Message for Oregon AD: It’s Time for Student-Athlete Social Media Training
Posted on 21. Feb, 2010 by Keith Becker in Oregon Ducks
By now, you all should be well aware that junior wide receiver Jamere Holland has been dismissed from the team for a violation of team rules.
More specifically, Holland posted multiple Facebook statuses, one last night and another this morning, undermining Chip Kelly’s yet-to-be-made decision on sophomore Kiko Alonso. The second one, supposedly, was posted after talking with Chip Kelly.
Holland’s actions were irresponsible, ignorant, and most importantly, an easy mistake than can happen again.
With how powerful social media is today, what was meant to be an innocent plea to back up his teammate, was quickly noticed and spread throughout the interwebs in just a matter of minutes.
This isn’t the first time this has happened and it certainly won’t be the last.
Yes, social media – Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace (if anyone will admit they still use it) – is an incredibly powerful tool to communicate with friends, explore interests and spread information, but it also symbolizes something equally important: your social brand.
Holland obviously isn’t aware that everything he says represents himself, the football team, Chip Kelly and the entire University.
That’s a lot at stake.
Sure, you would think that he should know better than to write anything potentially damaging, but the truth is, some kids just don’t.
This is why the Oregon Athletic Department must invest in social media training for its athletes.
At the very least, it protects their investment. At best, it educates student-athletes on how social media impact them today, tomorrow and 10 years from now. Something essential, considering 99% of student-athletes “go pro in something other than sports”.
University of Mississippi has the right idea, as one of the first universities to jump on the social media training bandwagon.
“We certainly respect the social networking rights of our student-athletes but, at the same time, we also want them to be mindful of how they present and represent themselves,” Jamil Northcutt, Ole Miss’s assistant athletic director for Internal Operations told FanHouse.com.
Ole Miss hired Vermont-based UDilligence.com, to be a round-the-clock watchdog to scan the social networking profiles of Rebel athletes for any references to drugs, alcohol, sex, violence, racial slurs or profanity.
“It only costs pennies a day per athlete to protect the athlete’s reputations and the image of the school,” says Kevin Long, the founder of UDiligence.
“By the time a reporter calls asking about it, it’s too late. You’ve lost the advantage from a public relations perspective.”
As we’ve seen here in Holland’s case, his status updates quickly mushroomed into a full-blown public relations disaster.
Dave Williford and the Oregon Athletic Department need to learn from this before any other student-athlete decides to throw F-bombs around in a public forum.
Holland might have thought he was sharing something only between him and his 2,500+ friends (dangerous enough already), but without proper privacy settings, the entire world has the ability to see his post with the click of a button.
I spoke with Kelli Matthews, a public relations professional and professor at the University of Oregon, who has lengthy experience in crisis management, as well as in the online sphere.
She said, “Helping employees understand how social media has changed communication must be a vital part of every organization’s training.
“Every employee is an ambassador and has the opportunity to build or damage your brand with Twitter, FB and blog posts. Organizations must be proactive.”
Your move, Mr. Williford.
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FamousDuck
21. Feb, 2010
Du-uude, Of all people to be writing on this topic, acting as tho’ you had some authoritative ‘presence,’ the least likely aspiring blogger would be you. Your pieces can be funny, semi-informing at times but credibility? I think not. And for the very reasons which you list above. If someone tries to hold you accountable, you delete the post, waffle/fishtail and come out the other side. And then you do it again. Come on. Write on the lacrosse and softball and baseball efforts if you are really trying to be THE ‘sp0rtsdude.’
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Matthew
22. Feb, 2010
Is it possible that they have done this, and when it became evident that it didn’t stick with at least one player, they dismissed him for violating team rules.
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