If so, how?
Currently I do not use Twitter and I have no idea how it works. I ask because this past weekend my son's team played in a PBR event and he had a solid weekend at the plate. PBR tweeted out two of his at bats with some nice comments. What can he/I do to maximize this, if anything?
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If you don't have a following, probably not much. In general I've found PBR on Instagram and Twitter is usually pretty good. PG is getting better with coverage of their regional events on Twitter as well. My kids play for an organization with a large following on Instagram, that's been the most helpful as far as getting views on social media.
There seems to be twitter communities of baseball dads, HS coaches, local PBR guys, and local sports writers who tweet, retweet, like or comment on Johnny's base hits, strike outs or showcase attendance. I can't imagine any college coach is caught up in these circles. Sorry for the sarcasm but I'm a little jaded after years of being bombarded with countless twitter posts.
Now worries. I understand the sarcasm.
So with Twitter, if I retweet the post, only my followers see it? And, is retweeting something like this considered poor form?
I appreciate the assistance. I need to get with the times.
Tons of college coaches (most) have twitter accounts and use them to promote the college’s player and their program to potential recruits. They will follow prospects they have their eye on and that is a great way to keep your athlete on their front burner (by posting highlight videos). Social media is one aspect of modern-era college recruiting. I personally hate it, but it is what it is.
Opus X posted:Now worries. I understand the sarcasm.
So with Twitter, if I retweet the post, only my followers see it? And, is retweeting something like this considered poor form?
I appreciate the assistance. I need to get with the times.
Twitter is pretty much useless without followers. If you post from your account, only your followers will be notified of your tweet (if they set up to get alerts from your activity). Using hashtags makes your tweets “searchable” if you will, like if someone tweeted a video of their HR and put #homerun, it could be searched. Accounts that retweet are helpful for exposure, lots of people with no real connections somehow gain a good following and they can help spread the word. It’s really something that I dislike, all the social media blathering about yourself or your kid...I find it obnoxious...but it’s part of the way to get your name out there.
I'll offer a slightly different angle on Twitter usage for baseball recruiting. I joined a few years ago pretty much solely so that I could plug in to college coaches accounts, with a few other baseball related follows peppered in here and there. As my son picked up interest, and gained his own interest in various programs and organizations, I thought it would be a good way to see what's going on in these coaches heads, and how they expressed that through social media, so I would add the ones he was looking at or that were looking at him. Turns out it was pretty valuable in that respect. I know – newsflash right – but it turns out that what folks put on social media, and what they like/retweet and who they follow, can indicate a lot about a person. Granted, not all coaches spend any level of time on social media but you can usually find an assistant or volunteer who does and they may reveal things about the program through their activity that you might not otherwise know.
As far as the promotion of my son via Twitter, it was very limited and nearly solely up to me to do as he really only was ever involved in snapchat and, to some degree, instagram. I might have retweeted a handful of posts made by his travel coach/org but nothing on my own. Best of luck!
Another way to get to the people you want to see your tweets is by tagging. Putting the "@" in front of their Twitter handle in your post will alert them to your post. There are also some Twitter accounts that promote baseball players that are followed by large numbers of baseball people and are intended for exposure. @FlatGround and @flatgroundbats were both created by Rob Friedman @pitchingninja to help with exposure. If you tag those accounts in your tweets he will often retweet your post to all of his followers.
I would reserve that type of blast for exceptional performances or measurables though. We had a local kid throw a perfect game in Jupiter last week and his dad tweeted it tagging @FlatGround and @perfectgamebaseball which likely got a ton of views.
I don't think the parents should be promoting the player primarily. The player should follow coaches, who often will follow them back. Kids typically have many more followers than the parents and thier friends will retweet the kids tweet and that has a wide reach. I have seen parents sending out all tweets about their kid and performance and to me it seems that if the kid doesn't do it, then how invested is he in his own recruitment. I do agree with 22and25 that a parent retweeting a tweet about their kid is great.
