Company: National Hockey League (NHL)
Position: Director of Social Media Programs
Rebecca’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccafriedman/
NHL Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/nhl/
The National Hockey League is composed of 32 teams from the United States and Canada. The league has been around since 1917. Enter Rebeca Friedman. She has been with the league since 2022. Rebecca’s position with the league is the director of social media programs. She is responsible for interviewing athletes as well as preparing for upcoming events such as the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs. I was drawn to Rebecca because I hope to one day work in the hockey industry on the communications side and maybe even gain some experience on the social media side as well. Furthermore, I was inspired by her because she is a part of a small percentage of women that have the privilege of working in the sports industry, specifically hockey. There are more women that are gaining important roles in the league whether that be on the bench as part of the coaching staff, working in the social media department or even being a part of the communications and marketing team. I also choose her because she is setting a great example for young women who have just graduated college and are looking to work in the hockey industry.
Rebecca prioritizes keeping certain information confidential about each athlete that she interviews. She is also able to handle the athletes’ private information in a mature manner by having each athlete’s information in a separate highlight on the NHL Instagram page. In addition, she ensures that no one should access athletes’ personal information except her. Furthermore, Rebecca excels at her role because she is able to conceal that private information from being posted on social media. This can be seen in academic research as well. From an academic article written by Pulido et al, “creating boundaries prevents the risk of exposing private information” (2017, p. 438). This means that Rebecca has the ability to understand that certain athletes’ information needs to be kept private and off of social media. Furthermore, Rebecca’s job is to post about the player’s accomplishments. An example of this is when she posted about Yanni Gourde who plays for the Seattle Kraken who scored the overtime goal in game 1 of the second round of the playoffs versus the Dallas Stars.
In conclusion, from Rebecca I have learned that it is important to keep athletes’ information confidential and all in one place. I have also learned the importance of being able to organize the information by sport, league and player. In addition, I have picked up her perseverance especially as a woman in a predominantly male field. I hope to be able to follow in her footsteps and be able to work in the communications field where I can also interact with players and coaches from the different sports leagues. Furthermore, I hope to take what I have learned from her and apply it to my current job and my future job as well. Rebecca will continue to work for the NHL where she will continue to interview athletes as well as prepare for upcoming events. She also will continue to keep the players’ information private until they are ready, if they ever are, to have it released to the rest of the world on social media.
Citation:
Pulido, A. J., Yang, K. C. C., & Kang, Y. (2017). Collegiate student-athletes’ privacy management strategies and their impact on Twitter usage behaviors. The Journal of Social Media in Society. Retrieved February 20, 2023, from https://thejsms.org/index.php/JSMS/article/view/285
