March Madness – courtesy of Twitter
Basketball fans know Charlie Villanueva, a Milwaukee Bucks forward, as a solid but not spectacular NBA player who helped UConn win the 2004 NCAA National Championship. He is also known by some for his work as a spokesman for the NAAF (National Alopecia Areata Foundation), which supports research into the autoimmune skin disease from which he suffers.
As of this week, millions of 18-35 year old males across the country now know Charlie Villanueva as the NBA player who posted to Twitter from his cell phone during halftime of a game. This incident follows the recent firing of a Philadelphia Eagles employee, who criticized the team and its decision not to re-sign a popular player in his Facebook status.
These recent cases illustrate how professional sports teams are struggling with the appropriate use of social media. Of course, we all know that these issues are not limited to the realm of sports. Hospitals and health systems are in the middle of this battle, too. Last month, for example, surgeons at the Henry Ford Medical Center began sending tweets during surgery
The constantly shifting boundaries surrounding the appropriate use of social media raise a number of difficult legal and ethical questions. Is the hospital liable if a patient dies during a surgery where the surgeon tweeted? What right do organizations have to monitor their employees’ Facebook pages? When is it okay to use social media at work?
According to ESPN.com, “Villanueva said that he didn’t think (the tweet) was a big deal at the time but now understands that posting to a Web site at halftime can create the impression he isn’t focused on the game.” Villanueva backed up this claim by scoring a team-high 19 points and led his team to a victory. Nevertheless, the Milwaukee Bucks subsequently banned players from using Twitter during games. Whether this was a necessary move by the Bucks to prevent their athletes from being distracted, or a harmful knee-jerk reaction remains to be seen.
What is clear is that the scrutiny and unwanted media attention that Villanueva is now receiving could have been avoided. As applications like Twitter and Facebook continue to encroach on our daily lives in new ways, web managers everywhere need to start having proactive, boundary-defining discussions as part of a larger social media strategy. Like basketball teams, hospitals and health systems have a responsibility to define the rules of social media BEFORE an unfortunate incident like this occurs. It’s the least we can do for those out there saving lives who have much more than a basketball game at stake.