Kat Cornetta

Sports writer - Grant writer

Category: Social media (Page 3 of 6)

The Curse of the Pessimistic Bills Fan Strikes Social Media

26 December, 2011 /

On Christmas Eve morning, the Buffalo Bills’ official Facebook page and Twitter account asked Bills fans: “What will Santa deliver for the Bills today?”

The Bills were playing the Tim Tebow led Denver Broncos at 1pm on Christmas Eve. Even though the miracle Broncos had been snuffed by the New England Patriots the week before, the consensus was that the hopeless and injured Bills would lose.

On top of that, the game would be blacked out in the Buffalo and Rochester areas because Ralph Wilson Stadium did not sell out. In some markets, an owner will buy out the remainder of the tickets to ensure a sold out game, but Bills owner Ralph Wilson (or whomever is acting on his behalf these days) did not. To add to that, the Bills had squandered a successful first half of the season to fall to a 5-9 record, with no chance of the playoffs in sight. Add to that the general pessimism surrounding the Bills’ brass after they signed shaky starting quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick to a long term contract but have yet to restructure key cog running back Fred Jackson’s deal (they have merely “assured” him of one, but haven’t inked anything official.)

Given all of that negativity, why would a social media manager ask such a question? You could expect at least eighty percent bitter responses. But the Bills’ asked, and here are some of the actual responses they received:

The Facebook comments section – several hundred deep – felt like a big group therapy session, or at least an extremely curmudgeonly family Christmas dinner. Surprisingly, the Bills pulled out the upset and used a strong day on defense to defeat the Broncos 40-14.

Was it harmless for the Bills to ask such a question via social media, or does it illustrate how out of touch they may be with their fan base?

DailyFeats: Social Media Meets Healthy Habits

11 October, 2011 /
DailyFeats' Skip Soda feat, my personal favorite.

DailyFeats' Skip Soda feat.

Keeping healthy can be a struggle, especially when you’re balancing work, a side gig and your everyday life. It can be easy to slip into bad habits, and those bad habits can add up to five unnecessary pounds in no time.

A new social media site called DailyFeats is looking to not only make healthy choices a part of your every day, but to make it fun while doing so. DailyFeats is like if your nutritionist or personal trainer jumped onto a location based service like Foursquare or SCVNGR to nag you (in a good way, of course!) Continue reading

The Gals’ Guide To Safety on Social Media

6 September, 2011 /

Since joining Twitter in 2008, I have had a few incidents of followers who have crossed the line –  making me feel uncomfortable at networking events and other actions that have made me feel a tad uneasy. I’ve brushed it off as harmless, because I thought most of these people did not have malicious intent – they just are trying to be friendly, but haven’t felt out the appropriate boundaries yet.

But an offline incident this past spring (that had no relation to social media) has me looking at this type of behavior in a new light. Even if the person “means well” and “just doesn’t know the boundaries,” they can still cause harm to you. How do you protect yourself? How does a woman be social on social media and be safe at the same time? Continue reading

The New Sportswriter Will Travel A Long Road To Get There

30 August, 2011 /

Covering the Women's Beanpot at Boston College in Feb. 2011I am a religious reader of music critic Bob Lefsetz. To use the old Simpsons quote, I am intrigued by his views and actually subscribe to his newsletter (called The Lefsetz Letter.) One quote from his most recent newsletter on Jared Leto and his band 30 Seconds to Mars jumped out at me. It has so much cross over to the world of new sports media.

Said Lefsetz:

“Despite the prevalence of prepubescents, our rock stars are going to be older and older, because not only does it take that long to get noticed, but it takes that long to be good.”

Is this the way writing – in particular sports writing – is going?

Is writing becoming something you need to dabble in part time before you can make a sustainable living doing it? Is the new sports journalist the 29 year old who has had a blog for years, balanced writing with a non-writing full-time career, and eventually cobbles together enough to fashion a full-time living from it?

That’s both the rub and the reward of the Internet, online media and the growth of blogging. It gives those of us who dreamed of writing for a living but were discouraged and confused a second chance. But it widens the pool of writers, making things difficult for those who devoted schooling, internships and low paying police/fire newspaper beats to their craft.

Who is the new sports media member? Is it the nearly-30 blogger who tries their best to emulate the writers who inspire him or her, or is it the writer with the print journalism degree who took a more traditional path? Who will be the sportswriter of the future?

In this new media world, are sportswriters going to be much older when they finally, to quote Lefsetz, “get noticed” and “be good”?

What Sports Bloggers Can Learn From John Mayer About Twitter

24 July, 2011 /
John Mayer 3

John Mayer at Berklee on July 11, 2011. (Photo: Berklee College of Music)

I recently read coverage of singer/songwriter John Mayer’s July 11th lecture at his alma mater, Berklee College of Music. Mayer returned to his Boston music school to share his ups and downs musically and with his celebrity.

Mayer touched upon his once obsessive use of Twitter, which he eventually had to abandon. Berklee Blogs reported from the lecture:

“(Mayer struggled) to curb using social media, which should have been an outlet for promotion but eventually became an outlet for artistic expression. Mayer shared that he found himself asking himself questions like ‘Is this a good blog? Is this a good tweet? Which used to be, is this a good song title? Is this a good bridge?’

And possibly more alarming, Mayer realized that pouring creativity into smaller, less important, promotional outlets like Twitter not only distracted him from focusing on more critical endeavors like his career, it also narrowed his mental capacity for music and writing intelligent songs.”

Most telling was this direct quote from Mayer:

“I stopped using Twitter as an outlet and I started using Twitter as the instrument to riff on, and it started to make my mind smaller and smaller and smaller. And I couldn’t write a song.”

Even though I’m tone deaf, Mayer’s insights regarding Twitter hit home for me as a sports writer. I devote so much of my time engaging my sports communities via Twitter, and having worthy and in-depth conversations there. I’m using ideas and thoughts on Twitter that might be better explored via my sports blog.

It is an easy rut for sports bloggers to get stuck in. You leave some of your best material – the discussion of a player’s role on a particular team, a discussion of how you would set hockey lines, who you would hire for a vacant coaching position – on Twitter. You might not even realize you are putting your creativity priority on Twitter, but step back and look at what discussions you’re spending a lot of time having on Twitter. You might be leaving a lot of topics there that you could be having on your blog.

Remember that even though Twitter has exploded with popularity, not all of your blog readers are there. Consider about expanding on topics you’re discussing on Twitter on your blog. Or write about a topic first on your blog, then share the blog post via Twitter and let the post generate the discussion. By putting your blog as creativity priority one over Twitter, you may not run into difficulty finding time to post or coming up with post ideas.

Start by asking yourself: Are you using your blog or Twitter to “riff” on sports? Is whatever one you’re using the one you want to be using?

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