Twitter Engagement: Grading Sports Reporters & Personalities in Utah

As newspaper readership nationwide continues to falter, news outlets have embraced the social media they once eschewed.

In the state of Utah, like others, sports media have jumped headfirst into social networking, promoting the opportunity for sports fans in the state to follow and interact with their favorite reporters or sports media personalities.

Fans are encouraged to follow accounts for the latest updates. Twitter in particular has been a hot spot for sports media outlets, with nearly every sports reporter or personality in the state choosing to create an individual account.

For the average fan, Twitter offers the ability to get the latest news about the teams they follow. For fans who actively use Twitter, it provides an opportunity to engage in dialogue with the reporters they follow.

However, too many news outlets in Utah have viewed Twitter as a one-way communication stream, as just another medium that allows them to push their news and opinions.

In 2009, Pear Analytics conducted a study to better understand the types of tweets people were posting to Twitter to better understand how the social network was being used. They separated the analyzed tweets into six categories which broke down as follows:

Pointless babble – 40%
Conversational – 38%
Pass-along value (re-tweets) – 6%
Spam – 4%
News – 4%

The sports media personalities roughly follow this same profile with a significant amount of pointless babble and spam (not directed at anyone in particular). Conversationalists among the Utah sports media are few and far between.

How are your favorite sports reporters and personalities in the state of Utah doing when it comes to using Twitter as an engagement platform?

If you @ reply a journalist at the Deseret News or the Salt Lake Tribune, do they reply back? If you query one of your favorite sports broadcasters at KSL, ESPN 700, 1320 KFAN or 1280 The Zone, can you expect to hear back?

The following slides analyze and grade each major Utah sports media outlet.

The winners: ESPN 700 and KSL.

The losers: The Salt Lake Tribune and The Daily Herald.

Top 7 Reporters/Personalities to Follow & Engage:

• Michael C. Lewis (@RSLTribune)
• Jody Genessy (@DJJazzyJody)
• Jake Hatch (@jakehatchksl)
• Greg Wrubell (@gregwrubell) 
• Jason Shepherd (@espn700shep)
• Spencer Checketts(@espn700spence)
• Kevin Ferguson (@kfanferg)

What has your experience been with sports reporters in Utah? Comment here or reply on Twitter at @YCougars.

Salt Lake Tribune

Fan Engagement Grade: D+

Analysis:

Jay Drew (@DrewJay) – While Jay Drew is very active on Twitter, hundreds of posts during the past month covering BYU sports, only 10 were @ replies. However, 10 responses to followers during one month is decent relative to the other sports reporters and sports media personalities in Utah.

Brian T. Smith (@tribjazz) – Smith is arguably the most annoying tweeter among those reviewed.  His posts, more than anyone else on staff at the Tribune, are most likely to remind you of spam. Smith will regularly push 30-40 tweets a day on off-days for the Jazz, but on game day you can expect to see upwards of 100+ tweets.

April 3, for example, he tweeted 97 times. Smith live-tweets during the games and the post-game remarks filling up your Twitter stream in the process.

Despite more than 1000 tweets during the past month, you can count on one hand the number of times Smith has replied to a fan on Twitter. Only follow Smith if you have an immediate need for Jazz updates and don’t have access to a radio or TV.

Kurt Kragthorpe (@tribkurt) – Kragthorpe, like Drew, has posted hundreds of tweets during the past month, but only 4 of those tweets were responses to someone other than a fellow journalist.

Once again, for fans looking for an interactive experience with their local sports reporters, Kragthorpe is not likely to be the person for you to follow.

Lya Wodraska (@LyaWodraska) – Wodraska too has tweeted hundreds of times during the past month, but only one response to a fan who asked about a Ute gymnast’s score.

Despite all the chatter on Twitter among the Ute fan base, Wodraska has kept aloof from these conversations choosing instead to push a one-way stream of information for fan consumption.

Michael C. Lewis (@RSLTribune) – Like the rest of the Tribune team, Lewis has also put out a couple of hundred tweets during the past month.

However, unlike the others, Lewis does engage with his Twitter followers almost every day, some days responding to 10+ tweets as he interacts with various RSL fans. Lewis is easily the most engaged reporter on the Tribune staff.

Steve Luhm (@sluhm) – Luhm’s tweet stream could easily be mistaken for Smith’s stream with a huge volume of tweets (thousands?) in the past month. And like Smith, Luhm has chosen to push information using Twitter rather than engaging with fans.

Luhm’s few replies were reserved for his fellow sports writers.  Luhm could take lessons from Lewis on the appropriate way to use Twitter for engaging with his audience.

