Hey Vols fans, join our group text with football beat writer Blake Toppmeyer
Update: After a free pilot program, the group text with Blake Toppmeyer is now exclusively for Knox News subscribers. Read on for more information or click here to sign up.
I am a Miami Marlins fan. Have been since they joined the MLB in 1993. (Why, you ask? Teal is a cool uniform color. I thought that then. I think it now.)
I rarely missed an ask-the-reporter column on the Marlins’ MLB.com site. I enjoyed reading how a beat writer answered fans’ questions with insight, analysis and opinion. Sometimes, I submitted a question, and I’d get excited if it got selected for the column. As a sports fan who wanted to become a sports reporter, it brought my interests together.
Many fans enjoy interacting with the beat writer covering his or her favorite team. That’s why we’re offering a text-messaging service for subscribers where I will communicate directly with Tennessee football fans.
I’ll share insight and analysis from my daily reporting on the Vols, but I want to take the conversation deeper. You don’t need news updates you can find by reading my stories at govolsxtra.com or by following me on Twitter at @btoppmeyer. Rather, I envision this becoming a community for Vols fans — not unlike the group chats you have going with college friends, slow-pitch softball teammates or family members.
How will this differ from Twitter?
Perhaps you already follow me on Twitter and you’re wondering how this will be different. For one, you don’t need an app and won’t have to wade through tweets of whoever else you’re following to get your Vols fix. You’ll get it directly to your phone as a text. Two, it will have a more personal touch. It’s the same reason you text with your buddies or family members rather than tweet them.
And I don’t plan for this to parrot my Twitter feed. I don’t want to just promote my stories or give you news blurbs. You already know where to find that.
I plan to bring you something different. That includes nuggets and thoughts on the Vols or SEC football that I wouldn’t tweet or write a story about but think you might find interesting. I also want us to interact. Want my opinion on something? You can text me. Have a question you think I should ask Jeremy Pruitt at his next news conference? Let me know.
I plan to pull back the curtain on covering an SEC beat a bit, too. I’ll show you how the press box setup at Alabama compares to Florida, and we can discuss the best spots to dine while I’m on the road. I’ll let you in on fun stories I’m writing before they publish.
I realize no one likes group texts that cause your phone to ding over and over. I’m not going to constantly bombard you. Expect to receive a few texts from me per day.
What’s the catch?
No catch, but this is an exclusive service for our subscribers and you'll have to be a subscriber to sign up.
Will other people see my number?
No. When you respond to the group text, it just goes to me. So your phone isn’t going to ding every time someone in the group responds to me. And your text won’t go to the masses, just me.
I might respond to you individually, or I may quote part of your message back to the group and respond, if I think it’s something everyone would be interested in. But that will come from my number, not yours.
Nobody else in the group will ever see your contact information.
What are you going to do with my number?
Sell it to the Russians, of course.
Just kidding.
Junk texts and phone calls are awful, and it’s bad business to trick people into giving you their phone number so you can sell it to bots. We’ll never give or sell your number to a third party. We won't abuse it internally.
When you opt in, you’ll receive a few texts from us per day. You can opt out any time.
If you're a subscriber and you want to opt into the group chat, click below, enter your number, confirm it on your phone, and we're connected. Let’s continue our conversation about college football and the Vols.
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Blake Toppmeyer covers University of Tennessee football. Email him at blake.toppmeyer@knoxnews.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer. If you enjoy Blake’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee football: UT Vols group text with Blake Toppmeyer
