Banning Facebook The Wrong Move
29. Jul, 2010 
7 Comments
Todays news that the NRL’s Penrith Panthers were electing to block the use of Facebook by its players came as a bit of a shock. Not only is society as a whole moving towards embracing social media platforms, sports team in particular have really started to embrace the potential benefits that social media can bring to their club.
Athletes are by default celebrities and nearly every kind of celebrity has impersonators, celebrity impersonations is an industry of itself. As long as you are famous, there is always going to be people out there that want to mimic your likeness. Celebrities from all walks of life like Apple CEO, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal have all had impersonators on Twitter. When it comes to Facebook, as was the warning today from the Australian Federal Police, there will always be people in the community who want to take advantage of celebrity. Recently Richmond utility Daniel Jackson had one of his Facebook “friends” copy paste a comment from his private Facebook profile and send it to the media.
Imtage taken from Daily Telegraph
So why the jump now to restrict the access to players?
“It hasn’t happened to a rugby league player yet but it has happened to members of the general public.” said Australian Federal Police national manager of hi-tech crime operations Neil Gaughan. Facebook has been in Australia for over three years, and we have seen no high profile cases of identity theft and fraud, but that doesn’t seem to phase the Australian Federal Police.
There obviously are some measures to help protect your identity if you are a player on Facebook:
- Only accept friends, do not accept anybody on Facebook that you don’t know. Do you really know all 300 of your friends? Or are there some hangers on?
- Don’t be afraid to change your identity. Some players have even created accounts under fake names to go un-noticed, but still let their close friends know the details of the fake account.
- Create a fan page, and then make it known that is the official fan page for you. If you can’t do this, tell the club you would like to create one
- Make sure your profile is on full security via your profile settings
Social media training should be a basic part of any player welfare course held at clubs and at rookie inductions across all our codes. Is the sky falling? No. It is part of the responsibility of the Australian Federal Police to preach caution, as I would hope they do in the rest of society, but I would suggest players and teams in this case don’t fear the worst.
Players need to learn that Facebook and Twitter whilst both popular social media platforms, serve two totally different purposes. Facebook accounts should be set up for full privacy, and only close friends should be granted access as friends. Twitter is a 100% public platform, players should know that whatever they say on there will be treated as if they were talking to the media. Both great platforms, but with two distinct uses. As you can see on my NRL players Twitter list both retired and active players are on Twitter, and getting plenty of use for it. I don’t have a list of Facebook accounts, because they should be private, I shouldn’t know their private details.
How far will this go? Will players in the future not want to sign with the Panthers because they believe their social media profiles are too important? There can be a wide variety of implications of this in the future.
The following three videos are Collingwood Defender Harry O’Briens presentation at Digital Sport Summit on “Social Media from an athlete perspective”. He tells his story that started off with 5,000 friends on Facebook and having issues of overbearing fans, to how he created a fan page and ended up having amazing experiences on Twitter.
So after reading all this if you still don’t believe me that there is potential for athletes and social media, hear it from the horses mouth himself.
It’s a ridiculous move, both by the Panthers and other sporting teams overseas.
There is a tremendous opportunity to leverage their brand, and that of the players and provide more to the thousands of fans.
Instead of a blanket ban, why not have guidline’s for players on what to do and how to act in the space.
Thinking about it logically, when global corporations can manage it, with a lot more at stake than an NRL team, why can’t they?
I have a feeling they felt the pressure from the top by the AFP and just said ok we’ll go with your opinion. I think it is an extreme move especially when you look at the success that players have managed to have with it overseas. It’s such a backwards step in what was a successful social media movement, it’s a real shame.
Thanks for the post Anthony.
One comment – I wouldn’t advise players to create accounts under fake names – it breaks Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities – Section 4 Point 1
http://www.facebook.com/terms.php
The other three points are spot on!
…Did I say too much? But you’re right it is technically illegal. Thanks Anth
And point 5 and the Pages Terms are relevant too.
The pages underneath the bottom are important. Promotions, Advertising …
The social media adventure.
I’d like to say: good job with the Bushrangers web site.
Hope all the guys are doing it with their real names and faces.
Any reason to show the Harry videos I welcome.
Good call on Facebook accounts.
As for Twitter:
“Twitter is a 100% public platform, players should know that whatever they say on there will be treated as if they were talking to the media.”