1. ESPN and the Use
of Social Networking
By Katie Powell

2. Thousands of social networking sites
Some open sites, some invite-only
Connects groups of people into a
community
May vary on specific interests like age,
gender, race, occupation, personal
interests, etc.

3. Facebook
MySpace
Twitter
LinkedIn
Classmates
MyLife
Ning
LiveJournal
Tagged
Last.fm

4. Other than individuals, many businesses
use these sites
Small businesses use sites to inform and
expand
Large businesses use sites to continue to
expand
Even huge corporations use them

5. Entertainment and Sports Programming
Network
American television network dedicated to
all types of sports
“The Worldwide Leader in Sports”
Consists of sporting events/news (such as
Sports Center), sporting talk shows,
sporting documentaries, sporting films,
and original series

6.  Originally began as a television network
 Expanded to the Internet, www.espn.com
 As well as ESPN radio
 ESPN International
 Entered European market w/ version of
ESPN Classic
 Purchased North American Sports Network
 Began broadcasting in Ireland and UK for
first time

7. ESPN Zone
ESPN HD
ESPN Internat’l
ESPN America
ESPN
Classic
ESPN

8. 24 hour sports coverage
ESPN shifts over to social networking sites
ESPN Facebook available
Added plug-ins on Facebook link page to
ESPN’s websites
ESPN Twitter
• Able to follow ESPN, Sports Center, athletes,
coaches, ESPN reporters

9.  Account with
espn.com, sends e-
mails with updates
and game coverage
 ESPN Local
• Local apps through
iPhones and iPods
• allows people to receive
local news stories and
game re-caps through
their iPhone/iPod
• ESPN Local launch

10.  First SportsCenter
Broadcasting
 Daily sports news TV
show
 Launched in ’79
 Created by John A. Walsh
 First episode on ESPN
hosted by George Grande
& Lee Leonard
 Shown up to 12 times a
day
 That day’s scores,
highlights from games,
commentary, feature
stories, and previews

11.  1994 launch of ESPN
Sports Poll
 Fantasy Leagues
 Facebook’s ESPNU
“College Town”
 Message boards for
fans to comment
• www.boards.espn.go.com
 Conversation pages
• www.espn.go.com

12. Use of social networking and New Media
increases ESPN viewers daily
Large coverage allows fans to rely on
ESPN and its sources
Worldwide coverage of all types of sports
bring in more countries to broadcast in
Use of New Media combined with social
networks= High competition

13. International Business Times, 28 April,
2009: “63% of companies fear Facebook,
Twitter affects corporate security”
Put company’s IT infrastructure at risk
Companies worried about cybercrime:
victims of spam, phishing, and malware
attacks through sites like Facebook,
Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn
International Business Times article