Yes...I created Flatground exactly for this. Free exposure. I’ll retweet any video to flatground’s followers, as long as it follows the rules in the pinned tweets. Pretty much every major college (all levels) and pro organizations follow it. In fact, we’ve had 10+ players get picked up by MLB organizations...and hundreds by colleges. Do a google search on flatgroundapp for some the coverage it’s gotten.
I'm not sure how much a personal Twitter account will do for you. The people you are trying to reach — coaches — aren't just randomly on Twitter looking for people who had a great weekend. And once you have their attention, likely you are communicating on a personal level via texts rather than in a public way like Twitter.
I can see retweeting stuff from Perfect Game, but again, the people following you are likely to be people know, rather than people who want to know about you, if that makes sense.
And just because someone needs to say it. Be careful of what you tweet, and what you retweet, both for you and for your son. You may have heard here in Iowa that when Carson King was raising $3 million for a children's hospital, people dug up racist tweets from when he was 16 and published them. These things don't go away and what seems funny or innocuous right now can do a lot of damage down the road.
Do you all think having a twitter account is a critical tool? Someone told me my player needs a twitter because coaches will contact him that way? (True?). I’ve got one of those weird kids who doesn’t really do social media. Says the “fakeness” is annoying. Has an Instagram but not Snapchat or twitter. Just looked. He has posted twice in the last year -once when we got our puppy and the other when he got his drivers license a week ago. And I know he goes days without checking it, so maybe more dangerous to have a coach thinking he’s not responsive? He’s a 2022, so we haven’t really started the recruiting process, but are lining everything up to start strong next spring. Starting a twitter and collecting followers,etc would need to be done before that. Right? I find this aspect completely overwhelming.
As I have mentioned in another thread, my oldest son was recruited 100% through Rob's FlatgroundApp Twitter account. His videos included velo, in-game video, Rapsoso data. He received, just from Twitter, 7 D1 offers (only 1 of the schools actually saw him pitch in person), received calls from over 14 D1 schools, and received 15 D2/NAIA offers.
In his case, he was grad transferring and was going through a major transformation as a pitcher. He changed his mechanics on his own and added almost 20 pounds. He showed his transformation journey via twitter.
I would not say it is a necessity, but everyone is doing it. Most showcases Tweet good plays at their tournaments and kids add their own with great plays. My son has several coaches "following" his account including the school he committed to. Most of his vids tweets have around 1K views, and 2 have over 7K. You never know who might be watching. The one 7K views was from stealing home to win a district game. The boys do have to understand that if they have coaches following them, they might not be actually watching their baseball posts, they might be looking at all the other posts to see what type of characters he is.
The object is to tag people//organizations in your twitter. You would be surprised by how many D1, especially P5 coaches, are constantly on twitter. I can guarantee you most D1 RC's follow Canes Baseball and some of the other accounts. They also follow the major PBR, maybe not local PBR other than local D1's. I have noticed how many follow PG and WWBA. You can't tell me they are not looking when PG put something up this week. I know one young man hit a walk-off homerun who was unsigned and his dad said his phone blew up afterwards. It was put up by PG and retweeted by several organizations and leaders. I have noticed how many times PG will retweet certain players when their parents post things and tag PG in them. I think it is a tool to be used. Lousylefty, if your son does not have the social media accounts he better get them before he is recruited. My son was asked by everybody college and pro about his social media. I had one scout tell me when I said my son did not use twitter that he believed every teenager had one of each either public or private. If they put none, I assume they have one and just don't want me to see what they put out there. Red Flag.
I agree use flatground. I'm pretty sure most major schools nowadays will take a lot at flatground. Of course you still need to show some skills
PitchingFan posted:My son was asked by everybody college and pro about his social media. I had one scout tell me when I said my son did not use twitter that he believed every teenager had one of each either public or private. If they put none, I assume they have one and just don't want me to see what they put out there. Red Flag.
