Athletic Directors Use, Monitor Social Media

Thanks to Twitter and a smart phone, Bentonville athletic director Scott Passmore can watch the Lady Tigers softball team at the Tiger Athletic Complex and keep track of the baseball team playing in Fayetteville at the same time.

He logs plenty of miles following all of Bentonville’s athletic teams throughout the school year. The growth of social media has made it easier for him to keep up with them almost instantly rather than waiting for texts or calls from coaches on the road.

“I follow several of the area sportswriters on Twitter and get updates and scores, and I tweet updates from events that I’m at personally,” Passmore said.

Passmore started his own Twitter account about a year ago after a meeting with Bentonville Superintendent Michael Poore, in which they discussed ways to use social media to promote the school’s athletic accomplishments.

“The biggest thing is that he felt like it was important to promote all the positives, not just in athletics but everything, through Facebook, the school’s website and Twitter,” Passmore said. “I’m pretty confident in saying all our varsity coaches have Twitter accounts set up for their respective sports.”

Passmore and Bentonville aren’t alone. The athletic departments at all the larger schools in the area are utilizing social media to some extent.

Mark Holderbaum, athletic director for Rogers Public Schools, maintains a Twitter account under the Rogers athletic department moniker. Fayetteville athletic director Barry Gebhart doesn’t have an account, but he’ll send updates to the school’s public information officer Alan Wilbourn, who maintains a school Facebook page and Twitter account.

Springdale athletic director Wayne Stehlik is one official who hasn’t personally embraced social media. But the school’s public information officer oversees a district Facebook page and Twitter account, Stehlik said.

“The athletic department doesn’t have a Twitter account,” Stehlik said. “That opens up a can of worms, and I’m not sure I want to go down that road right now. I have a Twitter account. My daughter helped me set it up about two years ago. I have it. I can’t say the last time I’ve been on it.”

All of them agree social media can be a great communication tool.

“It’s a great, quick way to send out updates if a practice time changes or a game is cancelled because of inclement weather,” Holderbaum said.

They also agree it has its pitfalls. They talk with coaches about the do’s and don’ts with social media. Holderbaum even added a section in the parent/athlete manual and the school district’s coach’s manual about social media.

“I try to talk to our coaches about teaching the kids about using social media, too,” Holderbaum said. “They need to understand that things they post not only reflect on them, but also their team and their status of their membership on one of our teams.

“I tell them that ‘www’ stands for ‘world wide web.’ It’s not limited to our area. And once it’s out there, you can’t get it back.”

Passmore agreed for the need to educate everyone about being cautious of what they post on social media.

“For every thousand positives, one negative gets most of the attention, and people need to understand that,” Passmore said.

Gebhart also acknowledged Fayetteville students have been disciplined for messages they posted on Facebook or Twitter.

“What the kids don’t understand is I’ve had people in our community take screenshots of a Facebook or Twitter page and send it to me anonymously,” Gebhart said. “It’s one of those things that has to be addressed. It’s like a lot of areas: Kids need guidance. By sticking our heads in the ground, we’re not doing them any favors.”