There will be a massive 2.39 billion social media users in 2017 according to Statista (2016). Because of this it is a huge marketing mechanism, used by sports organisations in particular, to share content instantly and effectively at no cost whatsoever. As a result, it’s crucial for employees of these organisations to adhere to a social media policy to prevent any harm to the reputation the organisation will have spent so long building, as at the end of the day, they are always representing their organisation whether they are at work or not.
“When employees are happy, they are your very best ambassadors” (Dyck and Neubert, 2008). As a result, the last thing an organisation wants to do is scare off their employees from using social media, especially as “Poorly written social media policies restrict, deter and deaden social media engagement – the exact opposite of what businesses want” (Jones, 2012).
Policies are implemented to control and protect people’s, and the club’s reputation. It is a corporate code of conduct providing employees with guidelines regarding the content they post on the internet, because one slip of the tongue can damage a company’s reputation and therefore success. Adidas have an effective policy because they enforce that “Employees are allowed to associate themselves with the company when posting but they must clearly brand their online posts as personal and purely their own.” (Jet,2013).
Back in 2012, Floyd Mayweather sparked controversy, saying Taiwanese-American basketball player Jeremy Lin “is a good player but all the hype is because he’s Asian” (Kim,2015). Although the racial connotations will have damaged Mayweather’s already questionable reputation, he did state that he was speaking on behalf of other NBA players because “They are programmed to be politically correct and will be penalized if they speak up” – highlighting the implementation of social media policy within the NBA and how it prevents harming their reputation by avoiding “Don’ts” such as Offensiveness and Inappropriateness from Sellitto’s (2014) table of “The Don’t Directives”.
Will Wood, Leeds Beckett University, Sport Marketing Student
References;
Dulka, M. (2012) Jeremy Lin: The Truth Behind Floyd Mayweather’s Comments and Race. [Online] Available at: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1066834-jeremy-lin-the-truth-behind-floyd-mayweathers-comments-and-race [Accessed: 18 April 2016].
Dyck, B. and Neubert, M. (2008) Management: Current practices and new directions. [Online] Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bbcEAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA17&lpg=PA17&dq=when+employees+are+happy+they+are+your+best+ambassadors&source=bl&ots=Jaxv0HTlgu&sig=Ylca56DurJGGQAf5I675IriO1CU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjAnb64643MAhXLVhQKHQibAo0Q6AEIMzAE#v=onepage&q=when%20employees%20are%20happy%20they%20are%20your%20best%20ambassadors&f=false [Accessed: 14 April 2016].
Ianpuz17 (2014) Adidas: What’s your ritual campaign. [Online] Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/ianpuz17/adidas-42233795 [Accessed: 14 April 2016].
Jet (2013) 5 terrific examples of company social media policies. [Online] Available at: http://blog.hirerabbit.com/5-terrific-examples-of-company-social-media-policies/ [Accessed: 14 April 2016].
Jones, J.A. (2012) 10 tips for creating a social media policy for your business: Social media examiner. [Online] Available at: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/10-tips-for-creating-a-social-media-policy-for-your-business/ [Accessed: 14 April 2016].
Kim, E. (2015) 11 of the worst social media blunders ever. [Online] Available at: http://uk.businessinsider.com/11-celebrity-blunders-on-social-media-2015-4?op=1 [Accessed: 14 April 2016].
LaunchSquad (2015) Social media best practices: Mishaps to avoid. [Online] Available at: http://www.launchsquad.com/blog/social-media-mistakes-to-avoid [Accessed: 14 April 2016].
Sellitto, C 2014, ‘An Analysis of Social Media Policies Adopted by Sporting Organisations’, International Journal Of Sport & Society, 4, 2, pp. 13-24, SPORTDiscus with Full Text, EBSCOhost, viewed 14 April 2016.
Statista (2016) Number of social network users worldwide from 2010 to 2019 (in billions). [Online] Available at: http://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/ [Accessed: 14 April 2016].
Sport Onslaught 