by Mandy Green, Busy Coach
If you’re new to using social media as an effective recruiting tool, I would recommend that you choose one or maybe two platforms to be active on at first.
I don’t want you to make the mistake of doing is trying to be everywhere at once. Especially now at the beginning of the new school year when you have 100 things pulling you in a million different directions, you have to be really conscious of your time.
There are so many valuable platforms out there like Facebook and Instagram and Snapchat and Twitter and YouTube and LinkedIn and Pinterest and TicTok and a whole bunch of other new guys who are just coming on the scene and will continue to over time. And each one of them has ever changing rules and features and updates and norms.
I believe that a lot of coaches make a big mistake of trying to be everywhere at once when it comes to social and they’re not doing anything well or seeing results on any platform.
Why am I recommending this – that you not make this mistake? It’s because there’s only 24 hours in a day and quality matters. You’ve known this, or you should know this if you engage on any platforms right now, that creating and sharing and publishing and genuinely engaging with your recruits takes a lot of time, especially if you want to do it right.
And for the average college coach, for someone who maybe has no extra staff, teaches classes, plus family responsibilities and a desire not to live 24/7 in your phone or your computer, this expectation to be on every platform constantly publishing relevant things and constantly engaging with recruits, it’s just not realistic. It’s not sustainable.
Rather than spreading yourself too thin or trying to be everywhere at once and not doing anything well, pick one platform to be active on and dominate it. That’s right. Just crush it, kill it, love it up, do whatever you want to do. But really get into it.
The best advice that I can really give you is that if you want to dominate a specific social media platform, you have got to commit to that platform with your whole heart so that you can get great at it. Understand how it works, all the rules, what kind of content works best. Read articles and tutorials online and take a class about it. Follow popular people, whether or not they’re in your industry. Follow the people who are just doing it really well. You can learn so much by observing and engaging with them and trying out some of their strategies, which means diving in and starting to experiment for yourself.
I will tell you, it is not rocket science to get good at this stuff. You can use Google, you can follow other people. There’s so many different ways that you can figure out how to be good at any particular social platform that you want to dominate.
Now, you may be asking yourself, “well, how do you choose which platform?” There’s so many out there.
I’ve broken it down to two simple things. Here’s how to choose.
- Choose the platform that has the most of your ideal recruits on it.
- The one that you actually want to be on and enjoy.
So for example, since your ideal recruits are 16-18 years old, you wouldn’t choose Facebook because teenagers left Facebook years ago. Right?
Similarly, if all of your ideal recruit avatars (IRA’s), or maybe not all but a lot of them, spend time on Instagram but you can’t stand Instagram for whatever reason, then you’ve got two choices. You’ve either got to go find another platform or change your attitude about Instagram and find a way to love it.
Now, if you don’t know the general demographics of any platform, Google it up, my friend. Ask your current team which platforms they are on. Or better yet, ask your recruits directly. This information is always changing, and you always have access to the most up to date trends and information if you just Google it or be willing to ask the right questions to the recruits you are after.
Want a free guide that will help you navigate social media recruiting like a pro? Click here to download Mandy Green’s free guide she has produced for college coaches! To contact Mandy, email her at mandy@busycoach.com.