mercredi 4 janvier 2017

[Entretien] Look Who's Tweeting : Simon Chadwick (@Prof_Chadwick)


Suite des entretiens consacrés à l'usage de Twitter par les universitaires. Après Ann Pegoraro et Rodney Fort, c'est Simon Chadwick qui répond à mes questions. Simon est en poste à l'Université de Salford (Manchester). Il est bien connu pour ses nombreux travaux sur le marketing du sport. Voyez ici sa biographie. Il anime également le site The Scorecard. Simon a été précurseur sur Twitter puisqu'il s'y est lancé dès février 2009.

Here is a new interview dedicated to Twitter use by academics. Ann Pegoraro and Rodney Fort already answered my questions. Now, it is the turn of Simon Chadwick. He's Professor of Sports Enterprise at University of Salford Manchester. Simon is well known to be an International Sports Marketing specialist (his biography) and for editing the academic website The Scorecard. He's a forerunner on Twitter.
Simon, you have been on twitter since February 2009. Do you remember how it started? What was your goal at that time? 

I take a huge interest in contemporary culture and am always very keen to know about latest trends and developments. In 2008, I was driving in my car and heard an interview on the radio with someone who was talking about Twitter. I thought I had better take a look to see what the fuss was about. Once I started using it , I was unsure what to say or how to say it, hence my early messages were a combination of views on sport, music, books and so forth. From these attempts to use Twitter emerged a more strategic and focused approach, which now is much more about branding, positioning, role and responsibility.

You have generated more than 24 700 tweets and you’re followed by 11 700 followers. That’s pretty impressive. Do you know who are your followers? 

It’s a broad group – academics, students, journalists, practitioners, fans…and some trolls. I have not actively sought to target particular people, nor to push people to follow me. Instead, I tweet specific messages about particular subjects: generally about the business and management of sport, but often related to football and recently with an emphasis on China. That’s my proposition; I think some people find my tweets interesting and relevant, many others don’t. But I am not going to change my approach simply to generate more followers. I hope though that I provide my current followers with a good service, especially as I am grateful to them for following.


What kind of user are you? I mean, what do your prefer? Sharing content ? Interacting? Getting information? Retweeting …

I am a mixed methods user. I variously use Twitter to inform, to raise awareness, and to commentate. At other times, I use it like one would a note pad i.e. I am thinking out loud, highlighting things I feel I need to think about. I also use it as an electronic library in the way that I tweet and re-tweet because I want to refer back to a post at a later date. I tend not to use the likes function so much because I feel that, if I find something interesting then some others are likely too as well. Hence, I tend to share by tweeting and re-tweeting rather than favouriting.

Did Twitter help you to enlarge your network in the academic field? You’re pretty famous for your Marketing Studies, so would you say that twitter can help to be better known on a global scale? 

I don’t tweet about my personal life – what I am eating, who I am with, where I go on holiday. My Twitter use is for professional reasons only. It is part of my personal brand and has enabled me to assert the characteristics, qualities and features of this brand, while at the same time building profile and presence in multiple markets and among multiple stakeholders. For me, Twitter is about my work and not about me as a person. I have used it in the same way as any brand or company would. If anyone wants to know more about me as a person, they can get in touch. Perhaps we can drink coffee together and talk about who I am and what I am like outside work?



After almost 8 years on Twitter, would you say it has radically changed the way you work? 

In one sense, yes, because it’s the first thing I do each day. I am able to connect and communicate with larger numbers of people than I previously could, and to stay more in tune with the world than previously. However, in some ways Twitter has changed very little for me. I am a very open-minded, inquisitive person who likes to engage with the world and to know what is happening. I guess what Twitter has enabled me to do is to work broader, deeper and faster than I could before.

You follow 408 accounts. Which ones do you prefer? Which ones could you recommend? 

I minimize the number of accounts that I follow simply because I don’t want to be overwhelmed by information. There are some accounts that I have always followed because they are people or organisations that consistently add value to my understanding of the world. Some of the other accounts I follow, I do so for relatively short periods (e.g. a year), because they are important at a particular point in time. I also try to follow accounts across the world because I am very keen to know how different people see that same phenomena. For instance, the view of China in Europe is very different to the view of China in Asia. Twitter helps me to get more than just one side of a story.

Finally, are you involved on other social media with an academic purpose?

Yes, I have been active for many years on Chinese social media. To begin with, Tencent Weibo, then Sina Weibo and now We Chat. Most countries have their own social media platforms, and it is sometimes difficult to know which platforms to use. The likes of Twitter and Facebook may seem like obvious platforms to use, but non-American and European users are often using local services. I have chosen to use Chinese social media principally because I am interested in what is happening in right now in Chinese sport.

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