Social Media Breakdown- Ken Rosenthal

T: @Ken_Rosenthal

FB: kenrosenthalsports

Ken Rosenthal got his first full-time position in sports journalism as a reporter with the Baltimore Sun in Maryland. Since then, Rosenthal expanded his journalism career to include television and is now a leading on-field MLB reporter with Fox Sports and is also an MLB Network Insider.

Today, Rosenthal is one of the leading names in baseball reporting. He did not shy away from the social media epidemic and understands how important it can be in his work. He joined Twitter in 2009 and today has a followership of nearly 900,000 people. He tweets constantly throughout the day, updating his fans on MLB trade rumors, breaking news and posting his own written work and clips of his on-field work.

He is also active on Facebook, though with less of a following. He has nearly 100,000 likes and uses his Facebook for similar reasons to his Twitter, with much less frequent posts. Both accounts are well organized, sport a professional headshot and are very well maintained. Many sportswriters only use social media to promote their own stories but Rosenthal is extremely active, interacting with fans by answering their questions and creating original content specifically for the tweet as opposed to writing a story and only using the tweet as a vessel for its impact.

Recently, Rosenthal’s social media has become more important to him than ever. While he does much work in TV, his heart lies in the written word. Fox Sports recently made the switch on their website from diverse content to video only, and so Rosenthal has no public arena in which to write. However, with a following so large and loyal as his own, he has taken to writing stories of his own accord and posting them to his Facebook account as well as tweeting links. Even without a publication, his first personal piece has seen nearly 1000 reactions and over 150 shares on Facebook as well as 180 retweets and 500 likes on Twitter.

In no other age could a journalist lose his professional platform and still produce content that is so heavily circulated. It was Rosenthal’s diligence to his social media and willingness to adapt that has allowed him to stay so heavily connected with is fans.

*Headshot taken from @Ken_Rosenthal twitter account