Tony Jones (@tonyaggieville) – Jones has tweeted more than 4,100 times since he joined Twitter. He does interact with fans of both Utah State and the Utah Jazz, though he pushes out far more original tweets than he responds to.

Deseret News

Fan Engagement Grade:  C

Analysis:

Jody Genessy (@DJJazzyJody) – While Genessy pushes out hundreds of tweets per month, he has a balanced stream of both proactive and reactive tweets, as he regularly interacts with Jazz fans, answering their questions, and responding to their opinions. His responsiveness makes him someone I would recommend Jazz fans to follow.

Jeff Call (@AJeffreyCall) – Call tweets far less than some of his colleagues and regularly goes several days or even weeks without posting at all. And while he covers a team in BYU that has a rabid Twitter fan base, he has not replied to any of them on Twitter since January.

If you’re looking to interact on Twitter with a sports reporter covering BYU, Call is not your man.

Dirk Facer (@dirkfacer) – Facer, the Utes beat writer, joined Twitter relatively recently. He posted for the first time on Jan. 22 of this year and doesn’t have a very active Twitter presence. He has posted just more than 50 times since joining including only one @ reply.

Dick Harmon (@harmonwrites) – Harmon has tweeted a couple of hundred times during the past month and deserves credit for occasionally responding to fan tweets, though without regularity.

He has covered sports in the state of Utah for decades and so has a large follower base that regularly expects to find insights and breaking news (particularly around BYU sports).

However, fans looking to interact with their local BYU reporter should consider looking elsewhere, since Harmon doesn’t respond to fans as they would want him to.

Brad Rock (@therockmonster) – Brad Rock’s use of Twitter mirrors Harmon’s. He tweets daily and occasionally interacts with the fan base, though by far the majority of his tweets are original, pushed tweets and he responds with greater frequency to the other local sports writers than the Utah sports fan base.

The Daily Herald

Fan Engagement Grade:  D-

Analysis:

Darnell Dickson (@darnelldickson) – While Dickson is very active in posting to Twitter, he rarely responds to fans on Twitter: only 4 @ replies during the past month. Most, if not all, of his tweets are posted at the same time by the @BYUCougarblue feed that the Daily Herald maintains.

Jared Lloyd (@jaredrlloyd) – Lloyd has been very active on Twitter in the past (more than 1000 posts), but he has only posted four times since March 10.

When he did actively tweet, he did occasionally reply to the BYU community on Twitter, but most of his tweets were simply retweeting the tweets coming from @BYUCougarBlue.

KSL

Fan Engagement Grade:  B+

Analysis:

Greg Wrubell (@gregwrubell) – Wrubell is extremely active on Twitter, having posted nearly 4500 times. However, while Wrubell’s volume may be concerning for some, part of his tweet stream includes regular interaction with both BYU fans and the few sports writers in Utah who use Twitter as a two-way communication stream.

It seems to pay off for Wrubell, who has nearly 4,700 followers and a Twitter Klout Score of 64. Wrubell could do a better job of following back the active BYU community on Twitter.

He currently follows only 82 people, most of which are local and national journalists and a few prominent bloggers. But, for someone who is interested in in-depth BYU coverage and willing to be patient on getting replies, Wrubell is among your best bets among Utah sports journalists.

Jeremiah Jensen (@JJsportsbeat) – Jensen is one of KSL’s most actively engaged reporters on Twitter, maintaining a balance of original tweets, replies to fans and re-tweets. While he posts dozens of times daily, many of those posts are responses to follower questions and inquiries.

Andrew Adams (@AndrewAdamsKSL) – Adams pushes out a steady stream of tweets each day, probably pushing out a couple of hundred tweets monthly. However, many of his tweets are not sports related as he pushes posts that include breaking news about random happenings across the state of Utah.

Adams is very engaged with his audience on Twitter, regularly retweeting his followers and responding to their posts.

Jake Hatch (@jakehatchksl) – Hatch is the most consistently engaged reporter on Twitter from the KSL sports staff in terms of interaction with sports fans. Hatch understands how to use Twitter, perhaps as much as any other reporter in the state.

His ratio of proactively pushed tweets vs. responding to others on Twitter is very balanced. Ironically his follower count is not as high as you might expect given his interactive nature–likely attributed to not yet having the ‘big name’ that some of the other reporters have.

Tom Kirkland (@TKSportsbeat) – Unlike most of the KSL sports reporters on Twitter, Kirkland pushes his content far more than he reacts to his followers' content and questions, responding only a few times to followers online during the past month.

