The One-Voice Model of a Corporate Sports Account: Knowledge Management at Work

While journalists were once viewed as gatekeepers, dispensing news and information via one-way communication channels, their role as information provider has evolved. Nowhere is this more apparent than on the social networking site Twitter, where information seekers have unprecedented access to information providers. The two-way communication that these information seekers have come to expect can be challenging for organizations such as ESPN who have multiple Twitter accounts and millions of followers. By designating one team of people as responsible for the organization’s largest Twitter account, SportsCenter, ESPN sought to establish manageable methods of interacting with this account’s followers. This study provides a better understanding of the group responsible for ESPN’s SportsCenter Twitter account: the motivation and strategies behind the group’s Twitter use as well as the social dynamics of this network, such as knowledge management, information flow, and collaboration. The research study employed social network analysis and exploratory, descriptive mixed methods.