Twitter, other social media, what's needed?

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Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
I have plans to help one of my players who wants to play in college set up the necessary online accounts for recruiting.

Looking for a list of what everybody thinks is necessary, or even useful.

I know people use twitter and YouTube. Some have instagram. I'll have her sign up for the free accounts on some of the recruiting sites (she has one on FieldLevel already), though I don't plan to have her use them extensively.

We understand that she has to do the work to reach out to coaches and all that, but she's not there yet. She needs to develop that online presence that seems so important.

Also, does she need an email address that's separate from our school-provided one? One thing I like about the school email addresses is they're formatted FirstLastGradYear, so coaches will get a lot of information just from that.
 
Nov 15, 2019
324
43
Well my daughter is not recruited yet so take this information fwiw

DD has sports recruits but it's paid for by her travel org. It's nice, but I think it's around $300 to $400 a year otherwise which I wouldn't pay.

DD is a junior and only started a Twitter page this fall. She has been communicating with coaches for about a year, so I don't think you need a social media presence to get started. Just a place that hosts videos, so YouTube is fine.

We did read that you should have an email address aside from a school based one. If you'll be playing Div 1 or 2, you'll need an NCAA eligibility number and you'll get emails about it after you graduate and you wouldn't be able to access your high school email then. We had no idea what level dd would play so we just got the free NCAA account, if they end up playing Div 1 then you can upgrade to the paid account. For email address we did first name last name grad year @gmail.com.

That's awesome that you're helping one of your players with this!
 
Dec 19, 2021
259
43
DD did the following and got several Sept 1 calls/offers.

- Fill out the schools interest forms. Follow their twitter.
- Twitter:
- upcoming schedule before every tourney
- Grades!
- recent appearances
- achievements
- highlight videos
- thanks to coaches for camp visits etc
- retweet of teammates highlights
- emails with schedule, thanks for watching/camps etc. Be relentless. Include link to twitter account.
- DD scoured the GC and other videos and pulled many dozens of game clips and made compilation videos that she put on her recruiting site (NCSA team edition) and twitter. Batting, baserunning, fielding, throwing. Show what she is capable of. Show hits off commited pitchers, for example.
- go to the camps at the schools of interest. Stand out at the camp. This is hard but important. This was a key for DD.
- Have TB coach make calls to schools to gauge interest. This help on decisions of which camps to attend.
 
Sep 3, 2015
372
63
My DD was a 2022 D1 committed pitcher. She never did the Twitter, etc.

1. Make a list of schools that you would attend, make sure it aligns with academics, majors, location

2. TB coach should review and contact the college coaches to gauge interest

3. Have video that is accessible, we used cut up video from the go pro and made a highlight video from every tournament and put it on her YouTube channel

4. Send out emails to the colleges with your event schedule, and before every tournament with fields and game times. Link your YouTube channel page. CC your TB coach and they will tell the college coaches when you are scheduled to pitch/play.

5. If the coach shows up, they are interested! Don’t panic, be yourself

6. Thank the coaches via email after the tournament if they show up

7. TB coach should have a decent idea of real interest

8. After Sep 1, schedule calls and visits

I think it really helps if the TB coach already knows the college coaches, ours was on first name basis with many across the country.

We’ve also been on a team (14U) where the recruiter was new, but he worked hard and got results too!

My DD attended one camp, Stanford. They actually did call on Sep 1 too, but I doubt it was related.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Oct 26, 2019
1,375
113
A lot of the Twitter posts I see are cringeworthy.

“My team went 0-5 this weekend at the Super Elite Platinum Showcase, but I had a great weekend going 7-10 with 4 bombs”.

I saw one just today where the girl tweeted out a workout she was doing where she was curling 12lb dumbbells and tagged a dozen or so schools.
 
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
Thanks for those lists.

I have some serious doubts that her current travel coach will be any help to her at all. From what I've seen in the fall, I'm not sure the TB coach knows what she's doing. She's young, played at a local junior college, but I don't think she has many contacts outside of that.

I understand our HS team/her HS performance will mean very little to college coaches, but I'm likely going to be doing what a TB coach otherwise would.

