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KU sports scuffle offers colleges social media lesson
By Justin Goldsborough | September 23rd, 2009
Trouble is brewing in Lawrence, Kan. If you haven’t heard already, a fight broke out this morning between several Jayhawks football and basketball players. And this isn’t the first time it’s happened.
The fight in itself is disturbing, but what caught my attention was the way in which KU basketball star Tyshawn Taylor shared his feelings about the situation on Facebook…for the whole world to see.
After reading Tyshawn’s social media tirade, local sports talk personalities Kevin Kietzman and Todd Leabo said on their afternoon show that there was one clear step for Kansas Athletic Director Lew Perkins to take before assessing the need for suspensions — no more Facebook accounts for student athletes, at least for those that play the high-profile sports like basketball and football.
I understand where they’re coming from. This is the same sentiment we hear from corporate executives all the time. If you take away a person’s access to online conversations, he/she can’t say anything stupid or damming to your organization. Having worked to implement social media in large corporations, I also understand that taking away Tyshawn Taylor’s access to Facebook will not keep him from speaking his mind online or offline if he really wants to. There thousands of Facebook-like forums that provide opportunities for online conversations. Not to mention the fact that students and employees are smart enough to figure out a loophole in the technology — unless an institution has specific rules and regulations regarding social media use.
This is still college isn’t it…why not educate Tyshawn and his classmates about the significant impact how a person engages in social media can have on his/her personal brand and the brand of the organization(s)with which he/she is affiliated. That’s what the companies that are using social media to their advantage and socializing it with their employees are doing.
Create a policy and guidelines with clear cut rules about what behaviors are and aren’t ok for University of Kansas students who choose to participate in social media. And be clear about the consequences for breaking the rules. For example, if a company has a social media policy that says sharing proprietary information is not acceptable and can lead to termination, then employees who cross that line know what they’re getting into and there should be no confusion when they are shown the door for posting or tweeting company secrets.
Has anyone told Tyshawn Taylor what the consequences of Facebook posts like the ones above would be? Has the Kansas athletic department even thought through what consequences might exist for this type of situation? To take it a step further, does Kansas — or any other major university for that matter — offer a course for students that details the do’s and dont’s of social media and how anything posted on a social network, blog, message board is out there for the world to see with your name on it?
I’ve recently spoken with a couple of collegiate administrators and policy makers and a few things became abundantly clear as a result of those conversations:
- Colleges know they need to do more when it comes to social media, but aren’t sure what “do more” really means.
- Students have a great understanding of social media and social networks like Facebook, but lack an understanding of how these sites can and should be used at school and in the professional world.
- Universities are behind corporations when it comes to social media education and many have yet to integrate social media into required, or even optional, curriculum.
Tyshawn Taylor is lucky in a way. Sure his uncouth Facebook status posts have been shared with the world for all to see. But he can run fast, jump high and dunk a basketball. So all that will be forgiven and forgotten — probably as soon as the college basketball season starts if not sooner.
But what about the student who won’t play professional sports for a living and has a bunch of party pics from last weekend’s fraternity kegger on their Facebook page when applying for a job? Or the recent graduate who interviews for his/her first job and then tweets a negative comment about the company, forgetting that anyone and everyone, including the company’s HR team, can see the post (remember something like this happened to a person recently hired at Cisco).
College is supposed to prepare you for the next stage of your life and teach students how to make it in the “real world.” Social media is an constantly evolving part of that world. And while both professional and college athletes are given tips for dealing with the media, are they being taught about the benefits/consequences a Facebook status update can provide to their reputation? If student athletes aren’t being taught those lessons, they should be. And every other student who attends KU or any other institute of “higher learning” should be discussing them as well.
You want to get through to Tyshawn, go ahead and suspend him. Then make him spend that time in a classroom learning the impact his online words can have and how he can use social media in a positive way both inside and outside the classroom. But don’t take his Facebook page away. That won’t teach him or his teammates anything.
September 24th, 2009 at 6:28 am
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September 24th, 2009 at 10:42 am
Preach!
September 28th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Justin, great post! Glad I found it. I also don’t agree with Kietzman and the idea of blocking Twitter and Facebook from the players. I just posted something on the topic, but you beat me to it!
http://www.freelancesocialmedia.com/sports-teams-times-have-changed-adapt/
October 1st, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Taylor may have hurt his future career chances. He may not be good enough for the pros, or hurt himself early on. Some businesses may not want to hire him when they see this.
It’s not as if he’s 15. He’s a college student, a time when kids become adults. Yes, they’ll have to learn from mistakes — but the ones that make it online will be more harmful.
A good lesson to share with our kids.
December 12th, 2009 at 8:12 am
[…] couple of months ago, the Kansas basketball and football teams made headlines for all the wrong reasons. There was a fight between the two groups on campus that several people witnessed, and Tyshawn […]