Social Media is Booming

Despite the fact that there are only two NBA teams still playing, social media is booming right now in the NBA. This time of year is exciting for NBA fans for many reasons.

First of all, one of the most classic rivalries is being renewed as the Lakers and Celtics tip off in the NBA finals. There are so many sports related blog it's hard to get a sense for what is worth reading and what isn't. Upon a brief glance at the front page of NBA.com, one of the first things I noticed was an NBA Finals Blog. It features media, interviews and other tidbits about the finals that the average blogger doesn't have direct access to. This makes it unique and in some cases more desirable than many other blogs.

Another reason why this time of year is exciting for NBA fans, is that the NBA draft is approaching. For the 28 teams who are not in the finals, it is time to think of the future of the teams. Oregonlive.com has a blog which keeps readers updated on the workouts that the Trail Blazers are hosting. This obviously reaches a specific niche - Blazer fans. However, the team is bringing in nearly 50 players for workouts and that means that there are going to be tons of fans and followers out there wondering how their favorite college or international players workouts went.

Another reason why social media in the NBA is booming is due to Web sites like draftexpress.com. It is a Web site which features in-depth analysis of hundreds of draft prospects and is updated almost daily. This time of year draftexpress is busy sharing the results of various workouts and camps for NBA hopefuls, while offering its speculation as to who will be drafted and by which team. The website's credibility has reached a point in which it sometimes breaks big NBA news or is one of the first websites to report these stories. It also features blogs and more specific feature stories or summaries of these players's careers.

The amount of social media helps keep the NBA excitement high, while letting fans know pretty much everything they could possibly want to know about the current NBA happenings.

Damage Control and the NBA

One big misconception about public relations is that it is mainly about covering up bad news or "damage control." Public relations is a lot more than just those two things; however, damage control is an important aspect of public relations. When your firm, organization or client has some sort of bad news, whether it is a sex scandal, an oil spill, spoiled food or a drug scandal, it is imperative to immediately make a statement and then figure out the best steps to respond. If that is not done, the information will almost always become public and can in fact make the situation much worse.

During the middle of the first round of the NBA playoffs, Dallas Maverick Josh Howard admitted that he smokes marijuana recreationally during the off season. A local radio station was talking about Howard and brought up some rumors about a potential connection to marijuana. Howard who was listening, called the radio station and wanted to come clean.


"Most of the players in the league use marijuana," said Howard, "and I have and do partake in smoking weed in the off-season sometimes. That's my personal choice and my personal opinion, but I don't think that's stopping me from doing my job."

In order to be transparent, The Dallas Mavericks and the NBA offices responded almost immediately with brief statements saying they were looking into what happened and that they were going to fully assess the situation before anymore comments were made. Additionally, the NBA offices made it very clear that players are randomly drug tested during the season and that Howard had never tested positive.

Having a star NBA player admit to doing drugs is clearly very bad for the NBA's image. This is why the most important part of the response was that it was so prompt. The damage had already been done so it was important to begin to repair that damage.

If I were in charge of the situation, I would try to take a negative and make something positive out of it. The NBA could very easily do some anti-drug ads, which would not be too hard to do and would reinforce the positive image it wants to be known for. This would generate positive press and help bury the negative press that Howard unintentionally created.