Will banning Twitter and Facebook help the All Blacks win the Rugby World Cup?
Today I saw this news story explaining that the All Blacks (New Zealand’s rugby team) will be banned from using Twitter and Facebook until after this year’s Rugby World Cup (which runs from September 9th to October 22nd).
Now I don’t mind admitting, I don’t blog nearly as often as I should, but any story that combines two great passions of mine – rugby and internet marketing – is sure to get my interest and get me blogging again!
It’s not the first time that the use of social media by sportsmen has hit the headlines. England’s footballers were banned from using it in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. They failed horribly in that World Cup, but I think most football fans would agree that their problems went deeper than social media! By contrast, Colin Montgomerie allowed his 2010 Ryder Cup team to use social media and they won – just. Importantly though, he did spell out what they could and couldn’t tweet about, rather than go straight for an outright ban.
So is Graham Henry – the All Blacks coach – right or wrong? Well first, let’s set the scene for any non-rugby fans out there. The All Blacks won the first ever Rugby World Cup on their own turf in 1987. Since then they’ve failed to win it again, despite arriving as red hot favourites in 1995, 1999 and 2007. Rugby is like a religion in New Zealand, and when they fail to win the World Cup, it hurts them more than most. This year, the World Cup returns to New Zealand, with the All Blacks favourites once again. If they do win it this time they will shake off the “chokers tag” but even then people will still accuse them of only being able to win it on home turf, unlike England, Australia and South Africa who have all won World Cups on foreign soil.
So, this World Cup is huge for New Zealand to say the least, and seemingly no stone will be left unturned in their campaign to end their 24-year wait for another World Cup. Including Twitter and Facebook. The All Blacks even have some history of their own when it comes to Social Media. One of their players, Cory Jane was dropped from the team during their 2009 tour of Europe and tweeted the fact to 14,000 followers before the team was officially announced, angering the rest of the All Blacks camp.
What followed was the All Blacks being asked to make sensible decisions about how they use Twitter, which seemed to work. Now, with the World Cup less than three months away, senior All Blacks players have asked for a total ban. The good thing about a total ban is that it is at least very clear. And the Twittersphere will no doubt have plenty of debate during any major sporting tournament, without the players themselves wading in.
So are the All Blacks right or wrong? The Social Media ban will certainly make for a more serious, focused atmosphere, but on the other hand, sometimes I think that the All Blacks have been guilty of over-thinking things in the past and added to the huge pressure that’s already upon them. If the senior players have requested the ban, then maybe it’s for the best.
However, personally speaking I’m more a fan of the moderated approach used by Colin Montgomerie in the 2010 Ryder Cup. He gave the players the chance to be sensible and spelt out what would and would not be tolerated.
It’s not just in sport that this type of approach is used. This week I was lucky enough to attend a presentation by Dominic Burch, Head of Corporate Communications at Asda who explained Asda’s attitude to social media. As he sees it, you simply have to accept that social media are here to stay, and your team can and will use them. They therefore train their staff on how to use them, how to set up their Facebook accounts and privacy settings, and how to use them sensibly to avoid bad publicity for themselves and the company.
This would be my preferred approach to social media. After all, they are just that – media. And there will be no shortage of old media comment on TV and radio, and in newspapers during the World Cup. Given the circumstances the All Blacks are in though, it’s hard to criticise Graham Henry for letting his senior players make the decision.
By 22nd October we’ll know if the All Blacks’ campaign has been successful or not, but we’ll never truly know how much their performance has been influenced by the Social Media ban. What we can be sure of though is that the use of social media by sportsmen is here to stay, and will continue to be debated for years to come.