It’s no secret that social media vehicles such as Twitter feeds and Facebook updates have changed the way all news is dispersed. And today’s athlete seems to take it to a different level entirely. These athletes talk. A lot. And coaches, who are notoriously control freaks and tight-lipped, aren’t big fans.

This NFL offseason was filled with players Tweets about contract status, Facebook updates about feuds with other players and who they might be visiting in free agency – just a couple years ago that was information largely kept in-house until an organization wanted it disseminated through ESPN, NFL.com, a local beat reporter or any other traditional source.

The week between NFL games has always been a funny time. Coaches hold their official press conferences on Monday afternoon, and historically downplay injuries. The information is often intentionally misleading – for example the quarterback doesn’t have a fractured left ankle, he has a “lower body issue.” No sense tipping the opposition off so they can target a million-dollar extremity any further.  But those smokescreens are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Now, with players directly addressing the masses on social platforms, things are that much tougher for a coach. Payton has taken this into consideration, talking to his team about how Tweeting is a mini news conference, and the importance of keeping team business in house.

As Payton put it on ESPN’s Mike and Mike radio show last month, he’s got 53 leaks in the locker room. 53 players who not only talk to their friends, family and teammates about their issues, but 53 players who might be telling the world that Drew Brees is banged up, or a defensive lineman failed a drug test, or the star running back is seeking  trade. Payton doesn’t want his integrity compromised by lying to a reporter only to have a player expose the truth moments later in a Facebook status update.

The idea of “53 leaks in a locker room” applies to any organization and communications professional as well – it’s not a huge stretch from gridiron to conference room. A coach and his players aren’t all that different from a CEO and their employees. Activity, authenticity, and transparency are important in both arenas. Indulge me as I drive that point home with a football-theme:

First down: Create a social media policy – as Text 100’s Jeremy Woolf shared earlier this year, as few as 29 percent of companies have formal social media policies. He goes on to say, “I’ve seen clients engaging in social media without a policy in place. And if they have a policy, it isn’t being monitored or managed successfully. The barriers to policy creation have much in common with companies that lack a crisis response policy. They tend not to prioritize policies until something goes wrong.”

Second down: Ensure transparency. To put it simply – don’t do what these guys did.

Third down: Empower employees – in the same article Jeremy addressed this point. “First, recognize that social networks are a critical part of human interaction. Those companies that block and discourage access will struggle. Those that realize that social networks are enablers of productivity, customer support, marketing and sales will prosper.” In Rochester we recently worked with a client on a major product launch, but before nailing down our social media activity we researched which employees were active in social media. Then we brought them in the loop about the launch and encouraged them to share key messages with their social networks—only if relevant.  We let them know what content would be available and when, and stressed the importance of being transparent. Rather than worry about company leaks we empowered the employees and made them a part of the extended PR team with great success.

Fourth down: Listen to what’s being said in the social media landscape and react accordingly. A great example of this is Gatorade’s “Mission Control” where employees monitor mentions of the drink and join the conversation where appropriate; it culminates in Gatorade shifting sales and marketing strategies in real time based on that chatter.

Now you’ll have to excuse me. I have to check Tweetdeck for any last minute injury news, it’s time to set my fantasy football lineup.

What did they find out? Here’s an excerpt:

“It is an undeniable fact: The recession has created not only a universal sense of anxiety and fear, but a greater level of consciousness across all ages and genders. We can’t go back. We have heightened our perception; we are awake, alert, aware— whether we like it or not.”

Manila and Graceann shed some light on the insights coming out of the study, but a few that stuck out to me were “The Coffee Conundrum:” what sacrifices people are going to make for that cup of jo we all need so bad and “Longing for Lost Spontaneity:” people are still buying impulse purchases – but they are just planned. Both these hit home to me.

Since the recession hit, I gave up drinking fancy coffee to justify taking vacations. I know that probably doesn’t make a lot of sense to most – but if I go to work and drink the crappy coffee, I deserve to spend money I still don’t have on fabulous trips. I’m also totally guilty of planned spontaneity. I planned to go to Target and convinced myself that it was to stock up on paper towels and toilet paper. Yeah right. We left that place with $550 worth of planned impulse purchases: cute shirts dresses and shoes. Target shopping is the best.

