Most Coaches Are Using Social Media WRONG!
Coaching is not a 9–5 job, it’s a 24/7 365 commitment to impacting others & changing lives forever & social media enables that
In today’s sports landscape most coaches are learning very fast that the 20th century model of coaching will simply not succeed in the 21st century. Gone are the days when letters, printed mail-outs & phone calls would get the job done locking up top recruits. Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat & Facebook are the pens and paper of days past, but most importantly the mediums in which players communicate, live & truly understand.
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”
— Nelson Mandela
Current Landscape
While “most” coaches have come to terms with this new digital reality and have hesitantly joined social media, just being active on social does not mean you’re using it correctly and maximizing its effectiveness. Unfortunately many coaches have joined social media only to check a box, to avoid being painted a dinosaur or to carry out athletic department marketing campaigns. It’s very easy to tell the coaches whose social media accounts are actually an athletic department marketing channel, pushing content aimed at selling tickets to games, hyping up fans with cookie-cutter messages after wins & blindly retweeting every mention. A lot of coaches have only joined Twitter or Instagram to monitor recruits and players, which is actually a great use of the platforms and can help avoid future headaches down the road, but social media is a two-way street and only using it to monitor potential knuckleheads is missing out on the true essence of social. And then there are the coaches who believe that social media is the bane of their existance, the reason they just lost a big game and the downfall of millennials everywhere. Coaches who ban their players from using social media are purposely choosing not to educate their players to succeed later in life. Most of these coaches will say they’re banning social so players can focus or avoid the “noise”, but really it’s because of lack of trust and avoiding having to spend time to properly educate them on how to use digital platforms to help them succeed throughout their lives.
What Coaches Are NOT Doing
Coaching is not a 9–5 job, it’s a 24/7 365 commitment to impacting others & changing lives forever, and social media enables that! Too many coaches are missing out on massive opportunites to motivate, teach & inspire on platforms that can enable them to impact more players, recruits, fans & adoring followers.
Everyone nowadays is always talking about building “culture” and instilling that culture into every part of their program, from the locker room to the weight room to the class room to the dorm room, coaches are working to build a culture that translates into success for their program and players.
How many coaches are building their culture digitally?
Long after players leave practice or coaches leave the living room of potential recruits there are hours upon hours of ample time to continue motivating, teaching & inspiring online. Whether it’s through 140 character motivational quotes on Twitter, a photo of a teachable moment on Instagram, or even sharing an inspirational book on Facebook, MANY coaches are not taking advantage of their huge platforms to be constantly teaching, recruiting & inspiring.
Coaches are always working to make sure every interaction with players in meetings, practices, workouts or around the facility are impactful and help develop them in one way or another. Why not continue coaching players without them knowing they’re being coached?
Almost every millenial today lives on their phone, primarily within the Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat & (yes, still) Facebook app constantly following what their friends, family, favorite musicians, athletes, celebs, and even coaches are doing! Whether any one wants to admit it, most millenials live in 2 worlds at any given time, where they are currently and what their digital persona is doing on their phone.
Understanding where most players spend their time enables you to continually reach them where they live on the medium they understand best! This provides opportunities to share great articles on success, motivational words of wisdom, inspiring videos of courage & captivating content around the clock. Committing to using your social media platforms as subliminal teaching tools can help hammer home major points that might have been missed in team meetings or practices. Not to mention, showcasing who you are, your inherit beliefs and what motivates you on social media will also help paint a better picture for that parent that might be on the fence about which program to send their child for the next four years.
Some Coaches “GET IT”
Here are JUST A FEW examples of coaches who I admire for what they’re doing on social media:
Ole Miss’ Hugh Freeze is constantly active on Twitter sending out motivational messages, leadership lessons, Bible quotes and actively interacting with followers.
Nevada’s Eric Musselman is one of the best on Twitter about taking quotes from players, coaches & leaders and relating their message to life and basketball.
Virginia Tech’s Buzz Williams is truly one coach who understands everything matters and that social media enables constant coaching of players, but more importantly people. Buzz uses his Twitter platform also as a way to reward players who go the extra mile, so a #getBETTER shoutout from Coach is a big deal!
Western Michigan’s PJ Fleck is another coach using his social platform to constantly coach his players, he also has made #RTB “Row The Boat” quite a rallying cry online and off.
South Carolina’s Dawn Staley is awesome at Twitter, aside from a ton of hilarious tweets, Coach shares and connects with her players, recruits & followers through powerful content like above.
Pittsburgh’s Kevin Sutton has seemingly been on Twitter from Day 1, using his platform to share messages of motivation, leadership lessons and honest advice around the clock.
South Carolina’s Frank Martin has also pretty much been on Twitter from Day 1, aside from his positive tweets on how growth and leadership amongst others, Coach Martin is constantly using Twitter as the 2-way street it’s intended to be.
Texas A&M’s Bob Starkey has been ahead of coaches for year’s, whether it’s on his HoopThoughts blog or on his Twitter, Coach is constantly using his platform to teach, educate & lead those who follow.
I’m sure I am missing a ton of great coaches, both men and women, across every sport who are using social media correctly and are a worth a follow, tweet me @cvas every innovating coach I’ve missed!
I wanted to write this post not to tear down coaches but to help build them up and in turn help them build up their players, program and followers. I consult with coaches from across the country, at all levels, about developing a digital strategy no matter the budget, reach, or program size. I know what many coaches are facing and dealing with, and social media levels the playing field, you don’t need 6 private planes or a $3 million budget to succeed on digital. Many will argue that they simply “don’t have the time” or the “resources” to fully commit to using social media effectively, and to those people I say…
