ESPN Senior VP/Corporate Communications Chris LaPlaca (@espn_chris) knows he needs to be on Twitter, as it is an "important daily ritual, though sometimes not as frequently as I perhaps should." Here, the longtime PR veteran discusses how he utilizes the platform and what he takes away from it.
Lessons learned:
I’m driving from one spot in Florida to Daytona, and I don’t remember which energy drink it was, but there was an energy drink van and they were in the left lane doing 50. I’m like, 'That’s bad branding. If you’re an energy drink, you should be in the left lane doing 90.' I said that would be a funny tweet. I spent the next 10 minutes on the phone with someone asking if that company was a sponsor. They said it was, so I didn’t send that tweet.
Network pointers on using social media:
It comes down to an IQ test. We have several pointers, like a how-to. It’s not a policy, per se, but guidelines. Some of it is fairly specific, like don’t tweet it unless you would report it.
Favorite guideline:
When people were just getting their head around social media, one of our NBA writers -- he no longer works for us -- tweeted something after we just put our policies forward. He got past the third one, but he mistakenly tweeted, “Well, this is my last tweet, the company says I can’t do it any more” or something of that nature. I get a call from the New York Times. They said, “Your guys can’t tweet anymore? I thought ESPN was a progressive company?” The suits tweeted out our guidelines so people can see that, yes, we can still tweet. Sometimes you lose context in 140 characters.
How ESPN tries to stand out:
It’s such an individual answer. How does Adam Schefter separate from Trey Wingo? They all do their own thing in different ways. It’s got to be personal. It’s a much more personal form of communication than we inform fans. You have to be true to yourself; we don’t have a blanket thought process that we have as a company.
If you know anyone who should be featured for their use of social media, send their name to
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