Social Media Today

Yes, they are over the top sometimes. I know this is kinda frowned on but my son posts nothing on social media, so I ran his twitter for recruiting . My rule was basically only liking or retweeting what other people/organizations (his coach, PBR, PG, etc) posted about him or his friends/teammates. Let other people talk about you IMO.

My son isn't a big social media guy, but it is certainly a tool that has aided in him being "seen". He's always played well, but he's been relatively unknown because he didn't get much playing time for his HS team and we had him play for summer programs that were budget friendly, which meant he's not played in a PBR/PG event. We encouraged him to start tweeting his highlights and he now has scouts and coaches following him. We've also received a lot of comments/support from local folk saying he should definitely have a starting spot on the HS team. We've always told our son that you have to be so much better than other players that it would make the coach look like an idiot to not play you. Social media has provided him a platform to demonstrate just how good he is and certainly make it questionable if he doesn't get much playing time.

My son is also not a big social media guy. Probably because I scared the s*** out of him that a single bad post or like could have lasting impacts. He’s posted a highlight video and his stats/metrics.

Social could potentially have bigger impacts depending on the level you are targeting. P5 schools recruit earlier so if he’s at that level then post away. If he’s not that level then I wouldn’t stress about recruiting for a year or longer

Social Media, like it our not, is an important part of the recruiting process.  IMO, it has helped my 2024's early recruiting process.  Kids will have many missteps with social media, so parents should keep a watchful eye and have occasional discussions ... I never used it, this old dog needed to learn a new trick.

While it is not always real ... it is a useful marketing platform.  Video exploded when covid hit us, video is here to stay!  Social media is here to stay.  college baseball coaches love their Twitter; Players love their Instagram. 

You may want to check out Josh Rudd's "Secrets to Social Media" from Aug 2020.   

We found recently that Social Media has helped my son (2025) know if there was at least low level interest from a school (or so we think). Son went to a camp at a mid-major D1. As soon as the camp was over (on our drive home) he was followed on Twitter by the coach running the camp and the RC. From the looks of it, he was the only player at the camp that was followed by the coaches. Something else interesting, not sure if other school's coaches follow those coaches to see who they are following, but he had 4 other school's RC and one other School's HC started following him within a week of that camp. We found that interesting.

We have been positing highlights and retweet any posts from the tournament organizations that they have posted (Player of the games, hits and caught steeling they have posted). 

@baseballhs posted:

Yes, they are over the top sometimes. I know this is kinda frowned on but my son posts nothing on social media, so I ran his twitter for recruiting . My rule was basically only liking or retweeting what other people/organizations (his coach, PBR, PG, etc) posted about him or his friends/teammates. Let other people talk about you IMO.

We followed this rule with our 2024 and thought it struck the right mix between putting the player out there and avoiding the over the top self-promotion that some find to be a turnoff. You’re early in the process for it to matter, but it was also very helpful to have a presence once 9/1 hit Junior year and coaches could reach out directly.

Social media makes absolutely zero of an imprint when it comes to recruiting… it is completely and utterly meaningless.

Either you can play or you cannot.

And if you can play at a certain level, the college coaches are going to know about you. Social media can only serve as a detriment in your recruiting and not in the slightest as any sort of help.

Unless perhaps if you live in Alaska and have no ability to get to any sort of recruiting event. Or perhaps if you are an extreme outlier who throws 97 miles an hour, and your dad is a complete crazed fool who won’t let you leave the farm, then you could possibly get drafted from your farm via social media.

For everybody else the “I need to post on social media so I can be seen” is merely an excuse. Hey, if you like social media, and if you get a nice little dopamine fix from posting on social media, that’s great, but if you think it has anything to do with your recruiting you are just fooling yourself

Thank you so much for the replies - these perspectives really help and we've really let my son's play speak for itself so far.  Would really prefer to continue with that, but with the amount of self-promotion going on out there, its hard not to wonder if we shouldn't be also somehow be sharing game snippets of semi-unique skills, etc., at some point.  But ...he's 14, hahaha and it's hard to imagine anyone finding them all that interesting.      

Head over to twitter and visit flatground hitting and flatground pitching, actually read them all.  They give advice about social media posting and emailing.

For our 2024, Twitter has been pretty useful as far as getting some attention and getting videos out and as using as a reference to find video when communicating with schools. Our son is not a big social media user and post very little.  He mostly retweets stuff about his friends and teammates and what others have tweeted about him.  I don't agree with the above comment that social media "makes zero imprint when it comes to recruiting" as I know it personally has been helpful in our 2024's recruiting journey. 

So, as long as it's not obnoxious and the posts are truthful, social media can be a good tool!

Will "twitter" teach your son how to hit .400? Or how to throw strikes? Close in reading on your phone and computer can effect the vision.

