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Although Twitter can be a great forum for marketing and promoting a company, product, or team, there are several pitfalls. Twitter definitely makes more work for people in public relations especially when they have to monitor all members of their company, organization, or team. Although many high-profile athletes may avoid the serious consequences of their tweets, other people may not be as fortunate and could be fired or sued based on their tweets. There are several other incidents similar to those mentioned above, and unfortunately, I'm sure there will be more in the future.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Twitter Incidents in Sports
Several professional athletes use Twitter as a way to communicate with their fans. However, there have been several incidents in which athletes have criticized their organization on Twitter or used Twitter at inappropriate times. Terrence Williams, a first round draft pick for the Nets out of Louisville, criticized the coaching staff about his playing time early in the season on Twitter. Williams tweeted, "Up early to the gym before practice to practice before practice, because NOW practice is my games. Welp that's life." Clearly, the Nets found issue with his tweet and Williams later apologized. Charlie Villanueva while on the Milwaukee Bucks tweeted at halftime of his game and was later instructed by the team not to tweet during games. In some instances, it may not be what an athlete tweets but what a relative or friend tweets that affects the athlete. Last year, Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals was involved in a controversy thanks to his brother Marcus criticizing the Cardinal's quarterback Kurt Warner about not throwing to Larry enough. Marcus later apologized on Twitter.
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I find it rather sad how, not only professional athletes, but other users have used Twitter to stir up drama. Last year, Shaq posted a series of taunts and insulting tweets on Twitter about Dwight Howard from Orlando Magic. These tweets could be seen by his followers. Is that the kind of example he wants to set for his fans? All Twitter users should exercise their freedom to tweet wisely. As Kim mentioned in an earlier post, one must be conscientious about what they tweet or else it may cause many problems down the road.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great example of a down side of Twitter, though it isn't Twitter's fault. I it's absurd athletes need to be reminded of their role in society and the public eye. Everything you need to write and put online need to be thought out. I know sometimes leagues consider putting restrictions on athletes, it's just sad these players need to be reminded to be mature.
ReplyDeleteAs you mention, there are countless instances of athletes and other celebrities sticking their foots in their mouths after tweeting something controversial. You would think that with all of the scrutiny they are under as a result of their statuses, that they would be cautioned beforehand on what not to tweet. Like Tim said, it is absurd that so many of these people do not think things through. These instances you point out demonstrate how unaware they are sometimes.
ReplyDeleteMuch of this comes down to the sense that we have that electronic communications is like speech, ephemeral and limited in reach, rather than like putting it into writing, or that it's like private communication, rather than public discourse. I do think that the generations that are born into this media environment will have an easier time of it, or at least have different expectations of their communication behavior.
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