In another interesting part of the study they asked Communispace community members to write a “Note to Self” for 10 years later. A few of the ones that stood out were “develop independence to rely on yourself” and “never let fear control your life.”

Here is my note to self: Make time for yourself, your family and friends. Don’t let your job dictate your life and keep traveling.

What’s yours?

What’s your take on the trends in 2010?

The world is looking to Copenhagen where the UN climate conference 2009 is currently taking place. At Text 100 we advise many clients on CSR and social media communications and have therefore been very interested in considering the communications landscape surrounding the conference this year. We want to find out how Web 2.0 and especially the rise of social media has revolutionized the way politicians are communicating their positions, how NGOs are trying to influence the discussions and how COP15 is bringing climate experts to the “blog table” to offer insights into the climate discussion. It is very interesting to take a look behind the scenes and understand how many different stakeholders can stay up to date every minute of  the day.

Prior to the start of COP15 we created an international Text 100 COP15 team with the objective of monitoring the social web including blogs, Twitter, social networks, online forums, YouTube, Flickr etc. and analyzing what we found. The team started its work with the COP15 pre-conference in Barcelona, on 2^nd November. After six busy weeks we have observed the following, topline trends.  We will be pulling together a thorough analysis of our findings in early January.

• NGOs, politicians and journalists are important users of social media today. Interestingly, companies and  industry associations do not seem to be  exploiting the potential of social media.
• Twitter and blogs are the social media tools used most. An interesting example is the twitter wall of Greenpeace on 5th December in Berlin: Greenpeace put a big screen in Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate. At the end of the day, it received 15,000 tweets with the hashtag #savetheclimate. There were people in Germany sending messages to Angela Merkel and what she should focus on. One can see this twitter wall also in the Greenpeace GreenAction blog: http://twitterwall.greenaction.de/. 
•  NGOs leverage social media to inform their members and followers about current activities, to call for action and to report about progress made in Copenhagen. A good example is WWF Climate Blog. 
• Interestingly, social media is mainly used as an information channel. In many cases there aren’t a lot of comments and dialogue that show a vivid discussion about the climate conference. However, a positive example in terms of interaction and dialogue is the Climate Thinkers Blog of the Danish government which invites some of the world’s most renowned climate thinkers to participate in a virtual global climate debate. 
• Prior to the conference, topics discussed in social media were about expectations, attendees and results, as well as practical questions about how to travel to Copenhagen, how to find a hotel etc. With the start of the conference we can see a big shift in the discussion. Now it is more about climate content such as negotiation progress, positions and opinions of different parties as well as news-worthy activities of NGOs.

If you would like to hear more about social media usage at COP15 please listen to the Englisch radio show of Deutsche Welle or read the related article on their Web site.

These sites duked their way to mainstream media influence in our study of the most influential political blogs

“As we all know, Barack Obama has completely changed what new media means to all of us. His campaign revolutionized the way a campaign uses technology, the Internet and the media to get its positive message about change out. While I believe the message and the person were more the reason than the technology per se, the technology was pivotal in helping the campaign organize a grass roots network for change like never before in our history.

“And he completely changed the relationship that the White House has with bloggers. In his first press conference, he called on Sam Stein of The Huffington Post for a question (Obama Calls on Huffington Post’s Sam Stein). That was a first in history and I am sure he’ll make many more firsts in the months ahead. Think about it – our new President calling on a blog that didn’t even exist just a few short years ago (and one created by a very smart woman – Arianna Huffington – that once showed up for a political debate against my old boss Senator Feinstein in place of her husband Michael. Thankfully, Mrs. Feinstein said no to that arrangement).

“So many of us were blog junkies during the campaign and I for one had to go through ‘blog detox’ for a few weeks after by not checking the great sites of Huff Post, Daily Kos, FiveThirtyEight, Talking Points Memo or others on a minute by minute basis.But as this intriguing report from Context Analytics shows, these sites are here to stay and have changed the way Americans consume news and information forever. Let’s just hope we stay as tuned in and engaged to the big, important policy issues such as reforming our health care system like we did during the campaign. I promise to try…”

Jim Hock

Partner, 463 Communications

This post is a part of a series on the Power 50, a study of the most influential blogs as cited by mainstream media.