![\"Facebook](\"http:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Facebook.jpg\")
<\/a>Social media is a wonderful tool used by National Scouting Report to promote prospects to college coaches. In fact, NSR area directors and scouts have enjoyed great success using Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.<\/p>\n
However, if used inappropriately, social media can cause disaster for NSR prospects, who hope to be recruited and receive offers.<\/p>\n
Most NSR scouts warn prospects during in-home meetings about the dangers of social media. NSR\u2019s advice to high school athletes: \u201cIf you have anything posted on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram that you wouldn\u2019t want your mother to read or see, make sure you delete it.\u201d<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t even have to be guilty of anything. You can be guilty by association.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s say one of your \u201cfriends\u201d posts a picture on your timeline of you and your buddies holding red plastic cups on the beach. Do you think college coaches will assume there\u2019s water in those cups?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s say another \u201cfriend\u201d posts profanity on your timeline. \u201cHey, mother ——, how the —- are you doing?\u201d Don\u2019t you think college coaches can fill in the blanks? Don\u2019t you think they will associate you with that kind of language?<\/p>\n
You bet.<\/p>\n
In fact, many college athletic departments assign graduate assistants to \u201csnoop\u201d on potential prospects. If they find something inappropriate on their social media pages, they immediately raise a red flag and report it to the coaches and\/or recruiting coordinators.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no different than company executives or human resource managers \u201csnooping\u201d on potential employees. Don\u2019t you think they check out applicants on LinkedIn and other social media sites before inviting them to interview?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s perfectly legal \u2026 and smart.<\/p>\n
Recruiting is highly competitive. If college coaches want to establish and maintain successful programs, they can\u2019t afford to make mistakes. They want to recruit and, ultimately, sign prospects who fit into their teams\u2019 cultures. They can\u2019t afford to take chances on those with questionable character. As the saying goes: \u201cOne bad apple can spoil the whole bunch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knowing that, college prospects must be smart, too.<\/p>\n
You can have fun on social media \u2013 college coaches expect that — but keep your pages clean. Make sure they don\u2019t contain inappropriate photos or language. If they do, delete those posts immediately.<\/p>\n
You also can use social media to promote your academic and athletic accomplishments. College coaches will read that. It could prompt them to start recruiting you.<\/p>\n
Isn\u2019t that what you really want?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
West Virginia University coach Sean Covich laid down the law to his men\u2019s golf recruits in a recent tweet: \u201cDear recruits: If I research your social media and find multiple uses of profanity\/pics of alcohol, will likely cost you a scholarship,\u201d he tweeted. Get the point, college prospects? Social media is a wonderful tool used … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[31,465,467,222,466],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9149"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9149"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14715,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9149\/revisions\/14715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}