Good to know. I hadn't thought about that angle. Although I don't know many athletes who play for a competitive travel ball program with 4.6GPA and Presidential award for volunteering (100's of hours) who have much time for social media. This will likely have to be a joint effort between the two of us. I'm the one who spends more time online. Really appreciate the advice.
Don't have to use it regularly but open one and put some stuff on it. I disagree with many on here that you can be the one who does his emails and social media. He needs skills but you can oversee and help.
22and25 posted:
Confusing tweet tho. Says #1 LHP in Ohio, Pocket Radar of 86 MPH but an image of a RHP..... I agree with Tequila's post - follow the programs your son has interest (or have him follow them). You learn a lot about the coaches and the program that way.
* edited to spell Tequila right.
Would you post any workout clips on Twitter? Maybe one day post some BP swings? And post some defensive work on another day? Show the work ethic of the player who is trying to get some exposure?
Twitter is a big part of baseball recruiting. Here was our strategy from our travel director. Upload video to twitter and tag him, the state PBR director and flatground app. My son posted 3 videos and had over 20k views between the three. While you may not have any followers, the state PBR, flatground, and your coach should have a lot of college baseball coaches following them. My son's first contact with a D1 came after a tweet from his outing at WWBA and his first offer came from a coach who watched his video on flat ground. One of his teammates was offered by a D1 from a 6 second twitter video of him hitting 101 exit velo. He ended up committing there a few months later.
LousyLefty posted:PitchingFan posted:My son was asked by everybody college and pro about his social media. I had one scout tell me when I said my son did not use twitter that he believed every teenager had one of each either public or private. If they put none, I assume they have one and just don't want me to see what they put out there. Red Flag.
Good to know. I hadn't thought about that angle. Although I don't know many athletes who play for a competitive travel ball program with 4.6GPA and Presidential award for volunteering (100's of hours) who have much time for social media. This will likely have to be a joint effort between the two of us. I'm the one who spends more time online. Really appreciate the advice.
Teenagers will find time for that
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johnlanza posted:Would you post any workout clips on Twitter? Maybe one day post some BP swings? And post some defensive work on another day? Show the work ethic of the player who is trying to get some exposure?
Nope, it is all about measurables. A video showing a kid throwing 90 or exit velo close to a 100 is going to get a lot of attention. A video of a kid just working out is probably going to get passed over
d-mac posted:johnlanza posted:Would you post any workout clips on Twitter? Maybe one day post some BP swings? And post some defensive work on another day? Show the work ethic of the player who is trying to get some exposure?
Nope, it is all about measurables. A video showing a kid throwing 90 or exit velo close to a 100 is going to get a lot of attention. A video of a kid just working out is probably going to get passed over
I have to disagree based on our experience. While it is about measurables, my son heard over and over again "Any kid that works this hard, we want to play at X". My son was not a 95 mph pitcher, but the coaches that understood what he was doing and how he was doing it got it and saw that he could be. Here is a link to his first post on flatground that has 23,500 views https://twitter.com/J_Sudds46/.../1093613269682597888
He posted updates inside the same thread and re-tweeted it to flatground and then once he had several schools following him, he started posting updates separately often tagging flatground
My 2022 had very good results when I shared his video on flatground, but timing of when you post is key.
PitchingFan posted:The object is to tag people//organizations in your twitter. You would be surprised by how many D1, especially P5 coaches, are constantly on twitter. I can guarantee you most D1 RC's follow Canes Baseball and some of the other accounts. They also follow the major PBR, maybe not local PBR other than local D1's. I have noticed how many follow PG and WWBA. You can't tell me they are not looking when PG put something up this week. I know one young man hit a walk-off homerun who was unsigned and his dad said his phone blew up afterwards. It was put up by PG and retweeted by several organizations and leaders. I have noticed how many times PG will retweet certain players when their parents post things and tag PG in them. I think it is a tool to be used. Lousylefty, if your son does not have the social media accounts he better get them before he is recruited. My son was asked by everybody college and pro about his social media. I had one scout tell me when I said my son did not use twitter that he believed every teenager had one of each either public or private. If they put none, I assume they have one and just don't want me to see what they put out there. Red Flag.
