Buffalo's Top "Tweeter"

Expert of all things Sabres, Craig Kanalley, a Buffalo native and graduate of John Fisher College is today's Social Media Manager for the Buffalo’s hometown hockey team visited University at Buffalo's English 399 class to discuss and share his experience of his field of work. His main focus in graduate school was social media and not once did he believe he would land his dream job. From the Hudson plane crash to Barack Obama’s inauguration back in 2009, as a the “baby” of social media, back then Twitter began to make a name for itself in the world of journalism with its quick 140 character messages.  Quickly climbing the social media platform from building his own blog, Breaking Tweets, Kanalley, brought together tweets that informed the public with the latest news.

​Like most bloggers, Kanalley, started his blog for his own entertainment to practice his writing. At first, he posted three times a day and once he grew more popularity he soon was posting more frequently, from seven to eight posts per day. Soon enough friends of Kanalley began to help him once his blog’s traffic grew within in the journalism community. In June of 2009, during the Iran election protests, Breaking Tweets, traffic skyrocketed when his sources from Iran provided him direct information that various news platforms could not receive due to its ban within the country. As one of the first as Kanalley stated, “media outlets” to break direct the news from Iran certainly  helped his personal blog gain immense recognition from bigger news media.

​Eventually, his everyday fun soon enough became a job offer with The Huffington Post, as a traffic and trends editor for three years. Today, Kanalley works as the Buffalo Sabres Social Media Manager, applying first as a joke, Kanalley states that working for Buffalo's home hockey team is a dream and that he never thought he would have been offered such a position.  “You always have to be ready for change,” stated Kanalley, when presented with a new job at The Huffington Post, having to start at the bottom was tough. When asked what were somethings he wished he could change about current journalism practices he quickly shook his head seeming eager to answer.  The blurring between the news explained by Kanalley was an aspect of today’s news that bothers him.  As a “traditional journalism believer,”  he has been able to realize as stated,  "the blurring between public relations, marketing and journalism."  He further explained how there is a bigger push in today's media for entertainment, such as celebrities constantly promoting themselves. This mixing of entertainment and actual currents events have become a competition to gain recognition on news platforms. Having this media mix is not allowing the news to make a division in the world of journalism and entertainment , which in turn are allowing these unimportant reports to become news stories.

Although, the fear of his social media job may disappear, Kanalley is always looking forward to what can possibly be next for him. For now, he continues to be the Sabres biggest fan tweeting updates for his Buffalo's community and for all hockey team lovers.  

(Image Source: Twitter)