Recruiting in Social Media

In todays social media world, nearly everyone uses some sort of social media. From youngsters, teens, adults, and even grandparents. Social media has bridges the gap of generations allowing information to be shared easily, and for communication to be done in a much easier fashion. With these times comes the game of football, where college football teams are on the hunt for the top high school talent, but also kids who can contribute to their respective university. This is where social media comes into play. Especially twitter.

Coaches have realized that every kid regularly checks their social media platforms. Its a given that it has taken over mail as a faster and easier form of communication. So as the times have changed so have the coaches. Most every big time Div. 1 coach has a twitter account, where they reach out to top targets, engage the fans, and also regulate the activity of the players that they are recruiting.

High school kids are bound to do something stupid, and most times coaches aren't going to pull a scholarship for making a mistake or two, but when they see a systematic problem in a kid, it is hard for them to take a chance on offering them a scholarship worth a ton of money. Players with pictures of underage drinking, weapons, or drug paraphernalia are likely to be under heavy scrutiny or even potentially have their offer pulled. 

Another aspect of recruiting on social media, is the presence of recruiting analyst. Or team pages where commitments are discussed and analyzed by the followers that they have. This allows fans to be involved in the recruiting process, keeping up to date with current an potential commits. With this comes the opportunity for added hype, or criticism of a recruit. Example: Jacob Eason, who has become a God to Georgia fans, after videos of his high school games surfaced on social media. Played can either be harmed or helped by the hype surrounding social media, and hopefully in the case of Eason, the fans assessment of Eason is accurate (if not an undervaluation).

With todays social media movement, it is easier for players to get noticed by college coaches, easier for them to interact with these coaches, but they can also come under heavier scrutiny and surveillance at the same time. After assessing the pros and cons of the social media among potential college recruits I believe that they would be better off keeping the majority of their affairs to themselves. Allowing them to live lives separate from their countless followers, so that the pressure does not become too much, and so that they are able to live (somewhat) as normal college aged kids.

Dude Perfect: The Perfect Job

The 1st time I saw a Dude Perfect video I thought it was really cool, guys doing trick shots with a basketball and a home camera. Then the next time I saw a video, wow, had they made strides. Not only with the tricks that they did but with the videography, followers, they had become a big deal. If there is an example of a social media success, you would be hard pressed to find one more successful than Dude perfect.

Beginning in 2008, they posted a video of basketball trick shots and within a week they had 100,000 views on youtube. Today they have over 8.5 million followers on YouTube. Nearly 16.5 million of their app games have been downloaded, as well as nearly 16.5 Facebook followers. With Instagrams popularity growing their 2.2 million is surely to grow as well. Also Cory Cotton one of the founders has written a book, Go Big, which speaks on some of the things that they have learned building a business in an age driven by social media.

Today they have grown so big that they actually are in the business of consulting and helping different companies, and even celebrities, endorse their companies and image. An example of this is, Tyreke Evans, Sacramento Kings player who they helped to endorse his Rookie of the Year bid, through shooting a video with him. The names are endless from athletes to musicians, or using a new product a company has released. Here are some of the companies that they work with to promote their business and products.

To say they have used social media to their advantage would be an understatement. They have built their business completely through Social Media. This is the perfect job for many guys like me, and these guys did it with a little athletic ability, a camera, and social media platforms.

Enjoy a video or two here:

http://dudeperfect.com/videos/

The Super Bowl: The QB Dilemna

On Sunday Night two of my favorite quarterbacks faced off in what would be an ugly night for offense and the two quarterbacks themselves. The old vs. the new, The Sheriff vs. Superman, Manning vs. Newton. It was all we would hear about for weeks leading up to the game, the young dynamic, african american quarterback and the old, pocket passing white guy. Their games couldn't be more different, but in reality they are more alike than people like to admit. Social Media, and ESPN did a good job of hyping up the Super Bowl platform, especially the differences in the style of play between the two quarterbacks. Peyton, 39 years old, whether or not by choice doesn't have the energy and suave to match the flamboyant playing style of Cam Newton. Cam, who runs, dives, dances, and dabs has been highly criticized for not respecting the game of football, while Peyton is revered as an ambassador of the game. The truth is both styles work, without Cam their would nothing for the old age fans to complain about, without Peyton their would be nothing for them to like. Cam attracts the younger crowds, he is flashy cool, and his trademark smile is enjoyable to watch. He loves the game of football, regardless of what anyone says, he is a competitor, hates to lose, he works hard. He is everything one could ask for in their starting quarterback.Peyton too takes a lot of criticism for not winning enough in big games. Yet he like Newton is all you could ask for in your starting quarterback. No one and I mean no one works as hard as Peyton to understand schemes and defenses and to put his team in the best position to win. He's not flashy, but he is one of the greatest of all time, if not the greatest of all time.

So these guys didn't have their best games in the Super Bowl, they both turned the ball over multiple times, both struggled to escape pressure, but they competed, they got hit, they got back up. They got knocked down, they got up again. They both simply fought their hearts out. One had to win, one had to lose. Its the game of football, you win some you lose some. This game will hopefully be the last Peyton plays, so that he can go out on top. But this is not close to the end of Cam Newton, he will be back, and I would venture to guess that he will be on the smiling side of the game more times than not.

Post win Manning endorsed Budweiser, giving them over 3 million in free advertising, it blew up on social media. People wondered why he endorsed it, they laughed about it, hash-tagged it, posted videos of it. Contrarily Newton was heavily criticized for his abrupt exit from the media interview. The video has been shared over multiple, if not every social media platform. For people to complain or defend. At the end of the day these two guys couldn't be more different when it comes to playing style, they couldn't be more different in the way that they reacted after the game ( remember one won and the other lost). But when it comes to being competitors and hating to lose they couldn't be any more similar. They both are either positively or negatively perceived on social media, both criticized, but both are winners. Both are great Quarterbacks.

'Not My Cup of Tea: Why Guys Like 'Me' Suck At Blog Posts

First things first, I write this with the knowledge that in todays world blogs are all the rave. With that I mean no disrespect to anyone who blogs on a regular bases, or for people who truly enjoy reading quality blogs. For me they are simply 'not my cup of tea'.

Born and raised a mans man, I have never found myself cooped inside for very long, especially spending time around electronics and the sort. I would have rather been outside adventuring the woods down the street or as I got older, riding around my small town finding out just how we could get in trouble 'this time'. This didn't allow for much time on social media, so I never found the love for it as many of my generation have. As the times have evolved and smart phones have become a stronghold in most everyones life, I must admit that I too have found myself with multiple social media outlets. Ones that I spend too much aimlessly scrolling through, hoping to find an interesting article or two. Mainly I spend my time scrolling through Instagram and Facebook, and while doing so I have noticed more and more people posting personal blogs, or having links to their blogs on their Instagram page.

I know that its a good thing to be published, and to have your thoughts on matters shared with the world, but for me its just 'not my cup of tea'. I often times are uninterested in someones blog about how love failed them, and that their next will be better than the last. Or that your college years have been full of stress, and that you scratched and clawed all night to squeeze every second of time into studying for a test. (Yet you had time to write some long drawn out blog at the same time.) I just wasn't born to want to express my feelings and thoughts to the world, not that there is anything wrong with it, but with that it means I and probably a lot of other guys like me don't care to read yours either. I just feel that if we spent as much time with friends that we do stuck in our phones or laptops writing our feelings via blog, we would be a lot better off as a society.