Tiger Flubs On Facebook

Tiger Woods/Facebook

Looking at Tiger Woods' Facebook page, you would hardly know anything of interest had transpired lately in the life of the world's top golfer and one-man sports brand. The last update on the page is dated Nov. 6, when Woods posted a behind-the-scenes video about shooting a public service announcement for his foundation.

Fan posting on his Wall has been shut off as well, so there are no messages either of scorn or support in connection with the scandal that broke late last month over his multiple affairs and has since forced him to take an indefinite break from golf. It has also cost him a lucrative sponsorship deal with Accenture and led other marketers like Tag Heuer and Gillette to scale back using Woods in ads.

His Facebook page does not even contain a link to the Dec. 11 statement on his Web site announcing his hiatus from golf, acknowledging his "infidelity" for the first time and issuing a broad apology to fans and others. Woods also has a Twitter account, but the last tweet dates back to June 26, announcing the launch of his Web site. (That has not stopped him from becoming a trending topic on the microblogging service.)

Woods has already come under widespread criticism for failing to follow the Letterman playbook of coming clean quickly and openly about his extramarital affairs to help put the scandal behind him that much faster and quell the media feeding frenzy. Social media experts believe Woods has also missed an opportunity online to help manage the crisis.

"When a Facebook user 'fans' a page, that brand or personality has the ability to communicate directly with users," said Mike Lazerow, CEO of Buddy Media, which manages brands' presence on Facebook, Twitter and other social properties. "In Tiger's case, that means that he has the ability to communicate directly with fans without the filter, editing or slant of the current media outlets that are fueling this story."

He suggests that Woods, for instance, could have released a video statement about the controversy on his Facebook page directly addressing his 1.3 million fans on the site, and then posted relevant updates on a regular basis. He also noted that each fan typically has about 120 Facebook friends. "So that's a nice distribution channel he owns to get his message out," he said.

Shiv Singh, vice president and global social media lead at Razorfish, agreed. "First and foremost, I would recommend that messages he's posting on his site also be posted to his Facebook page," he said. Better yet, he could release a formal statement on his site geared to the media and post a more personal message for fans on Facebook.

Singh also suggested that Woods allow fans to post comments on the page, even if that invites unwelcome feedback, to maintain a two-way connection with them. And even if Woods is taking an extended break from golf and public life, he could explain to fans that he won't be posting on the page for an indefinite period.

"The worse thing you can do is to ignore that community just when they're feeling betrayed," said Singh, himself a disappointed Woods fan.

The sports icon's Facebook following doesn't match that of top celebrities like Michael Jackson, with 10.4 million fans, or Vin Diesel and Barack Obama, who each boast about 7 million. But anything above a million is certainly respectable, and Woods' total of 1.32 million fans is actually up slightly from 1.28 million at the start of December, according to Inside Facebook.

What about removing any Facebook material in the aftermath of the scandal? Woods' fan page, for example, features a group of family pictures posted back in June -- around the time his son was born -- portraying him as a dedicated family man. "That's a tricky one -- you don't want to be slammed for taking stuff down," said Singh. "I would just ignore that and let it stay there."

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