Friday, September 17, 2010

Will the Golf Channel Social Media Twitter Experiment be a success?

Social media golf
credit
Golf Channel will go "non-traditional" in it's Nationwide Tour coverage this Saturday; light on the announcers and heavy on the social media interaction.

“If it works, it could be to golf announcers what reality TV was to actors," according to Golf Channel announcer Stephanie Sparks.


Sparks and Kay Cockerill will be on the 13th and 15th tees doing player interviews and Jerry Foltz and Curt Byrum will limit their comments on air but will interact with viewers "via social media channels such as Twitter," according to a network release.

You will also hear commentary directly from the caddies and players as the final four pairings will be equipped with a boom microphone.

Will this Twitter, Facebook social media experience have golf fans frantically typing away on their smart phones interacting with announcers or will the experiment prove to be a flop? Television commentary has been known to be dry at times so why not spice it up, chatting back-and-forth with an extended audience? And, isn't it better to experiment at the Albertsons Boise Open than open up all social media communications right before the Masters?

Stewart Cink on Twitter
In comparison to John Daly whose Twitter following is about 71,000 (31,400 Facebook) and Stewart Cink who has amassed over a million Twitter followers, Golf Channel currently has about 19,000 followers on Twitter and about 28,000 Facebook fans. With this interactive take on golf, it will be interesting to see by how much Golf Channel's followers increase.

Foltz mentioned that his bosses claim that this isn't a long-term plan but, if Golf Channel's social media 'announcer-lite' pure golf experiment improves numbers on Twitter and Facebook, I'll bet the broadcasting team will be cracking their knuckles for another event in the near future.

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3 comments:

  1. John Graham9/17/2010 01:58:00 PM

    That should be very interesting to see. First I had heard about it so thanks for heads up.

    JG

    ReplyDelete
  2. Stacy Solomon9/18/2010 03:48:00 PM

    Any time John.


    Curious to see if traditional media wins over social media or vice versa, but then again, this is via the Nationwide Tour.

    If Tiger Woods was involved, this social media experiment would have a positive outcome.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Golfkurse3/09/2011 01:45:00 AM

    According fun golf, refrain from giving an instruction to junior golf and let your junior swing as hard as they want from time to time in their busy practice. As for your handful of junior golf is simply the right hand is weaker than the left hand for a right handed golfer. Remember to keep fun and non-restrictive and not worry about making a good, yet. It would be better for you junior play a game that is able to count to three without losing balance, no matter how they swing.

    ReplyDelete

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