As social media continues to grow among teenagers, athletes have found ways to take advantage of these platforms for their benefit during the recruitment process.
With the plentiful number of coaches and players on Instagram, sophomore volleyball player Ninya Udinoor can see other athletes progressing through the recruitment process.
“I think it’s helped me reach a wider variety of people like other athletes and coaches as well,” Udinoor said. “It’s also reached a lot of my friends, and they can follow me and they can see my posts.”
Although she gains views from a variety of people, Udinoor is unsure if her profile is reaching college coaches.
“The only cons with Instagram is that you can’t really see who’s viewing your highlights, and you don’t know if you’re reaching the right audience,” Udinoor said.
Similar to Udinoor, freshman softball player Victoria Calvillo runs an Instagram account and posts a variety of clips to help with her recruitment.
“I post a lot of things but generally still softball, like highlights of my games, training, practices and working out, specifically speed and agility,” Calvillo said
Calvillo finds the ability to see the qualities of collegiate programs to be beneficial, increasing her exposure despite being in high school.
“It showed me campuses online without having to actually travel to the colleges,” Calvillo said. “And also when I follow college accounts, that’s a way for them to see my account and view my posts.”
Although Calvillo actively uses Instagram, she believes there are better ways to reach college coaches.
“A lot of people do use social media for recruitment purposes, but I think it’s more effective to email coaches directly to watch you play,” Calvillo said.
Similar to Calvillo, Athletic Director and football coach Nelson Gifford understands the benefits of social media but believes exposure in-person is more effective.
“I don’t know if it’s the most effective way, but it’s an effective way, particularly when you’re Social media changes the game for recruitment processtrying to create a point of access for people that don’t know you to reach out,” Gifford said. “I would say probably the best form of exposure is playing well at a high level, but the social media piece is definitely a part of that.”
Using social media platforms can also put one in a space to get in contact with people they may not have otherwise interacted with.
“I do also know of athletes that have had coaches reach out to them through social media platforms as well, so that does happen,” Gifford said. “I think there is – to some degree – a certain effectiveness there.”
As social media continues to grow more popular, not just colleges but anyone on the internet, can see the interactions of others. Gifford believes everyone should be careful with what they post because of the growing exposure.
“I think it’s the way of the world and what athletes – and really it’s not just athletes – it’s anybody that needs to realize that social media is not private,” Gifford said. “It doesn’t matter whether your account is shared or not, anything that you put out publicly can be consumed, in theory, by anybody. Everyone should be careful about their likes, their posts, the words they use, because what you write is permanent.”
Whether it is related to sports or personal life, anything that anyone submits to social media could affect the individual. Social platforms are powerful tools that can impact an athlete depending on how they use it.
“The only thing I would say is that if an athlete is interested in using social media, they want to be conscious of all the information they post on there.They want to make sure that they’re constantly putting their best foot forward in those interactions and use the tool for what it is and don’t let it use you,” Gifford said.