I should add that this player is not looking at a D1 or other top tier school at this point. I don't know if that changes much in her approach other than the different rules different divisions have for recruiting/contact.
 
Dec 6, 2019
382
63
I understand our HS team/her HS performance will mean very little to college coaches,
I know travel coaches say things like this quite often, but I vehemently disagree. It really depends, though, on the quality of the competition. I have one daughter playing in college now. After playing and be a starter her freshman year of college, she is adamant that HS softball was a lot tougher than college softball from a competition/talent perspective. And I agree with her.
 
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
I know travel coaches say things like this quite often, but I vehemently disagree. It really depends, though, on the quality of the competition. I have one daughter playing in college now. After playing and be a starter her freshman year of college, she is adamant that HS softball was a lot tougher than college softball from a competition/talent perspective. And I agree with her.

Ours is not that. The player I'm talking about is one of only two current travel players on our team (a few others have played travel or on teams that are a step above rec but not really true travel). Our competition level varies, but my goal is to schedule us a winning record each year. We face a good number of teams with no travel players at all.

I know where our program stands. We've done a lot to build it to this point, but I actually push my better players to join travel teams because I want them to get better, play better competition, play for different coaches (this part has, unfortunately, not helped as much as I had hoped).
 
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
DD did the following and got several Sept 1 calls/offers.

- Fill out the schools interest forms. Follow their twitter.
- Twitter:
- upcoming schedule before every tourney
- Grades!
- recent appearances
- achievements
- highlight videos
- thanks to coaches for camp visits etc
- retweet of teammates highlights
- emails with schedule, thanks for watching/camps etc. Be relentless. Include link to twitter account.
- DD scoured the GC and other videos and pulled many dozens of game clips and made compilation videos that she put on her recruiting site (NCSA team edition) and twitter. Batting, baserunning, fielding, throwing. Show what she is capable of. Show hits off commited pitchers, for example.
- go to the camps at the schools of interest. Stand out at the camp. This is hard but important. This was a key for DD.
- Have TB coach make calls to schools to gauge interest. This help on decisions of which camps to attend.

Have a few follow-up questions as I dig into this:

Would your DD actually post grades on twitter? Or just in the bio?

Is there any value in putting name of current travel team in the bio? Not so much as a brag -- she isn't on the Bandits or anything -- but just to help identify her?

"Achievements" does not mean stats, right? Unless the stat is something like "hit 3 home runs over the fence this weekend"?

Should she only tag one coach per tweet? Or one school (maybe multiple coaches at that school)? It's obvious she shouldn't spam every coach in the country, but does it look bad to tag 3-4 coaches of schools she's seriously interested in?

She has NCSA/FieldLevel free accounts, but I was thinking of uploading everything to a YouTube channel. Any reason we shouldn't do this?

Anybody set up a Linktree page (it's a simple one-page site that has all your social media links)?
 
May 16, 2016
946
93
Would your DD actually post grades on twitter? Or just in the bio?
Pretty common to have GPA in profile.
Is there any value in putting name of current travel team in the bio? Not so much as a brag -- she isn't on the Bandits or anything -- but just to help identify her?
Absolutely. Coaches need to know what team you are playing for, if they are going to find you to watch at a tournament.
"Achievements" does not mean stats, right? Unless the stat is something like "hit 3 home runs over the fence this weekend"?
These are accolades and awards. All Region, All State, All tournament awards. National rankings. Academic achievements. Etc...
Should she only tag one coach per tweet? Or one school (maybe multiple coaches at that school)? It's obvious she shouldn't spam every coach in the country, but does it look bad to tag 3-4 coaches of schools she's seriously interested in?

I've heard coaches like to be singled out and feel special. But, it's pretty common to tag several coaches on a individual tweet. It's good for players to demonstrate to coaches, they are interested/being recruited by other schools.
She has NCSA/FieldLevel free accounts, but I was thinking of uploading everything to a YouTube channel. Any reason we shouldn't do this?
No. YouTube channel is a good place to save and share video, especially longer videos you would not post to twitter. Ours is not "public". So you have to share a link for coaches to find it. So in our email correspondence, we put a link to the channel in the email.

Anybody set up a Linktree page (it's a simple one-page site that has all your social media links)?
Never heard of LinkTree.
 

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