Social media is a great tool to bring footballers closer to fans and, as many bloggers can testify, is a great way of highlighting causes. But, as Gary Andrews writes, too many footballers tweet first and think later.
Ryan Babel was never likely to be a man prone to discussing Shakespeare, Rachmaninov or Picasso, judging by his Twitter feed, but his appreciation of a photoshopped picture of referee Howard Webb has earned him a slapdown from the FA.
Unsurprisingly Liverpool fans have leapt to the Dutch forward’s defence but Babel’s also found support from fans of other clubs, as well as Gordon Taylor from the players’ union, the PFA, who has accused the authorities of having a sense of humour failure.
Babel isn’t the first footballer to make trouble for themselves on Twitter and won’t be the last, but his case neatly highlights the issues that face professional sportsmen on the social networking site.
In an age where footballers’ wealth has ballooned and the players have been accused of growing steadily out of touch and aloof from supporters, Twitter has been welcomingly refreshing.
To those of us weary of the bland platitudes in post-match interviews, Twitter offers an outlet free from on-message interviews tightly controlled by the mammoth PR machines.
It’s refreshing to see footballers offering uncensored opinions, while for fans, the site offers access to their idols that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.
In a bygone era, you’d stand a good chance of bumping into a player in your local. In lieu of that, Twitter has become the 21st century equivalent of cornering the reserve left-back in the boozer.
And just as mutterings of the referee’s allegiance are common conversations down the pub, the photoshopped picture of Howard Webb is regular Twitter parlance. And here’s where we move away from pub banter.
While post-match interviews are, as I’ve said earlier, generally bland, no player or manager would even consider accusing the referee, in public, of being a fan of the opposition.
For Babel to suggest so in a public forum is, if you look at it dispassionately, libellous. The high-profile of Babel, the number of people the message was broadcast to and the nature of the offence falls under the offence.
It’s a tight line, especially when you consider previous statements on Twitter from the likes of Cesc Fabregas on referees. The line you can best say, other than possible sour grapes on the part of the Arsenal captain, is this is falls under a strong but honestly held opinion that doesn’t cast aspersions on the referee’s professionalism, unlike Babel.
Taking this out of the strange bubble that football inhabits, in the rest of the world there are plenty of examples of employees losing their jobs or getting a slap on the wrist for indiscreet comments on Twitter, most notably the Ketchum employee who insulted Memphis, the home town of his client, FedEx.
Judged by their standards, if Babel had been employed in any other sector he could expect to be punished. And regardless of how many people found it funny, it still brings the game into disrepute, no matter which way you look at it.
Of course, what Babel did was no more than you see on Twitter in the aftermath of a defeat for any club’s team. Reading your feed on a match day can be an entertaining but also thoroughly depressing experience of how much rage football provokes.
But what it also shows that, no matter how enthusiastic the user, that having a good social media trainer or adviser is important, especially for people in the public eye, such as footballers.
At the very least every club should have a set of employee guidelines for social media, as many organisations do. The exceptional companies word theirs in a way to ensure the user’s personality and creativity aren’t lost at the expense of ensuring they are on-message socially.
In fairness, Liverpool are a reasonably switched on club when it comes to social media and have just launched their own social network.
But as QPR players, Babel, Glen Johnson, and Marvin Morgan (“Like to thank the fans who booed me off the pitch. Where’s that going to get you! I hope you all die”) have discovered to their cost, just because Twitter is a very personal network, it doesn’t mean they should imagine they’re only broadcasting to a select group who’ll share their sentiments.
As with all professionals, Twitter shouldn’t be off-limits or heavily censored for work purposes. If a club insisted that, say, all Tweet had to be run through the PR department (I’ve had this request in a previous non-sporting job once) it would diminish the chance for footballers to actually interact with their fans.
Soccer-portal highlights the example of the England Cricket Board, who used to tell players to treat the media as “an opportunity, not a threat,” and the same could be said of Twitter.
If nothing else, Babel and others could do worse than following the example of Bolton captain Kevin Davies, who makes an effort to engage with supporters, raises awareness for good causes, and has enhanced his reputation since joining the site.
As for Babel himself, hopefully he’ll continue to Tweet and engage with other Liverpool fans and won’t feel the need to retreat into bland footballer utterances. And, most importantly and as any social media consultant could tell him, he thinks before he tweets.
Tags: Liverpool, Marvin Morgan, Ryan Babel, Twitter