the official blog of PRO Sports Communications
Written by Martine Charles
Reporters are not the enemy. Actually, in a crisis situation as in most situations, the media are a gateway to your audience of stakeholders and a means of effectively communicating your message and telling your story, your way. How you tell your story and how you help a reporter tell your story during a crisis is critical to your success and post-crisis recovery.
There is no shortage of advice available regarding how brands can use social media in a crisis and a fairly consistent pattern of suggested tips are easily accessible from the online community. But the challenges are different for individual athletes. For athletes, who are often responsible for their own reputation management and social media profiles, and are personally affected when crisis hits, the process can be more difficult to manage. While some of the major tenets remain the same, navigating the online world can be more intricate for an individual athlete.
“Crisis Q&A with the PRO’s” is a new recurring column that features one question dealing with crisis communications and two answers; one from a strategic communications standpoint and one from a legal point of view. Our first question addresses the ying and yang of strategic legal crisis management when it comes to dealing with the media. Please share your thoughts in the comments and send any questions that you want our experts to answer to katrina@sportspr.com.
In last week’s issue of ESPN The Magazine, Howard Bryant wrote a great piece about what he calls “the most annoying trend in professional sports”—the athlete apology.
In it, Bryant says most of today’s athletes are hesitant to say anything interesting or original because they’re scared:
“Whether it’s the fear of backlash – swifter and harsher than ever in the land of Twitter, Facebook, ESPN and the blogosphere – or the fear that the handlers or marketers will freak that some segment of the brand has been compromised, most athletes are scared to say anything interesting or original.”
Your weekly round-up of interesting stories from the worlds of sports, crisis management and social media that you might have missed.
MLB Adopts Social Media Policy - STLToday.com
Major League Baseball released a social media policy on Tuesday, placing some limits on what and when players can share on Twitter and Facebook.
Overall, players, managers and other personnel are encouraged to use social media. Now, however, they are not allowed to post to social media 30 minutes before a game, during a game or until 10 minutes after a game ends. The National Football League has similar rules for players. READ MORE..
Written by Martine Charles
We’ve seen it time and time again. The cringe-worthy moment during an interview when an athlete or coach says the “wrong” thing or comes across as arrogant when they’re supposed to be apologizing. Reputations can come crumbling down in an instant because of the wrong choice of words. And if an athlete or organization is embroiled in a crisis with legal implications, their choice of words becomes even more critical.
Written by Rich Nichols
When it comes to dealing with the media, communications professionals and lawyers are often at odds. Effectively managing the media while protecting the client’s legal interests is a delicate balance…a balance that cannot be achieved without a team of communications experts who (a) clearly understand the legal issues and challenges faced by their client, and (b) can clearly, concisely and accurately communicate the legal issues to the media.
A legal crisis is a high-stakes undertaking for the lawyers and the clients who find themselves embroiled in either a high -profile criminal and or civil legal battle. Usually, the legal crisis and prospective legal consequences will change the lives of the clients forever.
Guest post by Ellen McGlynn
There’s the old cliché: “Your reputation precedes you.” That is often true, but I wonder if people think about how that reputation forms. Is it because you act like a professional, demonstrate unparalleled success, command respect, and wear a red shirt on Sundays? … Or is it something else? Is it based on your daily behavior, or one fantastically good or bad experience? Is it because you take the time to manage your reputation, expectations, personal path, and success? Or is it because you’ve avoided trouble … so far.
“Just signed up for the @ntrustopen qualifier, but you have NO IDEA how stoked I’d be to get a sponsors invitation! #myhometown #mymajor.”
This unassuming tweet by Jason Gore (@jasongore59) on January 8th, was the catalyst that ultimately earned him a sponsors invitation into the 2012 Northern Trust Open (February 13-19 at Riviera Country Club). Being a good person is what sealed his invitation.
Athletes and Media Training
I love basketball. I’m a fan of the NCAA, March Madness, Mateen Cleaves and Coach Izzo. It might be the work ethic, it might be the sheer joy of watching a team of athletes perform at a game at which they excel. I can play a bit and having watched countless hours of basketball, I plan to take a shot at going pro. But an amateur athlete going up against professionals with little or no formal training sounds a bit ridiculous, right?
Categories: Media Training - Tags: athletes and media training, Martine Charles, no comment