Past The Press Box : Colin O'Keefe of The American Sportswriter : On Sportswriting, Social Media, Sports Blogging, Journalism, Sports Marketing

Ask 10 people what they think of Kanye West and at least six will respond with something close to "he's an idiot." 

Looking at things from an artistic standpoint, that's reasonable to disagree with. One of the hip-hop industry's most talented producers transformed into one of the best lyricists out there, demonstrating it from the get-go on his debut LP, The College Dropout. Don't agree, missing things a bit? Check out the long list of samples he's melded and shaped into several of his genre's best tracks.

Stepping away from music and more towards his public persona, it's easy to see why some people would characterize Kanye as an idiot. His antics in the past leave something to be desired. But as of late, it's a completely different story.

Joining Twitter and giving followers an unadulterated view inside his head was a fine start. Now, he's going beyond that, starting what he calls 'G.O.O.D. Fridays'. Named for his record label, G.O.O.D. (Getting Out Our Dreams) Music, Kanye promisies to release a new song, for free, every Friday until Christmas. Thus far, it's been a phenomenal success. So, what can sports marketers and bloggers learn from 'Ye?

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Following a borderline embarassing defeat at the hands of The Ohio State University, Miami Hurricane football players were banned from using Twitter by head coach Randy Shannon. The coach said it was a team decision aimed at reducing distracions.

Twitter use obviously wasn't the reason for the loss. Generally, things don't become a distraction unless you let them. With Twitter, you can reduce use all the way down to just a few short texts per day. However, without restraint many things can become distractions: alcohol, girls, deep-pocketed boosters. You get the idea.

Let's abandon the question of whether or not it's truly a distraction for this post. Many college students enjoy using social media and, more importantly, it stands as one of only a few ways for amateur athletes to build their personal brand. So, it's worth asking, will teams with harsh social media restrictions risk appearing less-appealing to athletes looking to market themselves during their time in school?

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Social media is hip. There's no way around it. Like watered down beer and ironic NBA jerseys, social media is in right now. As a result, everyone wants—er, has— to take a stab at it. Now, there's two different approaches from here: attempting to understand social media and harness the influence it brings or developing a random assortment of offerings guided more by buzzwords than actual strategy. I'm hoping the Golden State Warriors' idea to include bloggers, podcasters and others in their media day is more the former than the latter.

Details:

The forward-thinking franchise put out a call today for active social media participants -- bloggers, vloggers, microbloggers, podcasters, Facebook users, web writers, and online photo journalists -- to submit an application on the Warriors' website "for a chance to represent their fans, followers and readers at Media Day, which has traditionally been an event closed to the general public."

Consistent with the standards of its referenced namesake, the Tweedia Day application asks fans to state why they should be included in the Warriors 2010 Media Day in 140 characters or less, with no avail of Twitlonger. According to the release, selected social journalists will "attend Warriors Media Day on Monday, September 27, and take part in the festivities right alongside traditional media members, while covering the events on their new and social media platform(s) of choice."

Definitely a good idea. Now, how do they follow through?

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