(appearing in the May 9 issue of the Ponte Vedra Recorder)
The PGA Tour has embraced an emerging online social media outlet to enrich its already unprecedented fan experience for this year’s Players Championship.
Several times each day for the past week and throughout the tournament, Lauren Beyer has published unique and fascinating updates about tournament preparations and interesting tournament facts though Twitter, a new free social messaging utility allowing registered users to stay connected in real-time.
“I post these updates every day and it allows people from different places to follow along with what goes on leading up to the tournament and throughout the tournament,” said Beyer, the Tour’s coordinator of social media and fan outreach, who joined the Tour only four weeks ago.
“It won’t be just what the scores are but will also be about the fan experience and what things are like out on the course —all online and from my phone,” she added.
Through Twitter, registered users can post short one- or two-sentence updates about what they’re doing throughout the day and can “follow” the status of others as they post updates themselves. Each registered user has their own page that keeps a running list of their friend’s updates.
One of the brilliant features of Twitter is that users can post updates from their cell phones via text message or through their computers.
Using the tag 2008PLAYERS, Beyer added a completely new dimension to the tournament fan experience through her updates, which were often accompanied by photos taken from her cell phone, showing different aspects of tournament preparation.
On Monday, Beyer twittered from the St. Augustine Airport, providing updates and pictures of golfers and their respective entourages disembarking from their planes, allowing those fans that follow her twitter profile a chance to view behind-the-scenes action online and in near-real time.
“It’s still an experiment though, because we’ve never done this type of fan outreach,” said Beyer. “We’re always trying to push the fan experience to new platforms and to reach different fans. I’ve only been here for four weeks so it’s just as much of a working experiment for me.”
Throughout the afternoon, Beyer tagged along with tournament volunteers tasked with transporting the golfers who were arriving by plane, and was often found on her cell phone, sending “tweets” to her twitter profile, along with accompanying photos taken from her cell phone as well.
Despite the strict no-cell-phone policy enforced by tournament officials, Beyer will continue to post tweets online as 2008PLAYERS during the tournament, either from her computer or discreetly from her cell phone where it won’t interfere with play.
To view Beyer’s updates, visit www.twitter.com/2008PLAYERS. If you’d like to follow Beyer’s tweets, register for free.