Totally agree about coaches using social media. When PBR tweeted about my son's 6.6 sixty multiple D1 coaches contacted his travel coach the next day. His HS teammate received offers for unofficial visits just off of his flatground video.
This is really a testament to how hard it is to get recruited and how large the pool of potential recruits is. If you consider that a decade ago a lot of the stories you are hearing on this thread would not have even happened, it is amazing. Also, the power of high visibility social media like Flatgeound, PBR, and PG cannot be understated. The key is video every damn thing your kid does in the event you get something you can post. Anecdotally, I have also seen kids post social media showing them “throw” 92-93 ...when in fact what they threw was an underweighted ball.
The only thing Twitter (other than Flatground) will do for your son's prospects is HURT them.
I think it can be helpful. If you are mentioned or retweet, followers see it. Most of the RCs that my son was talking to throughout the process followed him so they would see how he did at events. That said, there is nothing outside of baseball related content posted on his twitter.
MTH posted:The only thing Twitter (other than Flatground) will do for your son's prospects is HURT them.
Oh, there has to be a story or two here.
MTH posted:The only thing Twitter (other than Flatground) will do for your son's prospects is HURT them.
The only thing that can hurt their recruiting on twitter is to post stupid stuff. I cannot imagine anything bad happening from the player tweeting good stuff about themselves and retweeting other players and programs. Stupid stuff will hurt you no matter where it is in real life or social media.
But, what constitutes "stupid stuff?" My List:
1. A parent or player tagging a college coach trying to get them to make an offer. I recently saw a parent Tweet her kids travel ball stat line to 4 or 5 college coaches. Lady, they've all seen your kid and know he's a rising senior throwing 83. All you're doing is making them think maybe they should take a pass on the marginal kid with the whackaddoodle parent.
2. Same kid gets an offer from a D-2 school that typically has 75-80 on the roster. What's the first thing he does? Tweets that he just received his "first offer" from Podunk U. Kid, do you really think this is going to help you with other schools? Or that Podunk is crazy about you mentioning them to fish for other offers? Get ready for club baseball.
3. And by now you've all seen the cases where coaches pulled offers because the kid posted racist, misogynistic or illegal crap.
I have absolutely no problem with people posting videos on Flatground. And, of course, I have no problem with HS or travel ball coaches trying to promote their kids. But, the vast majority of parents and kids would be better off if they just stayed the heck away from trying to "help" themselves on Twitter.
I know that my son, as a college coach, uses Twitter, himself, as his primary means of communicating publicly about the program. What I don't know is the extent to which he and his staff use it to identify prospective recruits.
I used to be the in the group that said having a Twitter and Instagram account was not that important. But that all changed this summer. I am now on board with that it is great for the player to have. Before going out to the PG 14u National Showcase I was talked into getting both accounts by a group of parents who have some high profile players. Needles to say, after coming back from the event, coaches started following my son on both platforms. My son, playing up on varsity in a high school fall league, had a really good outing. I sent some of the video I took and sent it over to the head guy of my son's showcase organization. He sent it out via Twitter and Instagram. My son's account took off overnight from follows from college coaches. He also had some schools (D1) call the showcase coach and the high school the next couple of days asking about him and asking for him to give them a call.
There are so many players out there, and college coaches can't be everywhere. So they are definitely watching. Now most of the stuff they pay attention to is going to be posts by PG, PBR, showcase programs that they have relationships with or know put out a bunch of college players, etc. But getting the name and the player in front of the college coach is part of the battle. That is when the player's account will start to gain followers in the form of coaches. I check my son's account every couple of days to see his new follows. Some of the time the coaches will even follow the trail and follow my account and my wife's account.
