Social media is one of the most underestimated components in the recruiting process. Most athletes believe that all that matters to college coaches are titles, results and what you have accomplished as an athlete. Unfortunately, this could not be further from the truth, as coaches do not only try recruit good athletes, but they also want good students and more importantly good people, who will represent the university in the best possible manner. Now, as we have mentioned before, being a scholarship athlete comes with a lot of responsibilities and expectations, with one of the biggest ones being how you portray yourself to your fellow students on campus and to people outside the university.
As you can probably imagine, in nowadays age of smart phones and social media, what you have on your social media accounts matters a whole lot! There are numerous athletes that have had their scholarships taken away because of the content on their Facebook or Instagram profile. Things that you should never post about are pictures or videos of you partying, drinking, smoking or simply using foul language or posting inappropriate things. It is therefore no surprise that more and more coaches go to social media to check out a potential recruit’s profile before making a decision on whether to recruit that prospective student-athlete. And coaches will look for exactly these things mentioned above. So make sure you do not post about anything that could scare coaches off or that could jeopardize your chance of a big scholarship. Treat this as if you were applying for a job and use common sense. By now you should have a pretty good idea about what is appropriate to post and what is not. And remember, the legal drinking age in the United States is 21, so even though it might be legal and common to drink in your country at a younger age, it is nothing to brag about on your social media. So be smart and keep your social media accounts clean! It could really go a long way and help you secure that dream scholarship that you are seeking!