The ban hammer is coming down hard on social networking service like Twitter and Facebook. Following the NFL and U.S. Marines, sports network ESPN is banning its talent from using tools like Twitter to discuss sports. According to The NY Times:
"The guidelines say that on-air talent, reporters and writers are prohibited from having sports-related blogs or Web sites and that they will need a supervisor’s approval to discuss sports on any social networking sites. They will also be restricted from discussing internal policies or detailing how stories are 'reported, written, edited or produced.'"
While I understand that ESPN wants to protect its processes and talent, I think this is a tactical error. Social networking services can be used effectively to communicate with viewers, readers, fans, etc. ESPN's policy limits the interaction its reporters and writers can engage in, and that's a real shame. Here at G4, on-air talent like X-Play's Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb, as well as Attack of the Show's Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn, use Twitter to keep in touch with their viewers and promote their respective shows. TheFeed's Brian Leahy also uses Twitter to keep in touch with his three fans.
I see it as an unobtrusive way to keep in touch with an audience, promote articles, and keep people coming back to TheFeed through interactivity. I think it's brilliant that Twitter lets me learn more about TheFeed's readers and they can learn a little more about me. ESPN is making a mistake by limiting the way its talent uses social networking...or perhaps the network is just tired of me bombarding Bill Simmons with tweets.
What do you think of ESPN's stance on social networking? Is the network doing the right thing? Or do you agree with me that it's limiting audience interaction? And also, follow me (please)!!!
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Comments
Displaying 1–9 of 9
IcemanMX
Hooray! I got mentioned as one of the three people that follow Mr. Leahy on Twitter! I wonder who the other two are.
-M
hogey
Are Kevin or Olivia or Adam or Morgan (or anyone else who twits at G4) getting paid to use twitter past office hours? If you stop using twitter will your overlords (boss) get upset and order you to tweet more? Twitter could be opening a whole new door concerning the rights of writers/producers.
clorin12
I know PTI uses twitter and they are always talking about Shaq's tweets. So for espn its ok for their shows to use twitter but not the talent thats odd.
deline
lol At ESPN ban hammer that thay are useing on ther on-air talent, reporters and writers are prohibited to use social networking service did thay also know the internet is also a social networking servic so thay means ESPN cant use it how stupid are thay i think. Facebook and Twitter are sub-social networking servic.
And yes if you say i am not right then you should think more about it.
N8R
I just got super amped realizing that pre-season starts next week.
dvinson
Dude, this makes me so angry. Not only do I love following Bill Simmons, but Rachel Nichols is tweeting right now from Steelers training camp and her updates are gold. Stupid ESPN. I'm glad my football boyfriend Rich Eisen works for the NFL Network now. Whew...
tokz_21
I agree with you Rpad. Twitter is a great way to get interactive with someone's audience. It's also a great way to report sport updates to. Sometimes I'm online and it's easier to tweet the update to my friends rather than e-mail them the link. I'm guess the only reason ESPN is blocking their talent from being social is that they must be losing views on their site.
Hey @Rpad did you ever get added to that list on Follow Famous.
Gutsyisland
ha ha ha 3 fans... good 1!
Slaytanic40oz
Anything that puts us on the road to not having 1000 news stories a day about twitter is a good thing.
Displaying 1–9 of 9