Does ESPN have ESP?

Chapter 7 of Socialnomics is entitled, “Winners and Losers in a 140-Character World.” The chapter was an interesting read because of its focus on ESPN and fantasy football. The success of the Fantasy Football Today podcast was highlighted in the chapter and the way the podcast weaved advertising into the flow of the program. In the past, advertising was a separate entity in a program but the team at ESPN worked to integrate the messages into the podcast. This new tactic really worked to keep the podcast fresh and interesting while adding a participatory element. The podcast really showed an awareness of its target audience and they were not afraid to try new things. 

 

Reading about the participatory nature of the podcast really helped to show the shift I have noticed in sports radio. For example, when listening to programming on Fox Sports Radio I have noticed that the hosts will attempt to work advertising into the show and it is not the old format of running a previously recorded commercial the same way over and over again. Also, there is more listener participation due to social media outlets such as twitter. Twitter seems to be integrating with sports radio very heavily because of its relatively brief format. A host can go to twitter to catch an opinion or a trending topic. To look at Fox Sports again, instead of mentioning “scoreboard” they use the line “Fox Sports trending now” when they provide the scores. The change in style and production of sports programming is not only special to radio. On television, there is a definite focus on social media during the game and with pre-and post-game shows. 

 

As a diehard sports fan, one of the main reasons why I ventured into social media quickly was because of its impact on sports. ESPN and other sports entities are definitely winners as stated in Chapter 7. Granted, the Chapter also provides insights into companies and organizations who have been “losers” in the 140-character world. Personally, the stories of the losers are just not as interesting as the winners because it seems as though losing could be a lot easier in the world of social media. One can imagine that even though there is a potential for losing, there is a potential for quickly winning and regaining the loss because of the nature of social media with its speed and quickness.