While social media is a big part of our lives and often brings a lot of good, it can also be harmful in many different ways, including during the recruiting process.
Being a potential student-athlete recruit is an ongoing and lengthy process, so ensuring that our social media accounts reflect the message we are portraying is consistent with what we want our future coaches to see.
This blog goes over some tips for success when it comes to your social media!
Behind the Scenes
The first and potentially most helpful way you can use social media is to scope out the teams you might be interested in joining.
Following these teams on their social media platform gives you critical insight into the culture of the team and how the players spend their time as a team. Seeing behind the scenes of:
- Practice
- Game Day
- Away Trips
It is important to get a feel for whether you would fit into the team as a PERSON as well as an ATHLETE.
Professional Profile
The next thing coaches say can be helpful, is having a separate athlete profile! This can be just for your athletic updates and achievements.
Whether you have been selected for a new team, have updated highlight footage, scored 3 goals over the weekend, or finally broke that PB you’ve been working toward, this profile can be great for these updates!
Twitter is the main platform coaches use for this type of information.
Important: You will not get recruited by doing this!! These profiles are usually given to a coach once you have already made contact, and they have expressed interest in keeping up with your progress!
Become a Fan!
Tip #3… Become a fan!!
Another way to use social media as a recruiting tool, is becoming a fan of the teams you’re interested in!
Simple things like following, liking, and commenting on posts about the team’s success are all great ways to show a coach you’re engaged in their program and invested in their successes.
Importantly, the more times a coach sees your name, the more likely they are to remember it… so get commenting!
Keep it private!
While your profiles can be a great tool you can leverage, if this is not used in the right way it can be very detrimental to your recruiting process.
Keeping your profiles private protects you from anything a coach may not want to see, and allows you your freedom to post without having to worry!
So, What Now?
This blog intends to give you insight into the optimisation of your recruiting journey using social media. From here, go look up your favourite U.S. college teams and give them a follow!
Serious about the U.S. college pathway? Get in touch with us with any questions you have about this blog, or to organise your consultation!