ESPN 700

Fan Engagement Grade:  A-

Analysis:

Jason Shepherd (@espn700shep) – Shepherd, like most of the other sports writers in Utah, tweets dozens of times each day. However, unlike many of them, Shepherd is actively engaged with his followers.

He monitors his @mentions religiously and quickly replies to his followers, answering questions and providing insights. Shepherd could make an effort to follow those of his followers that he does actively engage with. He currently only follows 64 people and most of them are local and national reporters.

Spencer Checketts(@espn700spence) – Checketts, like Shepherd, is very active on Twitter not only posting original tweets, but regularly replying and even retweeting his followers. Checketts has also done decent job trying to follow back his engaged followers. He currently follows 255 people on Twitter.

Bill Riley (@espn700bill) – Riley’s involvement completes the trifecta of involvement by the ESPN 700 crew. Riley tweets a lot (3100+ times total) but retweets many of this followers and responds when they opine or ask his input. 

1320 KFAN

Fan Engagement Grade:  B+

Analysis:

Patrick Kinahan (@djpkkfan) – Kinahan posts a significant number of tweets: 6,200 total. He boasts 3250+ followers, but like so many other sports personalities, chooses not to follow back his more engaged followers.

He follows only 17 people total and only one in 10 or 20 posts is a response to a follower. While the account is seemingly tied to the morning show of DJ & PK, the posts come from only PK. DJ (David James) finally started his own account recently.

David James (@daviddjjames) – James recently started this account, likely in an effort to separate his work on KFAN with his work for Channel 2 and his Talkin’ Sports program.

This has allowed the TV station to publicize a way to get in touch with James, specifically without the KFAN endorsement. The account has quickly picked up a following, nearly 1200 followers to date.

James is posting at a pace similar to other sports personalities in the state, several hundred per month.

However, James has not made a point to engage with his followers by either following them back or interacting with them by responding to their tweets to him. For Twitter users looking to interact with a sports personality, James is probably not your guy.

Scott Garrard (@scottygkfan) – While Garrard does respond to more posts from his followers than James, he still pushes far more original posts than he responds to.

David Locke (@lockedonsports) – Locke seems to have posted more to Twitter than any other sports media personality in Utah: more than 8,300 as of this writing. Like Smith from the Tribune, his tweet stream can often overwhelm your account and make you think you’ve subscribed to spam.

However, to Locke’s credit, he follows back loads of his followers, more than 600. Ironically, he doesn’t respond to his followers with any regularity...at least online. Locke and other broadcast reporters do occasionally refer to their followers’ replies on their radio programs.

Alema Harrington (@alemaharrington) – Harrington tweets very sporadically – only 48 total tweets since he started in January.  

He does not respond to his followers online when they ask him questions as evidenced by the fact that he has only two @ replies in his Twitter stream, and one of those was to a professional athlete.

Harrington is not a recommended sports personality to follow if you’re looking for an engaged conversation.

Ben Bagley (@benbags) – Compared to so many other sports media personalities in Utah, Bagley does a fair job with his Twitter account.

He loads up your tweet stream with hundreds of tweets each week (now more than 7300 total), but he does respond occasionally to follower questions and tweets. He also follows back nearly 390 of his followers showing an effort to stay engaged with his audience.

Kevin Ferguson (@kfanferg) – Ferguson is easily the most interactive of the KFAN team. Like the ESPN 700 crew and a few folks from KSL, he is actively involved in the conversations of his followers. He maintains close to a 50-50 split in terms of the number of proactive or original tweets versus @ replies and retweets. 

The Zone 1280/104.7

Fan Engagement Grade:  C+

Analysis:

Jake Scott & Gordon Monson (@MonsonJake1047) – The Zone team has created Twitter accounts for each of their daily shows rather than for the individual personalities. This particular account does a fair job of responding to its followers compared to other sports media Twitter accounts in the state of Utah.

Kyle Gunther & Jan Jorgensen (@JanandGunther) – This duo does a significant amount of retweeting of other content, perhaps more than any other sports media account in Utah reviewed.

Like the other sports radio programs in the state, they have significantly increased the amount of content they share – 2600+  tweets total. Like other broadcast programs, they also do occasionally refer to their followers' tweetbacks.

Hans Olsen & OC (@HansandOC) - The other program on The Zone, Hans and OC, acts very similar to the other two. They produce a significant amount of content and do re-tweet posts, but rarely interact with their followers. Most @ replies are to other sports reporters or news outlets. None of these accounts from The Zone interact enough with their followers to warrant following them in hopes of an interactive online dialogue.