Manager of Customer Service and Social Media at Espn

Assignment 3: Manager of Customer Service and Social Media at ESPN

Jermaine L. Johnson, Sr.

Joseph Pionke

Leadership and Organizational Behavior

May 8, 2012

Today’s society lives and exists around technology. According to Internet World Stats (2011), 78.6% of Americans use the Internet. In a world where nearly all avenues to access information can be found on the web, people spend countless hours online. Communication can spread to millions of people in a matter of minutes, which allows everyone to remain informed about any and everything at all times. Social networking sites, including that of Facebook and Twitter for example, allow people to post headline news, entertainment, and anything that may interest both themselves and their peers in seconds; utilizing this type of technological advance can mean major exposure and financial gain for any company. Growing up and literally existing in the age of technology makes for easy adaptation to new forms of technology that constantly hits the market. Since social media is taking the world by storm and I have a Bachelors of Arts degree in Communications from the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina, it would be an amazing venture for me to fill the position as Manager of Customer Service and Social Media at ESPN. ESPN.com describes their company as “The Worldwide Leader in Sports that is the leading multinational, multimedia sports entertainment company featuring the broadest portfolio of multimedia sports assets with over 50 business entities” (2012). ESPN, founded by Bill Rasmussen, came from humble beginnings; it began its worldwide journey in Bristol, Connecticut and was launched on September 7, 1979. Now with over 6,500 employees, each year ESPN televises more than 5,100 live and/or original hours of sports programming; their mission is to serve sports fans anytime, anywhere. To fill the position of Manager of Customer Service and Social Media, it takes a broad understanding and awareness of the needs of the fans and the employees to execute specific duties. This involves clearly being able to determine what needs to be done and the best methods to use to get there by setting goals to motivate your performance as well as informing employees of those goals. It is also beneficial to have a high self-awareness by identifying how you deal with stress as the manager and, once discovered, developing steps of mastering how to manage stress in the workplace when it arises appropriately. Lastly, it is very important as a manager to understand that there will be times where the every customer and fan encountered will not speak the same language nor understand exactly what is being relayed to him or her, this calls for the ability to effectively address nonverbal and cultural barriers to communication.

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