The Importance of Social Media in College Sports Recruiting

Social media has very quickly become a huge part of the recruiting process for student-athletes. If you’re a high school student, you most likely have a Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest account, if not all of them. Because of this college coaches have become more and more active on these platforms as a way to research and get in touch with high school athletes. It is very important to realize that coaches use these accounts as their first impression. Trust me when I say, coaches have done their research on potential athletes’ way before they make the initial phone call or email.

Now more than ever, it is so important to make sure you are posting the right content on social media, because once it is out there all it takes is one screenshot and it is saved forever. You do not want a coach seeing something that is not deemed appropriate i.e., swearing, drinking, smoking, bragging, or anything that can be considered provocative. You want to use social media to your benefit, not to your detriment.

So, what do you post? When do you post the things that need to be posted? That is where we (A4A) come in. A4A teaches athletes what content to post after big games, tournaments, showcases, meets, matches, showings, or wins. We teach our athletes that it is alright to be confident, just don’t be cocky when posting. An athlete talking about how their hard work has paid off when they hit their goal is awesome. Thank your coaches for calling the plays or your number to enable you to have scored what you did that day is even better! A great approach for high school athletes is the J.J. Watt approach: “Read each tweet about 95 times before you send it. Look at every Instagram post about 95 times before you send it. A reputation takes years and years and years to build and it takes one press of a button to ruin it.”

Steve Britschgi