Kurt Rambis, Twitter, Sports, and Social Media Reputation

The Kurt Rambis Twitter Fail has been blown way out of proportion by the media. Coach Rambis allegedly "liked" a female masturbation photo.  Whether he intentionally "liked" it or it was "liked" by accident is up for debate.  Unfortunately, in the Digital Age any non-puritanical digital activity may become a news story for those who hold high profile positions in the world of sports, entertainment, government, politics, business, etc....

When using a digital device, it is easy to accidentally "like" a Tweet or indicate a preference for a particular post when scrolling up or down on a smart phone.  I have accidentally "liked" Tweets in the past and didn't realize it until reviewing my digital activity at a later date. It is entirely possible that Coach Rambis' Twitter account was hacked. Did the hackers also make Coach Rambis follow @GreatAssDaily?   

I have had multiple clients who have been targets of hacking and other nefarious digital attacks. If Mr. Rambis' account was hacked as the Knicks claim he/the team should file a complaint with the proper state and/or federal authorities. 

Whomever is advising the Knicks and Coach Rambis regarding this matter failed miserably. There are significant legal, business, and personal and corporate reputation issues involved. The bottom line is that many PR firms and social media consultants don't understand how intertwined these issues have become in the Digital Age and it shows when an incident like this occurs.

Copyright 2016 by The Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC All rights reserved.

10 tips to determine if a sports social media consultant is a fraud

In the past couple of years, multiple consulting companies have suddenly appeared on the scene to claim they are sports social media experts, gurus, leaders, trainers, etc... These firms are pitching colleges and universities to hire them to monitor their student-athletes' Tweets, Facebook posts, YouTube videos, and/or to "educate" student-athletes, coaches, administrators, etc... about social media matters.

To claim one is a sports social media consultant the barrier to entry is very low. From looking at the lack of credentials from most of those selling themselves as social media experts it appears that the only tools needed are: Internet and phone access, and a Slideshare account. With these three things you can create a free or low cost website and/or a free blog, open a free Twitter account, and create social media presentations based upon the work of others. Some of these "self anointed social media experts" may also buy a software package or create an application to track the online activities of student-athletes that may create tremendous legal problems for the schools that utilize these programs.

The Tweets, blog posts, and presentations of these self-called experts may appear to indicate that these consultants are the real McCoy. However, once due diligence is performed on these "social media experts" it becomes evident that almost none of them have any bona fide credentials or knowledge that demonstrates they should be advising NCAA schools, student-athletes, coaches, administrators, etc... on social media and/or any issues pertaining to college athletics.

To ensure that NCAA schools do not fall victim to these self-anointed experts who do not have the best interests of schools, athletic departments, and student-athletes in mind, below is a list of characteristics to help determine if a self described NCAA social media consultant, expert, guru, trainer, leader, etc... is a fraud:

1) The consultant advises schools to buy his social media monitoring software to track and/or archive student-athletes' password and/or non-password protected online activity.

2) The consultant advises schools to request or require students to register their social media user names and/or passwords with athletic departments and/or third parties.

3) The consultant advises schools to request or require that student-athletes Facebook Friend schools and/or third parties.

4) The consultant has no verifiable professional social media and/or sports experience before starting his sports social media consulting company.

5) The consultant incorrectly predicted how the NCAA's social media monitoring allegation against the University of North Carolina would be resolved.

6) The consultant follows more people on his professional Twitter account than are following him back.

7) The consultant's social media credentials appear too good to be true which may indicate social media credential fraud.

8) The consultant claims that schools that utilize his social media monitoring program will not be violating any current/future laws or creating the potential for tremendous legal liability.

9) The consultant has no verifiable professional social media experience prior to 2011.

10) The consultant has public Twitter conversations that may be better suited via direct message and/or another more discreet format.

If a social media consultant approaches an NCAA institution and has more than one of these characteristics it most likely indicates that the consultant is not the expert, leader, guru, etc... that he claims to be but a fraud whose advice may put the safety of a university and/or its students at risk and may create tremendous legal liability for universities, coaches, athletic department administrators, and/or student-athletes.

To learn more about these issues you may contact me at www.shearlaw.com.

Copyright 2012 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC All rights reserved.

Is FC Bayern Munchen Guilty of Like-Gating?

FC Bayern Munchen recently created a public relations own goal with its social media usage that may have legal consequences. A couple of days ago, Bayern Munchen announced on its website they had agreed to sign a 'spectacular name' and then directed fans to listen to the announcement live on the club's Facebook page. However, in order to listen to the announcement the Facebook user had to first "Like" the page.

There was no announcement of the signing of a "spectacular name". Instead, Bayern Munchen's GM Christian Nerlinger appeared in a video that contained the fans' own Facebook profile photo along with their name on a Bayern Munchen shirt. Many fans were not amused and complained loudly across multiple social media platforms.

