I Follow: Michael Kim

Editor’s note: I Follow is all about ESPN employees on Twitter: what they tweet, whom they follow and how you can interact socially with anyone and everyone.

Twitter Handle: @MKimESPN
Following: 774
Followers: 8,073
*As of 1/23/13

Michael Kim anchors SportsCenter from 3-6 p.m. ET weekdays. Kim joined ESPNEWS, ESPN’s 24-hour sports news network, as an anchor prior to its Nov. 1, 1996, launch.

The Columbia, Mo. native and University of Missouri grad tells Front Row how he uses social media, his favorite people to follow and what he considers the biggest story of 2012.

How does Twitter enhances your role as an ESPN anchor?
The connections you get to make with the viewers help me to understand where their interests are and what stories we need to emphasize. Also, I’m hopeful that it helps them get to know me better and makes them want to watch the show. I pretty much use Twitter as a headline service. Everything seems to break on Twitter first these days. There have been more than a few times that I have been on the set scanning my timeline when something crosses and I’m able to give the control room a heads-up on something we might want to report.

Who are your favorite people to follow on Twitter?
I currently follow 774 people, primarily journalists. Then, there are a few others who I follow strictly for laughs — @JimmyKimmel, @EricStangel, @SportsPickle, @SklarBrothers, @NotBillWalton, @ConanOBrien and @TheDailyShow to name a few. Let me also say that one of my favorite ESPN people to follow is Robert Flores (@RoFloESPN). I don’t know if any other colleague has made me laugh out loud more than he has with his tweets.

What is the biggest story you worked on this past year?
The Joe Paterno story and the fallout from that scandal at Penn State was probably the biggest story overall, but the one that touched both my professional and personal life the most was probably Linsanity. I was — and remain — both amazed and impressed at the reach and impact of that story around the world. It resonated with so many people like no other story. Tebowmania was big in the U.S., and certainly had some play around the world. Let’s not forget he was born in the Philippines. But Linsanity was much bigger. Look, my mother was in Korea at the time and I’m not sure if she would recognize Michael Jordan if he walked into the same room with her. That’s how little she follows sports. Yet, she was calling or emailing me about Jeremy Lin. That’s when I knew it was big. My mother was into it and so was my 8-year-old son. That’s how broad the appeal of this story was. And as an Asian-American, it was cool to see another Asian-Amrerican succeed on a stage where few others had.