While going through the recruiting process, it’s important to create a name for yourself. Building a strong personal identity can be the difference between being the searcher or the searched throughout your recruiting process. Social media can and should be used as a powerful tool to enable your ability to create a strong personal identity.
What Makes Social Media So Effective At Building Social Identity?
You can represent yourself the way you’d like! It’s important to realize how in-control you are of your online profiles because it can be used to your advantage. For the sake of volleyball, you can post/share a variety of events and accomplishments that you’ve been involved with in order to showcase your enthusiasm and dedication to your sport.
Additionally, social media can most definitely be used as a networking tool, ultimately connecting you with others in the volleyball recruiting world which all have the potential to create opportunities that can serve your future self. Certain social media platforms have such a wide demographic of users that it’s likely for you to connect with college coaches and other important people of authority who will ultimately be exposed to your personally tailored social identity which if done correctly can create a positive first impression.
What Social Platforms Can Best Contribute To Recruiting?
Instagram: At Six Pack Recruiting, we encourage each of our athletes to create a volleyball Instagram which can be separate from their personal account. We then link this account to their recruiting profile which allows coaches to take a more in depth look into your volleyball identity. Instagram can also serve as a great networking tool which can work in the same way as mentioned above. The majority of university coaches have a presence on Instagram and use it often to communicate with athletes.
Hudl: Basically a one-stop-shop sports film. Specifically built to support the process of editing, analyzing, and sharing film; Hudl is a great platform to build a presence on as it can display your film through shared links through in-app discovery. Something to keep in mind is that the platform isn’t as widespread as Instagram or YouTube so it is likely that you will need to be intentional with sharing your Hudl profile rather than hoping that the right person stumbles upon it. Some of our Six Pack Recruiting athletes choose to add their Hudl account to provide high quality film for coaches to watch.
Youtube: The advantage that YouTube has over Hudl is its user base and the familiarity that it has for most people. With that said, the majority of college coaches will have Hudl accounts and will be familiar with how it functions. We recommend using both in order to reach as many people with the highest quality possible. Be sure when posting on your Youtube account that you’re using the right settings, description and tags to get you on coaches’ radar.
TikTok: While TikTok is probably the most common social media that young volleyball athletes use today, many university coaches are not of the generation that are on TikTok. Again, use this as an additional tool in your tool belt, but if you’re looking to connect with coaches for your volleyball recruiting, be sure to also have a presence on the other social media platforms that are more widespread used with coaches.
Using Social Media to Empower Recruitment
The recruitment process can be a challenging and stress inducing process. It’s important to remember that you want to maximize every aspect of your identity in order to attract the most attention from college coaches and schools. Social media is an effective and dynamic way of furthering your personal brand which (if used properly) can seriously boost your demand in the recruiting market.
Build a presence on a variety of social platforms to ensure you’re capitalizing on the opportunity that social media presents you.
