College coaches use social media as tool to get a better understanding of the recruit’s character. A poorly managed and careless social media can damage an athlete’s chance at getting recruited, while well-managed platforms can increase your chances.

Set your account to public: Make it easy for coaches to find your accounts. If your account is private, coaches won’t be able to locate and review your social content. Set your account to public so college coaches can easily contact you. A private profile may suggest the recruit is trying to hide something.

Monitor your account: Many platforms have a default setting which allows friends to tag or mention you in posts that automatically appears on your timeline. This can be risky, no matter how much you trust your family and friends. Disabling this setting will reduce the risk that a coach will see something that could jeopardise your chances at getting recruited. Coaches will be able to see who you follow and engage with, make sure you are always respectful on social media, unfollow any inappropriate accounts.

Highlight your accomplishments: Coaches want to see what recruits have accomplished. Use social media to showcase your talent and post your game footage. It is important to be humble and respectful when posting about your accomplishments, you can do this by thanking your teammates, family, friends and coaches for their support. This is also a great place to feature your academic or athletic achievements, camp practices, college visits and share college offers that you are considering.

Direct messaging: Do you research before approaching a college coach. Coaches will be impressed you have done your research, saving them time explaining everything to you, while showing them you are serious about the program. When researching make sure you read about the staff and who to contact first. Many programs have a recruiting coordinator or assistant coach who is head of recruiting.

When a coach follows you on social media, it means they are wanting to learn more about you and your character, and what other programs you are interested in.

If you have not directly spoken to the coach beforehand, they are likely indicating that they are open to you direct messaging them first to find out more about them and the program. Don’t be shy, message them.

Checking out The Competition: College coaches use social media as a way to learn what other schools you are considering, as most recruits use social media to let their followers know what schools they have received offers from. This isn’t a bad thing, colleges care about this because they do not want to risk losing a potential recruit.

Checking out Your Character: As a recruit you have to be cautious with what you post on social media. This is the easiest way for coaches to learn more about you. If a coach sees anything inappropriate on your account or associated with your account they will likely stop the recruiting process with you.

NCAA Limits on Social Media Interaction: It is the coach’s responsibility to follow NCAA Guidelines. Until you are committed with the program, coaches are not allowed to interact with you on your feed, and they cannot comment on any of your photos. Although, they can message you privately and like/share your posts.