Social Media in Collegiate

Athletics

What do coaches need to know?

Look at the Stats Twitter: In one year Twitter’s growth rate passed 1000%

Facebook: The site has 250 million active users, and more

than 120 million use it every day.

Youtube: If YouTube were a country it would the the 3rd most

populated place on Earth.

Skype: 8% of all human-to-human voice communication is

run through Skype.

www.econsultancy.com (July 2009)

Twitter What?

Microblog

Updates: “What are you doing”

Where?

Upload from phone or computer

Receive updates via text

Why?

Recruiting Potential

Fan Engagement/Experience

Personal Branding

Twitter How?

Create Account (Private or Public*)

Start Tweeting

Follow People, Gain Followers

@Reply

Direct Message

Lets Clarify Don’t tweet about recruits!!!

You may only tweet about recruits if it is in response to

an inquiry made by the media in order to confirm your

recruitment of a prospect.

Don’t @Reply anything to recruits

Don’t DM recruits if you know they receive the

message via text.

Facebook Create an account

Add friends

Note that e-mails are automatically sent as part of requesting to add someone as a friend.

The Wall

Impermissible to post on a recruits wall

Use your inbox to message a recruit

Your Inbox

The correct and safe way to message recruits

Better if recruit accepts you as friend before you send them messages.

Facebook

Create a team policy

Set privacy to maximum, protect your student-athletes

Remember who and what we represent

Refrain from offensive photos and comments

Understand that even if you limit access to your site, anything you

upload becomes property of the site(s)

Only add people you know as friends

Never share your phone number or address

Don’t let Facebook mishaps come back to haunt you

Texas football player kicked off team for making offensive

comment on Facebook about Pres. Obama.

One team at an SEC school had players making offensive

comments about their coaches, not realizing it was in public view

Youtube Any video posted on Youtube MUST be geared towards

the general public/fan based.

Nothing personalized for recruits!

Can’t send the video to recruits, only the link.

Stanford Youtube Channel

Example Video

Skype Utilize Skype for international or tech savvy recruits

Videoconferencing falls under the category of a phone

call (13.02.14)

Be aware of the time periods permissible to make such

calls.

@Reply Function Public tweet directed at another Twitter user.

BE CAREFUL WITH THESE!

The NCAA’s take on @Reply

Communication with a recruit in public view is a violation

Don’t @reply a recruit, EVER!

Direct Messages The safe way to communicate

PRIVATE

Use this method to communicate with recruits

They must be a “follower” of yours.

They can’t have DM’s sent via text (to your knowledge)

TweetsWHAT CAN I TWEET ABOUT?

General info not created for a recruiting purpose such as game

scores, team updates, facility updates, or updates regarding the

coaching staff and/or team.

Ex: @Reply

Ex. Direct Message

Followers

FB Profile

FB Inbox