Tweet others the way you want to be tweeted.
Recruits today live in an instantaneous world. They want it now. They get it now. Immediate access to anything they can imagine is possible. With social media, for better or worse, a conversation with anyone is a click away.
The rest of us live in this same world. For better or for worse, that same instant access to 17- and 18-year-old high school recruits is still there.
“The problem now is that through social media, everyone can talk about what’s going on, and the wrong people can gain access to these recruits,” said Damon Sayles, national recruiting awnalyst for Bleacher Report. “It can be a die-hard fanatic or a first-class troll trying to get the attention of a star recruit. It can get disturbing at times, especially when you know some guy’s in his thirties or forties and he’s heckling or bad-mouthing a 17-year-old kid.”
It’s not uncommon to scroll through a recruit’s Twitter mentions and see threats, insults and more. It’s important to remember these messages are going to kids. They don’t know who they are taking to prom, much less where they are spending the next four years of their lives.
Frustration over a set of colors or a logo on a helmet is the real culprit. These kids are choosing the path they feel is best for them, not the path to satisfy the internet masses. It’s hard to say “put yourself in his shoes” because every recruit’s path is so different than the rest. If you feel they are making a mistake, now is the perfect time in their life to be doing so anyway. Respect the process.
It’s not all gloom and doom. Twitter is arguably the greatest sports website there is. Social media provides great opportunities to follow the thought process of your soon-to-be favorite college stars as they choose their school. When it comes to recruiting, Twitter is virtually up to the second.
“Social media has its positives,” Sayles said. “Fans really get a chance to get to know a recruit through social media. This is assuming the recruit lets that fan in. Some athletes keep their circles very close. Others love to make new friends every day online.”
Access to recruits will continue to grow in the future. There was a time when fans had little idea how their class would shape up until the university made their official announcement. Recruits are doing a service, really, by allowing fan bases to follow their journeys in a minute-by-minute process. The last thing they deserve to read is criticism of their decision they were kind enough to share with the world through a tweet or Facebook post.
“I can see social media continuing to grow alongside recruiting,” Sayles said. “We’re already seeing kids commit using Twitter messages, Vine videos, et cetera. I think in five or 10 years, it will get even more creative with whatever is out there in social media. As long as it’s all done in fun, I’m good with it.”
Happy National Signing Day. A day many recruits will never forget. Help make sure the memories never to be forgotten are positive. Think before you tweet.