In April, I wrote a response to Mark Cuban's "Does ESPN.com have a Twitter Problem". My premise was that Twitter is a huge, (relatively) under-utilized platform for ESPN to break news, engage with fans and share unique content. ESPN doesn't have the perfect solution yet -but Twitter is clearly an opportunity and not a threat. Here is a screenshot from ESPN's fantasy football app (which I used quite a bit this week - it's a big improvement over last year).
It is worth showing because it demonstrates the value Twitter can bring to ESPN properties ... and the fact that great integrations take work.
Twitter is perfect for ESPN's numerous analysts to break and deliver fantasy related news: injuries, predictions, chats, etc. And it happens at a speed and in a format that translates better here than in article format.
However, ESPN (and other content publishers) need think about more than delivering the tweets. As important as having users read is having users interact. Each of the ESPN personalities should be clickable and 'follow-able' directly in line. Readers should be able to reply, retweet, interact and promote ESPN (hash tags, @ replies, etc). Users reading this content are already paying attention - it's an opportunity to turn attention to engagement. And to turn one reader into a follower and so on.
