SEC’s social media policy bad PR
Tim Tebow, a Heisman trophy winner and quarterback for the Florida Gators is great PR for the SEC. He is basically the poster boy for everything good in college football and a highlight of the SEC program. But the SEC’s social media policy may overshadow all that great PR if there aren’t some changes made soon. The SEC actually thinks they can ban fans from texting, tweeting or snapping pics or video at a sporting event. Oh, come on! Are you serious? The SEC is smart enough to have a social media policy, but not smart enough to understand the power of social media and the good it can do for your schools and games?
A conference spokesman said this policy was meant to try to keep as many eyeballs as possible on ESPN and CBS — which are paying the SEC $3 billion for the broadcast rights to the conference’s games over the next 15 years — and also on the SEC Digital Network — the conference’s own entity that’s scheduled to debut on SECSports.com later this month.
One of the reasons why I use social media is to discuss, share and educate others on PR, clients and random news I find of interest. As I watched the PGA Championship on TV yesterday, I was able to share my thoughts and excitement about Yang and Tiger with others on Twitter. I was still watching the TV and catching the advertisements. If I was in Minnesota, I know that I’d be tweeting or updating my facebook status if I was there during the last few holes. Not everyone can be there, that is why we watch it on TV. My personal observations on social media may motivate a follower to tune in, add to the discussion or motivate someone to find a link to the latest stats on Tiger’s lack of putting skill on ESPN.com. Don’t tell me that will deteriate the millions of dollars spent on a TV contract.
I guess we will have to wait and see what happens in the next few days with this social media policy. For now, the SEC is not looking good in my eyes or to their fans. Which is fine…I am a Big Ten fan. Go Blue!
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Comments
August 17th, 2009 at 10:34 am
What a ridiculous attempt at quashing free speech. What are they going to do—deploy the text/tweet/video/pic police throughout the stadium? What’s the consequence—getting arrested? Getting your fingers cut off? Stupid, stupid, stupid.
August 17th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Maybe if the SEC had ESPN or CBS co-branded pages online where fans could upload the content, they wouldn’t lose eyeballs. Like Charlotte said, what they don’t realize this that these days people watch, surf, text, tweet, chat, phone one another, etc. all while watching the game at the same time. Just a fundamental lack of understanding of the media — and not knowing your audience — who use this stuff the most! This is dumb. (And at my alma mater, thank god for @PeteCarroll.
FanSection Blog - Sports, Social Media, Analysis, Commentary Says:
September 1st, 2009 at 9:55 am
[...] and now even includes members of the media attending the game. While not quite as absurd as SEC banning the use of social media by fans attending games, this policy is very [...]