Social media has vastly changed the landscape of college athletic recruiting.

Social media in athletic recruiting is similar to the evolution of sending emails instead of letters. There is a new way to conduct business in high school and college athletic recruiting. Everyone is connected!

Student-athletes can now display every move of their college recruitment, sharing and interacting with fans and college coaches as they decide on the right college choice.

With the popularity of social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, high school recruits are more under the microscope than ever before. College coaches are monitoring recruits to get a better understanding of their behavior and personality.

RecruitLook Scouts have discussed social media with college coaches on numerous occasions. Social media is fun and mindless for recruits; however, they don’t realize the potential severity of their actions on social media.

“We saw how a student-athlete conducted himself on the internet. We simply won’t put up with that potential headache. His twitter gave us a good idea of just how immature he really is. Social media has become a green screening process for us.” -Division Two Men’s Basketball Coach

In this technology and media-driven society that we live in, everything is out there for people to see. Recruits really need to be aware of what they are putting out there, and even how they are responding to critics.

“We’ve used Google to do research on recruits that we are looking at. You’ll be surprised by what we can dig up from their social media accounts.” -Ohio Valley Men’s Assistant Basketball Coach.

Now that there are people out there that want to stir up controversy and see a recruit stumble. Recruits need to not get in “social media beefs” with any of their followers. Let that stuff go. The best thing you can do is to send or tweet your message and then turn your notifications off.

Social media doesn’t always have to harm your athletic career. Athletes can boost their college recruitment by taking advantage of social media. At RecruitLook, we’ve connected athletes with college coaches through social media, and in a few cases, those athletes have received scholarship offers.

Athletes just need to be aware of what they are putting out there social media, and to remember that college coaches are always watching!

Can social media costs athletic scholarship money?

High school athletes can lose a scholarship in 140-characters. Read that again. Yes, it is absurd to think that social media, as harmless and fun as it can be, has that much influence on your future. It only takes one tweet to jeopardize a free or discounted college education.

Twitter is a micro-blogging tool that is used by millions, including high school athletes and college coaches. Each tweet is 140-characters or less that can be favorited, retweeted, and screen captured to share with thousands even millions more! The social networking site is popular with the high school demographic. Some use it to tweet about the school dance, what they are eating in the cafeteria, or how they dominated on Friday night football. However, there is always the temptation or lack of awareness to post demeaning comments, and it just takes one tweet to potentially cost a high school recruit thousands of dollars.

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“We told (the kid and) we told his coach (that) we don’t condone that, and he was a guy who was already committed to Georgia. And he persisted. Well, actually he changed his (Twitter) handle and continued to do that kind of thing thinking we wouldn’t find out. And we found out about it, and we cut him.”

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Richt isn’t the only coach from a high profile college program to stop recruiting an athlete based on the athlete’s social activity. Penn State coach, Herb Hand, sent out a tweet on his account that he stopped recruiting a player because of the player’s social feed. Hand tweeted the following about it...

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“College coaches outside the division one level have a smaller room for error when it comes to their recruits. Smaller programs need talented players with good characters. Coaches outside D1 won’t win if they are constantly kicking kids off their team,” said Mike Enright, CEO of RecruitLook.

Most programs don’t have the recruiting budgets and resources that major Division One institutions have. Therefore, smaller schools are doing as much research on recruits as possible before they commit to offering a scholarship. A lot of that research starts on the recruit’s social media account.

“What better place to see what a person is really like than on their social media account,” Enright said. “If a recruit is inappropriate on an open forum like Twitter, coaches will probably assume the same behavior will carry over to the classroom, playing field and locker room.”

Twitter should be more about bringing excitement to the college recruiting space. Athletes are more accessible than ever before, giving fans and athletes a way to interact in real-time. Colleges are also using social media to promote the school, give live updates, and create a fun environment for all fans and athletes to interact.

There is a lot of good that comes with social media, but recruits need to be aware of the harm it can cause to their future if not monitored properly.

Social Media Tips to Help Student-Athletes

Nothing is truly private on social media. You might think you can delete a tweet, Instagram pic or Facebook post, but content posted on the internet doesn’t just vanish. It is easy to screenshot content or find things archived in Google searches.

Social media isn’t going away, in fact, it is only growing in popularity. More and more people are using social media in various ways to interact and promote brands or trending topics. Athletes are using social media outlets as a way to promote their brand… themselves. As great as social media can be for an athlete, it can also cause destruction.

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Here is some social media advice for high school athletes:

1. Personal Branding
   Your social media and RecruitLook accounts are telling a story of who you are. How do you want people to see you? Remember that your personal image can be tainted by poor online choices.
   
2. You Own It
   If you retweet it (or share it), you own it. Freedom of speech does not equal freedom from consequences.
   
3. Be Courteous
   Don’t use your social platforms to vent and cause controversy. Use your social accounts to have fun, but make sure you show support to your fans, family, and coaches for helping in your athletic journey.
   
4. Block the negativity
   There is always going to be “haters” out there. Do not respond or feed into the negativity that they are spreading. Most just want to provoke you in some way. Tweet and then put the phone down or close the computer. You don’t have time to see what some hater is saying…take the high road.