SOCIAL media - it's a phenomenon that's sweeping the world, and like all professional sports, the AFL is caught in the midst of it.

Facebook and Twitter are the darlings of the social media network, embraced by hundreds of millions of people around the world. Current best estimates put the numbers at about 350 million on Facebook and 100 million on Twitter.

Some clubs don't seem to care too much about social media - yet - but some clever clubs are already working furiously to make it happen for them, grabbing market share in the new-media space.

Will you let your club cuddle up to you? Embrace you? Befriend you? It's what they want to do.

It seems like a paradox, given the numbers above, but the main attraction for footy clubs with Facebook and Twitter is that they can personalise their communications with the fans.

Melbourne CEO Cameron Schwab is a prolific twitterer (@CamSchwab) about his Dees, and says the reaction from fans has been terrific.

"I think it personalises the communication - it's more direct, it's more accessible," he told afl.com.au.

"You can bring out the personalities of the people doing the communicating, as well as articulate the message.

"Of course, you've got to try and do that in 140 letters, which is a bit challenging.

"With Twitter you can be quite opportunistic; it's like SMS-ing the world.

"Being able to attach photos is great - we had our draft induction, and I took a quick photo of the boys and sent it out, and people like that."

North Melbourne is another club that is trying to leverage the social media revolution for all it's worth, going at it flat-out through the 2009 season.

Media and communications manager Heath O'Loughlin says it will take a while before people realise just how much information is being put out by the club.

"It's something that over time is going to benefit us," he said.

"Initially it's going to take a little while for people to get their head around just how much access there is to our club.

"We think we'll be able to generate more supporters, because current supporters and members will be telling other people: 'North Melbourne, this is what they do for us - they open up the club, we find out the news as it happens and we don't have to wait for the six o'clock news or the paper the next day, we can find out automatically from the club'."

The AFL was unable to provide a comment for this story because it has a working group in progress that is looking at the impact of social media on its organisation as a whole, and which is expected to report early in 2010.

In the US, so often the trailblazer for this sort of matter, plenty of issues have arisen.

The NBA issued an edict banning players from tweeting from the bench during games, and all three major codes now have strict policies in place regarding communications blackouts before and after games, in part to protect the rights of their broadcast partners.

Bizarrely, leading sports broadcaster ESPN has released a strict new policy for its on-air talent and writers, locking down the content they are allowed to produce on "private" social media feeds, preventing them from producing "sports" content on them.

Even more strangely, the NFL has attempted to stop fans from twittering play-by-play updates from games. They haven't said how they can possibly hope to do this, however.

It's about retaining and restricting the flow of information, but it is likely to be a losing battle, because the goalposts have moved - the old paradigm of news coverage has changed, and the genie won't go back into the bottle.

Early in December, Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver (think key forward) Chad Ochocinco tweeted: "My knee is stupid swollen [sic] and I can't freaking walk right, headed into treatment right now , I am so pissed!"

Any AFL coach would have fits if one of his players told the world that mid-week, but Schwab was remarkably sanguine about it.

"Well, it's the truth, isn't it?," he said with a laugh about Ochocinco's tweet.

"Our players communicate with our supporters every day of their lives, so it's just a mechanism for that.

"If any communication is inappropriate, that's just a learning experience.

"We won't discourage it at all - they just need to understand that it's Nathan Jones, footballer (@nathan2jones) as well as Nathan Jones, person, so there's that notion of responsibility that comes with it.

"But I like it, and I think our people like it."

O'Loughlin, who has added a section on social media into his player training manual, agrees that players need to be sensible.

"That's definitely one of the problems that it poses, and as a media and communications manager you have to educate your players.

"You need them to be onboard, and they have to use a little bit of common sense as to what they can and can't write, and what photos they should post.

"They're not just a Joe Blow in the public forum, they're a star in the AFL, they're in the public arena, and people are interested in everything they say and write."

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.