If Bayern Munchen was located in the United States the National Advertising Standards Board and/or the Federal Trade Commission may have investigated them for "Like-Gating". Like-Gating occurs when a marketer uses misleading means to inflate the number of Facebook Likes. It appears that Bayern Munchen utilized a misleading advertising message to increase its number of Facebook Likes.

The bottom line is that sports organizations must be very careful when implementing social media marketing campaigns. There are major legal implications with every single social media marketing promotion.

To learn more about these issues you may contact me at http://shearlaw.com.

Copyright 2012 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.

University of North Carolina's Student-Athlete Social Media Policy May Be Unconstitutional

The University of North Carolina (UNC) recently updated its Department of Athletics Policy on Student-Athlete Social Networking and Media Use. It appears that UNC revised its student-athlete social media policy as part of its response to the NCAA Notice of Allegations (NOA) that alleged that it failed to monitor the social media activity of its student-athletes. According to an NCAA spokesman, the NCAA does not require its members to monitor the social media activity of its members; it only encourages schools to do so.

UNC's response to the NCAA NOA appears to agree with 8 of the 9 allegations. UNC appears to dispute the allegation that it failed to monitor the social media activity of its student-athletes. UNC's new student-athlete social media policy may have been created to try to mitigate some of the possible NCAA sanctions that may arise from this matter.

UNC is a public institution and therefore the 4th amendment of the U.S. Constitution applies and protects students from unreasonable searches and seizures by UNC. According to UNC's new social media policy, "Each team must identify at least one coach or administrator who is responsible for having access to and regularly monitoring the content of team members’ social networking sites and postings (“Team Monitor”). The Department of Athletics also reserves the right to have other staff members review and/or monitor student-athletes’ social networking sites and postings."

Students who participate in extracurricular activities have a diminished expectation of privacy compared to other students; however, that diminished expectation of privacy does not enable the state to access and monitor the private electronic content of student-athletes to ensure that there are no possible violations of the law, UNC policies, NCAA violations, etc... Students have a reasonable expectation of privacy for their non-public electronic communications. If UNC has a right to access the private social media posts of its student-athletes then what will stop UNC from claiming it has the right to access and monitor private email accounts, voice-mail messages, etc... and installing eavesdropping equipment into off-campus apartments?

Therefore, I believe UNC's new social media policy may violate the 1st, 4th, and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. I urge UNC to revise its new student-athlete social media policy before UNC has to utilize resources defending an unconstitutional policy that may create mistrust between its student-athletes and the university and tremendous legal liability issues.

To learn more about these issues you may contact me at www.shearlaw.com.

Copyright 2011 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.

ESPN's Social Media Policy May Assist Its Competitors

ESPN has been at the cutting edge of sports coverage since its launch on September 7, 1979. Its slogan is "The Worldwide Leader in Sports". As a longtime ESPN customer, I have always been interested in the wide variety of programming that ESPN has to offer. From its news to its original series to its game telecasts, ESPN does an excellent job of covering the world of sports.

ESPN first created a Social Media Policy for its employees in August 2009. The network's initial policy was heavily criticized and within hours of it becoming public ESPN publicly explained the policy. Within the last couple of days, ESPN has has updated its Social Media Policy or as it is officially called, its "Social Networking For Talent and Reporters" Policy.

The new policy's first two guidelines make sense: "Think before you [sic] tweet" and "Think before you retweet". However, the third guideline, "Do not break news on Twitter", demonstrates an utter lack of understanding of the Social Media Age. In addition, this guideline does not make sense because it further states, "In most cases, you [sic] tweet will also appear on ESPN.com". Since ESPN Talent and/or Reporters' Twitter feeds will be on ESPN.com it makes no sense to tell them they can't break news on their Twitter feeds. I understand the desire to drive as much traffic as possible onto ESPN or ESPN.com to keep the Nielsen Ratings or Alexa.com figures as high as possible which may increase advertising dollars. However, this policy will only harm its ability to compete in the fast changing digital landscape.

During the last several years, many major news stories have been reported first on Twitter. Some of these stories include: the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, the 2009 Hudson River plane crash, and the death of Osama Bin Laden. During the NFL lockout earlier this year, sports reporters regularly posted breaking news updates on Twitter and then followed them up by more in depth articles at a later time.

Therefore, unless ESPN eliminates its "Do not break news on Twitter" guideline, ESPN's reporters will risk other news outlets breaking news before ESPN has the ability to do so. The leaders of ESPN may want to rethink their new policy because as it stands it only hurts its ability to compete in the Social Media Age.

To learn how your organization may create a Social Media Policy that does not harm your brand or bottom line you may contact me at www.shearlaw.com.

Copyright 2011 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.

