Packers Twitter account annoys 21,888 people in 140 characters or less

Posted by Tim Cigelske on August 16, 2010   Jump To Comments

#urdoingitwrong

I’ve always defended Twitter from critics who think all it’s good for is banal 140-character thought deposits. The mere fact that more people follow the New York Times on Twitter than subscribe to the physical paper has always provided enough illustration for me that Twitter has real uses.

Then the Packers have to go and make Twitter look pretty stupid.

For whatever reason, the social media brains in the Packers organization decided pre-season live game updates on Twitter would be a good idea. On Saturday, the official Packers Twitter account sent 29 game updates, starting with a riveting description of the coin toss and ending with the post-game wrap-up.

By the numbers, 29 updates in a few hours is substantial, but shouldn’t completely overwhelm Twitter feeds. Yet in context, the continuous updates were  puzzling.

For instance, I’ve seen other official team accounts post occasional live game updates —  if it’s a big game. But this was preseason. Other teams who post live updates will also have emotion behind it, not robotic, sterile play by play.

Sports fans who follow Twitter updates during a game know that 140-character real-time updates can enhance the experience, with intermingled insights from sportscasters, fans and people you’ve never met if you follow hashtags like #GoPackGo. Or one person can detract from the experience like that one idiot fan that shouts over everyone else.

Fox 6 reporter Jen Lada put it best in one of her own tweets: “Let’s get this out there right now: really don’t need EVERYONE doing p-b-p. But all commentary/critiques on action welcome!”

The good news is this is just the pre-season. Now’s the time to make mistakes and get the kinks out, even on Twitter.

You can follow Tim’s banal 140-character tweets @TeecycleTim