Problem Solved? UNC Bans Twitter Use By Football Players

Banning your employees or athletes from using Twitter does not prevent third parties from posting something that causes legal problems and damages reputations. The post Problem Solved? UNC Bans Twitter Use By Football Players appeared first on VMR. Problem Solved? UNC Bans Twitter Use By Football Players was first posted on October 14, 2010 at 5:37 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Karlie Justus wrote a thought-provoking post recently on the pros and cons of banning social media at your B2B company. Banning your employees or athletes from using Twitter does not prevent third parties connected with your employees or your athletes from posting something online that results in legal problems and/or a damaged reputation.

Take  t he case of University of North Carolina, whose football coach, Butch Davis ( according to an ESPN report ) informed players yesterday that they are now forbidden from using the popular microblogging service.

This move is understandable in light of all the problems UNC has had as a result of Twitter. But my concern -perhaps unfounded – is that Butch Davis and other college coaches think they have eliminated the risk that Twitter and other social media pose when they ban its use by the people who are under their supervision.

A larger risk most definitely remains. And here’s why:

One of the biggest misconceptions about social media risk in general is that if you stop employees, contractors, athletes and others under your supervision from communicating through social channels, then you eliminate social media risk altogether. After all, your organization is, therefore, “not getting into social media” by doing so.

Right?

Wrong.

Here’s the reality: Even if you could block people under your supervision from using social channels 24/7 (which of course you cannot practically or legally speaking for corporate employees), you’d still have the problem of *third parties* outside of the institution posting information, images and other material that could result in just as many headaches.

Again, UNC is a good case in point. As the  Washington Times reported , Natalie Nunn was a model who had appeared on the reality television show “Bad Girls Club”, not an athlete at UNC. But her tweet *referenced* an athlete, and ended up being one of the many factors contributing to an NCAA investigation and the athlete’s suspension by the team.

The debate about whether to ban people affiliated with your organization from using social channels is a fair one. But focusing on that debate often results in overlooking the fact that unaffiliated third parties can cause just as many headaches and pose every bit as much of a threat from a legal and corporate reputation perspective.

The legal system is not likely to bury it’s head on this.

Neither should you.

Failing to understand the fully transparent and vast online ecosystem (Twitter is one of literally hundreds of social sites used by today’s young people) known as the social web is a strategy that has already gotten plenty of companies and organizations in legal hot water, resulted in massive financial losses and damaged their reputations in the process.

At the very least, learn from their mistakes: Formulate, Implement and Enforce.

One final piece of advice for Butch Davis and other coaches around the country:  The best way to keep your school out of the headlines is to keep your athletes on the straight and narrow. That’s one very, very tall order, which is why I agree with ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit, who recently suggested on ESPN radio that, in order to help address the issue of sports agents paying college athletes , sports program’s should have one full-time person whose sole responsibility is to watch over the well-being of the athletes.

In light of all the potential headaches that social media can cause for athletic programs, I would propose that that number should be two full-time supervisors. Kids need to be protected from themselves and taking just this one step would go a long way toward nipping the problem in the bud.

This really just scratches the surface of this issue but hopefully it gets you thinking in more level-headed terms about the magnitude of the threats for every organization and person regardless of their official involvement in the social web.

Photo Credit : Are We Done Yet , by Paul Sapiano

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Problem Solved? UNC Bans Twitter Use By Football Players

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