Why Football players can’t be trusted.

I won’t lie to you. I am not a big football fan. But I do want to comment on the fact that Manchester United players have been banned from having Twitter and Facebook accounts. I think it has implications for us all.

First up I think there are two reasons why the club did it:-

1. They want to send fans to the official web site where they can sell adverts and merchandise.

2. They want to protect their brand and stop  ‘company’ information from leaking out. This fear is, after all, well founded. Footballer Darren Bent hit the headline when he sent a colourful message to his chairman at Tottenham  about his impending transfer, tarnishing the brand and revealing sensitive information at one go, nice one !

The result of the ban is, we get the impression that Manchester United don’t trust their players and like to exert iron-fisted control.

They are not the only employer to ban social media, this issue affects us all.  Can you be trusted not to bring the brand into disrepute ?

Here’s some stats.

According to a study commissioned by Robert Half Technology, an IT staffing company, 54 percent of U.S. companies say they’ve banned workers from using social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace, while on the job. The study, released today, also found that 19 percent of companies allow social networking use only for business purposes, while 16 percent allow limited personal use.

Wired
Read More http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/10/study-54-of-companies-ban-facebook-twitter-at-work/#ixzz0dL47tKCl

Some of this is obviously to do with time-wasting, people should be working ! But the most enlightened companies like the BBC allow their staff to have Twitter/Facebook etc as long as they don’t claim to be tweeting in the name of their employer.

This display of trust works both ways.

With the freedom to tweet are you going to diss the boss or leak sensitive information ? Is our BBC friend going to tweet the contents of the Queen’s speech ?

Not if the company itself is one he/she is proud of. Does it feel good to tell people who your work for ? Does the company treat you in a reasonable manner ? Are the holidays and benefits good ? Do they trust you ?

It’s all about trust again. You’ve got to give it to get it.

Where does that leave the footballers who can’t be trusted ? Well Darren Bent was being transferred. His loyalty was not to the club and may well not be to the next one either. Hot shot sports stars are their own brand.