Why Teams Truly Fear Social Media and Why it’s a Myth

by Tommy Dee on July 26th, 2010 at 10:00 am

We applauded the Knicks a few weeks ago for their efforts on the social media front through embracing fans on facebook with interaction and allowing for their new players to contact fans directly.

They still have a ways to go, but at least it’s a start.

To me, executives in power of organizations fear the opportunity to hear the passion and anger from fans daily. Instead they choose to slightly open the door and pretend like the negative conversations don’t happen. The fact of the matter is that most fans are level-headed and will provide teams like the Knicks, with well-thought commentary. Any hate-spewed crap posted to a team site is easily dismissed, yet executives choose to believe that irrational callers on WFAN or ESPN make up the masses.All teams’ PR directors respond to angry fans who take the time to produce professional letters to the organization so why not embrace the social media form in a more timely manner?

Even MLB and the Mets have embraced a “social media clubhouse” with forums.

Facebook is the safest forum for comments because accountability is attached in the form of “one’s actual name” not a screen name. It doesn’t take a lot of guts to act like a clown under an alias.

Obviously, in my opinion, the best case scenario for an organization is to create a quasi-protected forum strictly for, say, season ticket holders where they get an ID number and are 1) held accountable via identity, and 2) allowed to give their opinions, positively or negatively, on the team’s home site. It should be managed by a social media expert who grasps the concept of allowing people the chance to speak, rather than curbing the means of how they can. That’s a start.

For other views on this subject, check out a great read from UKSN.
  • http://www.reeltalkblog.com Shakespeare

    Yea I really like the fact of the new Knicks and how they interact with fans. Guys like Ronny Turiaf, Amare, Landry Fields, etc…I think it shows the kind of character these guys have, that they will actually take the time to interact back and forth w/ fans…then you have someone like the princess, that doesn’t even follow anyone via twitter, and jus pulls sum selfish quote out his a$$ from time to time…

  • http://Knicks.com/ Russ

    Those three, especially Turiaf, really do interact with the fans. Anyone who follows Turiaf on Twitter has to like him. He comes across as genuine, and as a good guy. All of the talks about a CP3 trade seem poignant when it means losing a guy like Turiaf, just based on his character, even though it would not be rational to kill such a trade just to keep Turiaf.

  • http://www.reeltalkblog.com Shakespeare

    lol, def agree with that…I’ve probably conversed with Turiaf and Charles Oakley than I have with my own friends…lol..

    and got to love the fact that they interact with each other and want to meet up and maybe even workout together if the knicks let them.

  • http://www.theuksportsnetwork.com Daniel McLaren

    Thanks for the link to my article on UKSN Tommy!

    I think that on official Facebook and similar sites we do see an element of self monitoing by fans that prevents abusive/racist or slanderous comments.

    If the site is moderated well and fans are allowed to give their opinion without ‘big brother’ butting in then provides a great forum. Liverpool FC do it very well in the UK.

    The one think I get clubs/leagues to look at (and applies to athletes to) is to look at the business objectives and then develop a strategy that includes social media rather than SM sitting on its own.

    Know what you want, how going to do it and how to measure it. Still a very under used and misunderstood resource still I think.

    Keep up the great work!

    Dan