Why Sign The Posts

I've been asked recently, why do you use your name prominently on blogs that you post the department website? Massive ego, of course. Well, that's what some may think, but it actually comes down to a pair of things that should be considered as a part of a social media strategy.

The first is transparency. The readers and fans want to know who you are -- it is a social medium, after all -- and they can relate more to you as a person rather than the blanket cover of generics like "sports information," "media relations office," etc.

The second is accountability. Putting in byline isn’t just to promote the writer. Anonymous work tends to have anonymous mistakes. For the fan base, it also validates our desire to use real names by them.

While we operate for the greater whole of @ArkRazorbacks or ArkansasRazorbacks.com, by clearly letting the fans know who is making a post or is on the keyboard reinforces our transparency -- something that we have not been doing lately and need to begin doing immediately. Old habits die hard, so I'm sure it will take a bit for us to all remember to use the caret tag.

For Twitter work, the accepted shorthand is a caret symbol then the writer’s initials: ^BS, for example, for Bill Smith. This also helps the fans understand when different voices operate the same feed, or when someone else besides the named individual posts. This is most important if the media contact for a team update a coaches’ named Twitter feed; same for assistant coaches on head coach feeds. The on-line community understands when there is no caret at the end that the person writing is the feed owner.