Social Media, Sports Media, NCAA Compliance, and Student-Athletes

When posting content on the Internet/Social Media it is imperative to be very careful what you say and how you say it. Everyone is capable of a slip of the tongue once in awhile. However, when comments are put online they become permanent. After one has been notified of an Internet/Social Media slip of the tongue he/she may want to quickly apologize and/or correct the record because in the Social Media Age you must realize that everything you put online has the ability to go viral and cause damage to your reputation very quickly.

On August 24, 2011, I read a Foxsports.com article by Jennifer Floyd Engel, entitled, "If the NCAA won't police self, NFL should". The article discussed Terrelle Pryor's five game suspension that was handed down by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for what appears to be Pryor's behavior while a student-athlete at Ohio State. The NFL's disciplinary system is covered by its collective bargaining agreement and Goodell has wide latitude in punishing NFL players for their conduct on and off the field.

Ms. Engel brings up some interesting points regarding whether the NFL should discipline NCAA student-athletes for transgressions that occurred before they join the NFL. The NCAA has a problem on its hands regarding enforcement of its rules and regulations and Goodell's suspension of Pryor with what may be the blessing of the NFLPA could deter student-athletes from allegedly violating NCAA rules in the future. The recent problems at the University of Miami, the University of North Carolina, the University of Southern California, and Ohio State demonstrate that something needs to be done to deter NCAA violations.

However, Ms. Engel states, "Roger [NFL Commissioner] sent a clear message that the NFL will no longer be a safe harbor for college football terrorists"and "[w]hile the little terrorists (or those so accused by a very-little, admitted money terrorist, Shapiro) all have cushy landing spots — at Texas Tech and Missouri and the NFL..."

Calling student-athletes terrorists who may have violated NCAA rules demonstrates ignorance. Those who Ms. Engel refers to may be NCAA rule violators, rule breakers, or *$&#(@!%, but they are not terrorists. Ms. Engel has every right to refer to student-athletes who may violate NCAA rules and create very difficult situations for the schools, their fellow students, alumni, coaches, etc... as terrorists if she chooses to do so. I notified Ms. Engel that her online comments were inappropriate and her response appears to demonstrate ignorance of the situation. Ms. Engel should really think about the definition of a terrorist before calling some-student athletes terrorists and then defending her position.

Every time a student-athlete or professional athlete posts something online that may be deemed inappropriate members of the media attack them for their online behavior. Should the media call out Ms. Engel in the same manner that it castigates student-athletes and professional athletes when they make what some may deem inappropriate online comments?

To learn more about these issues you may contact me at www.shearlaw.com.

Copyright 2011 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.

Players Associations, Sports Leagues, the NCAA, and the Olympics Must Say No To Social Media Monitoring of Athletes

Professional and amateur sports must say no to forcing social media monitoring software (e.g. malware) on their professional, amateur, and student athletes. Criminals in prison and those under house arrest need to be monitored and tracked; however, young men and women should be provided social media life skills.

Institutions that deploy social media monitoring services are wasting their precious resources since crowdsourcing already performs this service for free. Monitoring athletes' social media usage is a reactive approach that is doomed to failure. A recent CBS Sports article touted social media monitoring of professional and amateur athletes as something that both labor and management could agree on. The article further states that within 2-3 minutes after an alleged inappropriate post a cautionary e-mail is sent to both the monitor (a school or franchise) and an athlete. What the article does not discuss is that once a Tweet or a Facebook post has been made it can never be deleted from the Internet. Within seconds, a Tweet can be re-tweeted and a Facebook post can be shared hundreds of times.

Therefore, how can social media monitoring help? It can't. Remember Congressman Weiner's accidental tweet that was meant to be a direct message. Within a few minutes after Mr. Weiner Tweeted a message to a college student that included a link to a photograph of himself in his underwear he tried to delete it. However, once content has been uploaded online it is too late. Mr. Weiner learned this the hard way (no pun intended). Thousands of people were following Mr. Weiner on Twitter so no social media monitoring service could have saved Mr. Weiner from his own stupidity.

Social Media monitoring is like using a condom after sex. It is too late to offer any protection. Once an alleged inappropriate message has been sent out via social media a monitoring service is worthless because it can't protect an athlete or an institution from the consequences of an alleged inappropriate post. Social Media monitoring services are unable to offer protection because they are reactive and not proactive. In other words, these services are fool's gold.

There are multiple major legal issues involved with social media monitoring of athletes. These may include First Amendment, employment, and tort liability issues. Those organizations that deploy social media monitoring of their athletes are not only wasting their time and money on a worthless reactive service, but they also are creating major legal liability issues. Furthermore, it is very easy to change a social media account name and there is the problem of fake accounts and hacked accounts.

The bottom line is that professional and amateur sports organizations along with colleges and universities should not deploy social media monitoring of their athletes unless they are interested in wasting their money and incurring unanticipated legal liabilities.

To learn how to avoid social media legal liability in professional and amateur sports you may contact me at www.shearlaw.com.

Copyright 2011 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.