Twitter can make you go mad. Just ask Adam Schefter, ESPN reporter. After he began tweeting, he realized how addictive it can be. With over 75,000 followers, responding to all of their questions, replies and comments is an overwhelming task. So how can the brand of ESPN manage an employee’s Twitter presence, and how will something like Twitter continue to shift the landscape of journalism?
In a recent interview at Sporting News, Schefter notes his own process for tweeting about breaking news. A story that has been filed to ESPN is worthy of a tweet, directing followers to check out the ESPN website or tune in to its cable television channel. Combine that with the following he is getting on ESPN, and Schefter is one busy man.
For ESPN as a brand, it could be a case of getting what you wish for. The ability to leverage a substantial follower base and redirect traffic on that level is a brand’s dream. Having an established presence prior to creating a Twitter account is helpful. Building on the success of an individual employee, however, can take the brand’s messaging to a new level.
When it comes to news resources in particular, Twitter proves a very helpful broadcasting tool to help get information out to the masses. Even if a story is merely being worked on by the ESPN team, someone like Schefter can spread the message to an entire fan base even before another individual gets wind of it.
In some ways, this is ESPN’s ability to recapture its audience instead of losing it to a Twitter user that is not an employee. The citizen journalism aspect of Twitter has really helped the microblogging site to achieve phenomenal growth, but it has also alerted the entire journalism industry as to the new way of disseminating information. Finding a way to become a part of that process without destroying the integrity of journalism has been a tricky task; one that has resulted in traditional journalism having to shift the way it thinks and operates in a new, socially-driven arena.
Finding ways to leverage employees towards bearing the two-sided burden of social media has been a message I have promoted for quite some time. In attempting to control employee’s use of social networking while also trying to utilize it for brand-building, many companies find themselves in a unique conflict of which message they need to promote to their employees and their customers. Finding ways to encourage the use of social networking for the purpose of indirect marketing is a tricky solution that deserves to be explored nonetheless.
Schefter is one example of how this can be achieved, as he presents a point of entry for the ESPN brand. Using his profile means that many engaging conversations are taking place in real time, giving ESPN the ability to tap into those followers in order to learn what they do and don’t like, how they feel, and how they can best be communicated with.
Finding a balance between a brand and individual use of social media outlets such as Twitter will be a goal for many businesses in the next year or so, with those companies peppered with existing personalities having the best crack at the successful use of social media. Incorporating user convenience, tying that communication back into the product or service being promoted, is thus an easier task.
In the end, we’ll see some continued experimentation in how those companies without their own celebrity or personality can equally take advantage of a social media presence. For the time being, however, Twitter continues to provide an interesting study in how socially-driven content sharing can force the change of an entire industry and the behavior of its employees.
About Kristen Nicole
