by Sean Devlin, Front Rush
Now that Snapchat is en route to being NCAA legal, we thought it might be a good idea to generally explain the app so that you can come to your own conclusions. First thing to know, your players and your recruits are snapchatting. Second thing to know, parents are not. That is a key differentiator, but we’ll explain that later.
The general concept behind Snapchat is one person takes a photo/video and shares it with their personal friends. The photo/video is then destroyed once it is viewed. This means instead of taking a photo and sharing it with the world like Twitter or Instagram, or posting a picture to a network of associates (whether close or not) on Facebook, Snapchat is very personal…sometimes too personal i.e. for the same conclusion that many people come too when they first hear about the app. With that said, its popularity is unquestionable and as a Snapchatter myself, I can attest to its habit forming addictiveness. So what’s the deal?
It’s like sending a text message, but you can tell more of a story with the video and it’s not difficult because the app opens directly to the camera. There is also little consequence because the photo/video will be destroyed so your guard is let down, which makes for less formality and a larger variety of content. Parents aren’t on Facebook which maybe is one of the reasons that their kids are…although Facebook did make a $3 billion dollar offer for Snapchat, which was turned down. The question is, should you be on Snapchat?
I don’t know. I think it’s personality driven at this point and some coaches may be able to partake without turning kids off because they see through the attempt to be “hip”. And for those that can, it could potentially be very effective. The constraints of an expiring video will certainly lead entrepreneurial coaches to have a leg up (at least in the early stages)..the same way that early adopters of Twitter did. Hopefully those coaches can keep it PG because if/when they do, it will be really cool to hear about. The argument that athletes want to be contacted via the medium that they already communicate is a strong one. However, Facebook is proving that their is a counter example so that’s what’s up.
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