Bob

@3and2Fastball posted:

Social media makes absolutely zero of an imprint when it comes to recruiting… it is completely and utterly meaningless.

Either you can play or you cannot.

And if you can play at a certain level, the college coaches are going to know about you. Social media can only serve as a detriment in your recruiting and not in the slightest as any sort of help.

Unless perhaps if you live in Alaska and have no ability to get to any sort of recruiting event. Or perhaps if you are an extreme outlier who throws 97 miles an hour, and your dad is a complete crazed fool who won’t let you leave the farm, then you could possibly get drafted from your farm via social media.

For everybody else the “I need to post on social media so I can be seen” is merely an excuse. Hey, if you like social media, and if you get a nice little dopamine fix from posting on social media, that’s great, but if you think it has anything to do with your recruiting you are just fooling yourself

Can you provide a specific example that you know of where social media served as a detriment? I've known individuals who've been exposed instead of gaining exposure. For example, a player saying they're 6'2", but video clearly shows they're more realistically 5'9". Or the player that says their FB is topping out at 90, but video shows otherwise. But in both these cases they were exposed because they were not being honest.

But what if the individual posting is being honest? What evidence do you have that it's a detriment to their recruiting?

From our own experience, we know not all coaches/recruiting coordinators check out video from emails. I do know for a fact that they have watched highlights through twitter. We live in a rural area and our son hasn't participated in the major scouting tournaments, yet he's gained some followers. I will say they may not have started following him from seeing his videos on twitter, but it may have been through word of mouth. Considering they can't always see him at every game I'm sure it is helping them keep an eye on him, why else would they add him to their "follow" list?

I also disagree about the zero impact part. My son put a tweet up which was then retweeted by his travel coach who has 8,000 followers including a zillion college coaches because he works with a lot of college and MLB hitters in the off season. The travel coach had a number of college coaches from different levels message him about my son and his interests. None of those schools were an academic fit, but if they were he'd easily have had a chance to engage them for recruiting. This was all based on 1 tweet of his WWBA Atlanta highlights and metrics.

Those who say it is not working are old school and have no clue about today's generation of college coaches.  I can guarantee you someone at every college is watching twitter and follows certain other people who know who is who.  IT will not make you a great player but it will get your name out there if you are a great player.  Basic rules.  Tell the truth.  If it is truth you can post it but it is always better if someone else does it and you follow or retweet them.  Don't retweet or tweet or post stupid stuff no matter how funny you and your buds think it is.  Be careful.  All it takes a picture of you at the wrong place or the wrong time to have it all blow up on you.

Would be glad to elaborate on any or all but it is very good or very bad according to how you use it.

The videos that my son has shared with me that impress, IMO, are the ones that simply show the player's ability.  But I am not a recruiter and we are just trying to understand when, if ever, it's worth posting.  We have a short somewhat unique skill video that we made for fun that we have not posted (happy to share via DM for future guidance on when, if ever to share or post similar videos).  Right now, we just lurk on social media, and he is simply working to improve while loving the game.  Again, thank you for all of the perspectives.

@PitchingFan posted:

Don't retweet or tweet or post stupid stuff no matter how funny you and your buds think it is.  Be careful.  All it takes a picture of you at the wrong place or the wrong time to have it all blow up on you.

Would be glad to elaborate on any or all but it is very good or very bad according to how you use it.

Also watch your "likes" everyone can see the tweets you like.

@3and2Fastball posted:

Social media makes absolutely zero of an imprint when it comes to recruiting… it is completely and utterly meaningless.

Either you can play or you cannot.

And if you can play at a certain level, the college coaches are going to know about you. Social media can only serve as a detriment in your recruiting and not in the slightest as any sort of help.

Unless perhaps if you live in Alaska and have no ability to get to any sort of recruiting event. Or perhaps if you are an extreme outlier who throws 97 miles an hour, and your dad is a complete crazed fool who won’t let you leave the farm, then you could possibly get drafted from your farm via social media.

For everybody else the “I need to post on social media so I can be seen” is merely an excuse. Hey, if you like social media, and if you get a nice little dopamine fix from posting on social media, that’s great, but if you think it has anything to do with your recruiting you are just fooling yourself

I bet this guy loves a good bat flip! 😁

Your son is a 2026. Unless he is a stud, I would hold off until he really has something to impress.

JMO

@DaddyBaller posted:

I bet this guy loves a good bat flip! 😁

be careful what bombs and bat flips you post on Twitter, could send the wrong message :-)

half serious ... my son smashed one, then got caught on video watching the ball fly over the trees behind the RF fence; he knew he would be ripped for watching and not running; video never made it to Twitter or Instagram, even after I paid HiCast to access the video.  Grandad still enjoyed it!