Based on a recent tweet by ESPN anchor Ric Bucher, the interwebs exploded with cries that “ESPN is doing it wrong” when it comes to their approach with Twitter. (BTW – thanks Chris for the positive shout out!) I had the same initial reaction to the news, and started to read all the various responses to it. After doing so, I’ve come to conclusion that ESPN is doing it wrong…maybe.

Let’s look at SportsCenter. It was almost a ritual for me to watch that every morning before school and every night before bed. The anchors developed their own unique persona with catch phrases, inside jokes, and various cat and mouse play with their co-anchors. It was what separated the show from its contemporaries – it had personality. SportsCenter is the Saturday Night Live of Broadcast Media. It produces unique talents that, once they graduate from the show, go on to pursue other career interests.

Which is why I say that ESPN is doing it wrong. Their distinction is their personality. The ability for their anchors to develop cult followings via social networking is completely in line to their marketing efforts (After all – do things like Mayne Street really have any “sports” or “journalism” merit?).

Yet, the corporate brand in me can’t help but agree with the fact that ESPN would want to constrain some of the conversation. Bucher’s tweet says, “prohibits tweeting info unless it serves ESPN.” That can be open for interpretation. After all, I tweet a lot daily – having conversations about anything and I am a firm believer that those conversations actually due serve my brand. Is ESPN putting the shut down on all tweets – or simply sending a friendly reminder to those employees on twitter that, at the end of the day – they represent ESPN and their actions should reflect that. It’s their responsibility to do that – to make sure that, at the end of the day – they are being protected. There is nothing wrong with that and most brands do that in some form or another.

So, I’m going to reserve judgment on everything until we see what this memo really says. If ESPN is truly shutting down their personality on Twitter, then yes – they are doing it wrong. If they are trying to control misinformation, rumors, and various things that could damage themselves as a brand – then they aren’t in the wrong, they are just developing a social media policy on the fly. Which, after all, we all are doing anyway…