Athletes Need Better Online Training

[Jason Peck]

I'm sure you've all heard about the recent Larry Johnson fiasco by now, but if not, please see:

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/sportsflash/index.ssf?/base/sports-...
http://mashable.com/2009/10/26/larry-johnson-twitter/
http://blogs.pitch.com/plog/2009/10/chiefs_larry_johnson.php

It's a shame that many of the stories involving athletes and Twitter seem to only come to light when something negative happens. It's also a shame that some teams and leagues have tried to prevent athletes from tweeting at all because of this.

Prevention is not the answer. Education is.

This isn't just a Twitter thing. This is a how-should-athletes-conduct-themselves-online thing. In today's world, one wrong action--online or offline--can severely damage an athlete's brand and earnings. Athletes seem to need more training on how to use the Internet in general to protect and enhance their brand, connect with fans, and take advantage of new monetization opportunities.

How many more stories like this are we going to see before we start giving athletes access to better training? Or is the issue that they have access and just aren't following the advice they're getting.

Should this training come from teams? Or agents? Or other people that really understand these tools and platforms?

I'd love to hear what you think about this.

[Jay Kemp]

Why should it be the responsibility of the leagues, or teams, to monitor or educate adults on common sense and life experiences that these adults should have learned through high school, college and everyday life? If it is anyone's responsibility, it should be the athlete's agent and/or personal representative. They are supposed to be managing the athlete's personal marketability.

[David Lawyer]

I think it would in the long run benefit organizations like the NBA, NFL, NHL, etc to make mandatory, an educational track or series of courses designed to improve the communication skills and etiquette of today's athletes. Ideally programs like this should be offered at the collegiate level, catching these kids while they are young and up-and-coming, so by the time they reach the professional level, they are ready to go. You would think common sense would prevail, but it never has before for many of today's super stars so I wouldn't hold my breath that the younger generations would be any different without constant guidance and hand-holding...

[David Fuller]

I know that online and social media is your thing Jason, but I don't think it makes any difference as to what the mechanism of delivery is. I'm also not sure it is something that only applies to athletes. But athletes do need to understand that if they are professional they are basically employees and they have obligations to the people that pay their salaries.

It is an athletes job to win. Part of the job is to represent themselves, club, sponsor, country, community etc. Some sports lend themselves to more maverick characters being created and in some sports, perhaps the majority, there are opportunities for using new tools to sell more merchandise or make fans feel more connected, but is it really the athletes jon to make those things happen? Will it give them a better jump shot or a quicker lap time or a better understanding about how diet affects game performance?

Once upon a time, before social media, the education system created a program for people who had specialised in a particular discipline and were at a stage in their career when they were finding they needed different skills. The Masters of Business Administration or MBA was designed for engineers, doctors, lawyers and other professionals who knew how to be practitioners, but were never taught the business of their profession including sales & marketing.

From a media point of view, athletes should be fine with traditional training. The rules are no different on Twitter. If you wouldn't put it on your company letterhead and mail it to the press, why put it online? Common sense really should be enough...

[Aileen McManamon]

Funny you should bring this up -- I am just building an online training resource for athletes -- aimed more at elite amateurs than pros, but with lots of insight for all. Will post to the discussion once we're rolling and maybe some of you will have some great feedback and possibly additional great content to add.

Ideally the teams are providing this as they each have their own style of how they handle media, philosophy toward sponsors, etc, but in the amateur world relatively few organizations have the time or cash to set this up as they are focused on technical & logistical aspects of competition and putting on their own events. To add to the difficulty, it's hard to get all the athletes sitting still at a single time & place -- and like all of us -- they are used to accessing information on-demand at the moment they need it, rather than absorbing & storing & recalling later. While my group doesn't specialize in athlete services, we saw the need and are moving to fill it, so the short answer to your question, is yes, I feel there IS a need for online training resources.

[Jason Peck]

David- would love to hear them!

[David Astramskas]

Jason, I have some great stories to tell you about this topic and how it's effecting some endorsement deals.

[Deandra D.]

most definitely, but who's to say they will take to it? I'm just not sure exactly who it should come from. Obviously leagues (the NFL at least) are trying to get a handle on it by fining athletes such as Larry Johnson, but I just hope that it doesn't have a reverse effect and eventually turn athletes away from using social/online media all together. Maybe the league could implement a league-wide initiative/training on media across all platforms (bring in some pros to coach/train on how to cope with various situations) so as to not single out those who lack common sense...or add this, in some way, to overall player development programs currently in progress within each individual franchise.

[Jason Peck]

Jay and Deandra - I agree overall with what you're saying. He could have said this on TV or in a magazine or in an interview and it still would have been bad. But I think sometimes athletes forget (or don't realize) that they need to be just as careful online with what they say.

If an athlete does lack common sense, doesn't it mean they need additional training/education on how to act/what to say?

[Deandra D.]

I feel that players get enough media training when they enter the league- whether they consume it and abide by it is the question. Common sense and professionalism is lacking in his case and like Kemp said, if he did not tweet it, he would have stated it in another media source. Perhaps his agent can get some PR pros on board to help him out, help him develop himself as a brand with positive publicity, but athletes will do what they want to do anyway.

Sounds like folks in the personal branding/PR industry have a niche in athlete image enhancement....

[Jay Kemp]

Online Training/Education is not the important note of this instance. His lack of common sense and preference sensitivity is called into question. What's the difference that he tweeted this? He would have stated it in other media sources. Ignorance is growing in professional sports. it is a shame that many athletes do not think before speaking. You can see where their focus always was during their education years.