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Adam Schefter is an ESPN reporter. One of the good ones. One of the ones you see in the ticker on TV saying “as reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter.” In journalism speak, that means something. Scooping, or being the first to report, a hot story can lead a reporter to being known as an inside man, where he starts getting texts at 2am and anonymous sources calling his phone to leak information. This is a good place to be.
Adam works for ESPN. He has clout because of his employer. Many of us on the web have similar situations. But Adam does something extra. He’s building a following on Twitter filled with people who know he could post breaking sports news at any minute. This may seem trivial, but it’s Adam’s entire value to ESPN, and he gives it away for free on Twitter.
He usually does it in this manner: “Filed to ESPN:”, followed by his scoop. In my Twitter feed, Adam’s “leak” will come several minutes before ESPN posts his story.
And Adam’s feed is far from just leaks. He posts throughout the day (and nights too) on breaking sports news. When something big happens, Adam has it.
His following on Twitter: almost 100,000.
What would happen if Adam left ESPN for FSN or SI? 100,000 people would follow him over. What if Adam founded his own online sports news network? 100,000 followers, immediately.
This is smart. Why aren’t we seeing many others do this? Do New York Times writers do this? Do video game designers do this? This is the new job security. Leveraging your day job and social media to create a powerful personal brand that becomes your new resume.
Too often the experts stay comfortable and work quietly behind the cubicle walls in the big buildings and go about their business anonymously. Sometimes employers prohibit establishing a personal brand. But in this new landscape, this connected, twittering, status updating world, where anyone and everyone can build a following — your own 1,000 true fans — it’s foolish and wasteful to spend all your energy creating amazing work and taking none of the credit, having just a cover letter and a bullet point on your resume to show for it.
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I think a lot of larger media companies have specific policies limiting this sort of thing, which is really a shame. I always thought it was short-sighted, but maybe they got social media before the rest of us and knew that eventually it would be used to provide other options to their most valued employees. ;-)
I haven’t been to the actual site in a while, Jason. It looks great.
Thanks, Scott. Just launched the new site/design a few weeks ago.
I think you’re right about media companies preventing this. Is it a purely selfish thing? I’m not convinced that Adam Schefter being so active on Twitter is a bad thing for ESPN. Yes, it gives him portability, but making him a house-hold name has got to be a good thing for ESPN. It certainly puts the onus on the media companies to provide real incentive to keep their players, other than intimidation and the burden of starting over.