Using Social Media for Recruiting Visibility

X is King, and Consistency Wins

When looking to gain visibility to be recruited in baseball, there are numerous apps, services, and techniques to consider. I will mention some of these, but primarily I’ll focus on social media for this publication. You need a strategy, and you need to be consistent. First let’s discuss strategy.

The Basics - Account Setup

Focus on one platform and then expand on that. First and foremost I recommend X (Twitter). It is by far the most widely used by recruiters. It’s also simple to tag others, and you can send direct messages. You can use an account dedicated to baseball here. Don’t clutter it up with “friend information.” It’s fine to like things, but don’t repost others’ stuff. You can do that with a personal account. When reposting, those will be at the top of your posts, and push your posts down the list. Here’s a couple of tips on setting up X.

• You’ll want to create the account using a name that at least represents the player’s real name.

• The player should run the account and keep it dedicated to baseball.

• In the profile, include:

  • Physical attributes: Height, weight, positions played

  • Academic info: High School (include City/State), Grad Year, GPA, any Honors

  • Links to other social accounts (mainly Instagram and/or Youtube)

  • Travel Team

• Pick a good profile picture and banner (baseball-related preferably)

• Pin a highlight video to the top of your feed.

Posting

Capture a lot of videos‌. It’s easier for pitchers and catchers, as they are always part of the action. The hardest part for them is editing it down. Batters are also easier to catch. Catching that great defensive play on camera is much tougher and becomes hit and miss. Being consistent is super important. Post at least a couple of videos per week. If nothing is going on in a particular week, post a previous one. Here are some other tips and recommendations for posting:

• Create a tag list somewhere, like Notepad. That makes it easy to copy and paste for each post.

  • On most posts tag current coaches, school sports accounts, and repost accounts

  • Don’t tag college coaches/recruiters (DM/Text/Email them a link to the post individually instead)

• Post a video, but make it only two minutes. I tried to keep them under a minute.

• Include a description - where, outcome, etc.

• Include your tag list

• Repost or quote scouting reports from PG, PBR, Dynamic, etc.

  • Always thank them for the recognition

  • Again, include your tag list

• For pitchers and hitters, post stats for the game.

  • Don’t include pitcher velo unless it was included in a third party scouting post

• Post your schedule - especially for travel ball

  • Text/DM/Email it to specific coaches individually

By posting regularly, you will gain an audience. Some of the coaches will follow you. Some will stay incognito, but will still be watching. Just because they are not listed as a follower, does not mean that they are not watching. Find the appropriate groups to tag for your area to help increase exposure. Some like @uncommited, @”travel team”, @”geographical area” , and many others can help with exposure by reposting your posts. Include the tourney body in your tags as well.

There are other services that are not really social media, but are invaluable in making you reachable. Take advantage of all the profiles for the tournament bodies, like PG, PBR, Dynamic, etc. They are free. The profile information is viewable by the scouts and recruiters. You can repost to Instagram as well, but it does not seem to be followed as closely as X.

As you are taking videos, post them all to a YouTube channel. As mentioned earlier, reference the YouTube channel in the profile/bio. Say something like “For more videos go here —> “YouTube link.” For pitching, we included full bullpens, full ABs, etc. We tried to make them less than a minute and in portrait mode. Those get posted as “shorts” by YouTube and get a lot of additional visibility.

I hope you find this helpful. Good luck in your recruiting efforts!

If you have questions, please let me know in the comments or send me a direct message.

Interested to hear about another topic? Let me know!