I haven’t written a blog post in a while that focused on sports, so I thought today was a perfect time to do so. 🙂 As many of my friends and family knows – I am a huge sports fan. Ever since I was little, I was always into following various sports and teams. In my family, we are HUGE college football fans (USC, Florida, Tennessee, and Army Football) – I know that my mom is counting down the days until the season starts. Even though I have been retired now for three years from track and field (wow, that is amazing!), I still follow the sport – it was a big part of my life and has helped me become the person that I am today.
What has been interesting for me is how athletes are more than ever jumping on board to social media to communicate to fans and others, and basically bypassing the sports information department and others that were gatekeepers in sports media relations (ex. coaches). For example, the Chicago Bengals are just one team where their players are embracing social media – especially Twitter – to communicate or in the words of one player – have their “own voice.”
I have to agree – social media is necessary for athletes today more than ever. I remember when I was competing in high school in track and field, I was practically the only high school athlete that had a web site, and in college one of the few. There were many times during my early college career where I was told by individuals associated with the athletic department that I could only post certain things on my site, and had to go through the sports information department before I wrote my journals on the premier web site that covered college track and field. With social media, athletes do have their own voice, and they can bypass those that try to control what is being said or presented to the public about the team.
There are of course some pluses and minuses in this situation – sports has its share of PR nightmares, and if you give these individuals a microphone to the online community, it can definitely damage the reputation of the team. However, most athletes are professional individuals that are aware of their personal brand and what they say makes an impact to their fans and other key stakeholders.
In other words, social media is not only impacting how public relations professionals practice in the overall business community, but it is also transforming how athletes communicate with their fans, how coaches are recruiting and interacting with prospective student-athletes, and how these collegiate and pro teams are managing their online reputation through these different social media platforms.
Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
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