@MVick_NFLQB

Last night Michael Vick returned to the NFL, playing for the Philadelphia Eagles in a pre-season game. He was received relatively warmly (especially considering he’s in Philadelphia, a city that’s football fans booed Santa Claus).  At the same time, the NFL (and many other sports teams and leagues) are grappling with how to deal with Social Media engagement, with Twitter serving as the epicenter of the debate.

I think it’s going to be tough for the organizations to control this sort of new communication and Vick provides a great example of the problem.  Go to Twitter, click on the Find People tab and type in Michael Vick.  You’ll get three pages of results, with handles like:

• MV7isback
• Vick_Michael
• FollowMikeVick
• Boycott_Vick
• VickonEagles
• RealMikeVick
• RealRonMexico07

That’s just on the first page of results. Which one of those are run by Michael Vick? No idea. Any of them? Probably not, but you can see how all this can lead to trouble and confusion. If you’re Michael Vick, that’s a lot of content that you don’t control, but that is being represented as you (or is satirizing you). If you’re the NFL, you’re dealing with a Hydra – cut off one head, and two take its place.

So, what should Vick and the NFL do if it’s not possible to shut down all this content? This is where a comprehensive Social Media engagement strategy can not only help to mitigate these ‘rogue consumer’ efforts, but also generate ‘official’ content that provides value to fans.

The NFL (again, just a fill in example for any team or league) should set some standards for all employees (both players and other personel). As an example, what if anyone involved in the NFL – players, coaches, cheerleaders, mascots, etc. – were working from an standardized Twitter handle format such as FirstInitialLastName_NFLPosition.

@BEvans_NFLCheer

For example:

• @PManning_NFLQB (Peyton Manning, Indianopolis Colts Quarterback)
• @MTomlin_NFLCoach (Mike Tomlin, Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach)
• @BEvans_NFLCheer (Brittany Evan, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader)
• @RGoodell_NFL (Roger Goodell, NFL Commissioner)
• @EHochuli_NFLRef (Ed Hochuli, NFL Referee)

You get the idea. Twitter is currently working on a Verified Account program, ensuring that public figures can “own” an account that consumers can be sure are authentic. Facebook also works with brands to help ‘clean up’ the community of bogus fan pages. None of this will completely eliminate consumer-created content, but that’s ok. There needs to be space for consumers to have fun – or vent. But by having an overall strategic gameplan, teams and leagues can add value to the fan experience by ensuring fans can find the authentic, official information from your employees.