in watching the Super Bowl this weekend!  I don't know about anyone else but I can't wait to see all the new ads and what the next great one is going to be.  If anyone else knows of any ads or social media campaigns that I should keep an eye out for this weekend please let me know.  I 'd hate to miss it.  Look for another post after the Super Bowl to talk about what I did and didn't like.

For the Glory,

Megan

Players Getting Hard Hits on and Off the Field

One of the reasons that social media has become so popular in the sports (and entertainment) industry is because people get to know personal things about the players that they idolize on the field.  People get to feel connected with these players like they never did before.  Not only do they get to see intimate details about them but they also get to interact with them by responding to the players posts and tweets.

This all sounds like lots of fun and a great way to get fans to like player more.  But to every great idea there is also some unthought of negative reactions.  Because players are so much more easy to access they are also more easy to harass.  They are used to people not being happy that they didn't complete a pass or get a touchdown or win the game, they've heard "boos" at the stadium.  But social media takes this to a whole new level.

While reading the USA Today I found an article about how two soccer players (more known as football players anywhere outside of the US) were harassed online by a man named Michael Convery.  Convery tweeted some very racist and threatening comments at the players.  Blue Jays catcher JP Arencibia was also attacked by fans via Twitter.

Now I don't think that this is at all acceptable.  When we play sports in our younger years we are taught that we need to be "good sports".  That even though a game may not go the way that you wanted it go but that doesn't mean that you get to go and harass and attack the other player.  And even if you do well you still don't have the right to go and brutally rub it in the face of your opponent.  I think that all of these tweets are going to harm all of those lessons that we try to teach our youth.

Any other thoughts?



Here are links to some of the articles:

Twitter Jays : Arencibia Under Attack #jays