Can College Coaches Follow Recruits On Instagram?
As a potential recruit, you might be wondering what the best strategy is to get a college coach’s attention. Experts suggest emailing coaches consistently, calling coaches and utilizing social media to showcase your skills and make connections. College coaches are starting to use social media to their advantage for recruiting. But can college coaches follow recruits on Instagram?
College coaches can follow recruits on Instagram. Coaches utilize social media to learn more about potential players and assess whether they would be a good fit for their team. Instagram and Twitter are the most popular social media platforms for coaches to keep up with your athletic progress.
The NCAA has some limits on social media interaction between college coaches and student-athletes. Depending on your sport, college coaches cannot interact with you at all on social media before June 15 of your sophomore year or September 1 of your junior year. After these dates, but before you commit to a school, college coaches can’t comment on your posts or post on your profile.
However, they can like or share any of your posts and DM you before you sign an offer. The NCAA doesn’t regulate student-athlete communication, so players can feel free to use social media as they deem necessary.
How Do College Coaches Use Instagram to Recruit?
Social media is a powerful tool for recruiting. College coaches use Instagram to get to know players and actively recruit them. Knowing how coaches use Instagram can help you plan out the best strategy to get on a coach’s radar. To help navigate recruiting on social media, here are a few of the ways college coaches use Instagram to recruit players for their roster.
Watch Highlight Videos: College coaches utilize social media to find a lot of information about a potential recruit. Linking your highlight video or highlight clips in your bio helps coaches see your athletic talent right away. Showcasing your skills can help convince coaches that you would be a good fit for their team.
Evaluate Your Character: Your Instagram is perceived as a reflection of who you are. Your posts, stories, comments and tagged photos say something about your personality and character in a public forum. Coaches are looking for players with leadership qualities, a good work ethic and a coachable mindset. Your Instagram is a place for them to get a glimpse into who you are and what your character is like.
Stay Updated On Your Progress: Instagram is beneficial to coaches in updating them in real-time about your athletic progress. Coaches want to see your growth as a player as you continue to develop skills, win games or reach new PRs. A recruit with a page that’s regularly updated is an excellent resource for coaches, as they can learn more about you without searching through their email inbox.
Check Competition: Coaches also utilize Instagram to see what other schools you might be considering. Coaches can check your follower list to see which schools you’re following. Coaches will want to know if you’re seriously considering a similar program or a rival school when it comes time to sign an offer.
As digital communication becomes more prevalent, college coaches use social media to keep up with recruits’ athletic and even academic progress. It may seem intuitive to keep your social media private, but it’s better to keep your profile public. Making your pages public and posting relevant content will help coaches get to know you better and hopefully help you land a spot on their roster.
Using Instagram To Connect With Coaches
Social media can make or break your relationship with a coach, depending on how you use it. When coaches follow players, they are sending a signal that they want to learn more about them. What’s the best way for student-athletes to use Instagram to showcase their skills and personality to coaches?
Follow Athletic Programs And Coaches: If a college coach follows you on Instagram, the first thing you should do is follow them back! While coaches use Instagram to discover players, you can also use the platform to learn more about colleges you’re considering. Following the university account, team account and specific coaches can help you see a more casual side of the school. As you research universities to build a list of schools to target, checking out their social media can give you insight into whether or not you would be a good fit at that school.
DM Coaches: Similar to emailing coaches, sending them a direct message through social media is a great way to connect and start building a relationship. One of the advantages of social media is that all your information is just one click away and readily available to coaches. Through email, coaches have to take an extra step to view your highlight video, and you have to curate your athletic stats for each email. Your social media profiles can be a great introduction to coaches without any extra effort on your part.
Stay Respectful: It’s a good idea to comment on and engage with posts from schools that you’re interested in. Make sure your tone and language are always respectful and polite to make a good impression on coaches and anyone related to the athletic program.
Developing a social media strategy can help gain success during the recruiting process. Posting regularly and showcasing your skills and personality on your social media will have college coaches following you in no time.
What To Post On Instagram As A Potential Recruit
Instagram is not the only way to get a coach’s attention, but adding it to your toolbox can help you during the recruiting process. There are specific strategies for posting on social media that can help you connect with coaches and make a great first impression.
Regulate Your Content: Pay attention to your posts, especially if it’s not related to athletics. You don’t want anything you comment to be taken out of context or misinterpreted. Keep your tone positive and avoid using profanity. You can also adjust your settings to prevent any tagged photos of yourself from appearing in your public feed.
Post About Athletics: The most important thing to remember when thinking about recruiting through social media to showcase yourself. Posting regularly about your progress as an athlete, whether through highlight clips or statistics, is the best way for a coach to assess how you will fit on their team.
Show Your Commitment: Another thing to keep in mind is to show coaches who are already following you your interest in their program. By liking, commenting, and possibly sharing the university’s content, you show how interested you are in their team.
It can be stressful to think about adding another channel of communication to monitor for recruiting purposes, on top of the emails, letters and phone calls. Taking manageable steps to improve your presence on social media, including posting consistently about your growth as an athlete and DMing coaches, can majorly improve your chances of being recruited by a coach.
Things To Keep In Mind
Bring It Into Real Life: If you happen to meet a coach in-person, it’s appropriate to reference a post that resonated with you or the team’s social media account. It might be a more natural conversation starter. It also shows coaches that you’re genuinely interested in their program and are doing your research.
Promote Yourself: To make it easy for the coach to find you on social media, add your social media page links to your email signature or link it directly to the coach in the email. Ensure that your username is the same across all platforms and try to differentiate it slightly if you have a common name.
Offers: If you receive a scholarship offer, you can announce it on social media to gain the attention of other coaches. It’s important to share this information with care and humility. You don’t want to come off as arrogant or boastful. Don’t make up an offer to gain attention. Coaches have connections with many different universities and can easily verify whether or not you received an offer.