What's the best way for NFL to handle Twitter?

[Pat Coyle]

Washtington Post - While athletes have used blogs the past couple of years, they say Twitter is quicker, more accessible and less likely to be filtered through agents, publicists or team officials before publication. From the perspective of both fan and athlete, that's a good thing. But the National Football League is an image-obsessed league, routinely beset by athletes' off-the-field antics. Twitter has already grown into a social media tool over which the league has little to no control.

Just a couple of months ago, at NFL Draft, Twitter was all the rage. Now we're seeing the other edge of the sword. Some teams are prohibiting media from Tweeting at training camps, even as fans and players Tweet at will.

It is understandable that some teams would prefer a world without Twitter, given the long history of media / team relations being somewhat controllable. But we are living in an altogether different media world now, aren't we?

What's the best way for NFL to handle Twitter? Share your thoughts here

[Nestor Aparicio]

I don't think the NFL can "handle" Twitter. Twitter is going to handle the league in the end, especially anytime fans are around. They can control the "old" media to an extent but Twitter from public training camps isn't going to stop.

Tony Sparano is delusional and when he says he "doesn't understand" Twitter, well, that much is apparent.

This is going to present a future issue for all of the leagues and sports and public figures.

Twitter can't be stopped. It might not even hope to be contained...

Control of the brand is over in 2009...You can only hope to "contain" it by doing the right things...

[Matt Hansen]

As I blogged about yesterday http://is.gd/251gJ , I believe the teams should decide on their own policies, but we know the NFL will eventually step in and try to control the flow of information from it's players. The NFL will make it out to be a bigger threat than it really is and will want to have complete control like they do with everything else. Maybe they should worry more about the drugs, killings and legal issues they have with players and less about what a player can do in 140 characters. If there's a Twitter "problem" in the locker room, let the team personnel handle it.

[Andrew Gregory]

I tend to agree. This is a coaching and team problem, not a league problem. What a player does in his own time is his business, and what he does on Team Time, is team business. Players simply need to be coached that the reality today is that both will affect their career either positively or negatively. Outlawing twitter is not the answer.

Ask Michael Vick how much better his life would be if he had tweeted his first attendance of a dog fight and the team had had an opportunity to intervene at that point. Behaviour is behaviour, whether its on twitter or in your backyard.

[Frank Reed]

I have to think that because the NFL is such a strong organization from the top down that to allow untethered use of Twitter or other social media to the league would be dangerous. As with most things, this is a case of how the bad kids in the class cause the rest of the kids to suffer. If we were talking about people (meaning the players) that had common sense and and an idea of real world boundaries then you could test the waters. However, you have TO, OchoCinco and the like who have no filters and will thus likely do something stupid. the there's Chris Cooley ............

To Nestor's point though, how are they going to contain it even if they felt like they had to?

[Pat Coyle]

I'm no expert, but it seems like the league cannot tell players not to Tweet without approval from Players' Union. I may be wrong, but I would imagine that to be the case.

[Rusty Speidel]

Sadly, I think i have to side with the league, even if they are screwing up. Those boys get paid a LOT of money and enjoy a large measure of fame and fortune because of their chosen profession. As such, they have given up any expectation of privacy because their professional and personal lives are blended. Twitter is a public medium, as are all social tools. If the league or team has a set of policies that govern a team member's public statements or behavior, then these tools must be subject to those policies.

I happen to think that if these teams just opened up a little and relaxed, they'd actually see benefits from providing a little more access to fans. But until they do, these players have a responsibility to behave.

Agree/disagree?

[Pat Coyle]

Again, I don't think they can tell the players what do to - beyond perhaps a strong suggestion based on what's good for the team. That will work in some cities and not in others. But what do you think about the teams trying to prohibit the press from Tweeting from open practices at training? That seems like the real issue here. What's the solution? Close practices. Which takes away to power of using Training Camp as a marketing tool. Catch 22

[harry groome]

Once again it seems as though the No Fun League is out of touch and step with the real world. The appetite for instant information is constant and is only going to increase and the league and teams need to understand this. If there is a concern that a tweet from a 12 year old fan or even a reporter about a trick play at training camp is going to hurt them during the regular season then they should practice those during closed sessions. I am sure the same teams banning fan tweets from camps will be using twitter this season to sell them their merchandise. Let 'em tweet.

[clrapp]

The best policy for the NFL is to embrace Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and any and all social media type applications. These are here to stay and get more popular with each passing day.

The biggest thing these tools can do is to bring fans closer to players, coaches, teams, owners, etc. This, in turn, means more interest, more support, and ultimately, more $$$ for the NFL. How could this be a bad thing?

Sure, you may have to overcome a few poisonous, stupid, and ill-coined tweets from time to time. But this is a small price to pay for the huge gain that can be achieved.

The NFL has a strong training/orientation system they use for incoming rookies to teach them what to expect coming into the league, etc. They should employ a training system like this for all players, coaches, owners to teach the do's and don'ts and how to embrace social media.

[Sergi Xaudiera]

Twitter = People

NFL= Players

Players=People

NFL should think how to manage all the NFL tweets and make NFL bigger

[ArLena Richardson The ePublicist]

Hello Sergi,
You get it...completely.
I'm with you.
Ar Lena

[Michael Price]

I have to agree with Harry, the NFL is out of step with the reality of the times.

To me the restriction on Twitter and social media in general has less to do with the players and more to do with the fans. At their core every fan wants to connect in some way with the players they watch week in week out. Ashton Kucher should be evidence of that. Rather than restrict control, maybe the NFL should be working with the players, teams, agents, et al, to understand how they best leverage social media to their advantage. This way fans can get the access they want, the NFL can communicate the message it wants and players can enjoy the technology.

A great case-study for customer communication on Twitter is Southwest - they do a great job of talking to their community and if an individual tweets back their is an effective response even so much as an apology if they for instance lose their luggage.
The NFL would do very well if it emmulated the twitter model employed by large companies like this. The NFL would lose that aura that they don't care about the fans. Which could be what is thought of if tweeting is restricted.