Social Media Changing College Recruiting Forever

National letter of intent signing day never used to be one of the most treasured days on the sports calendar. For the most intense college football fans, the day used to mean little more than a few preview articles in the newspaper and wrap up of the recruiting class with little fanfare. Things have changed immensely though, and it does not seem as if there is any going back.

Today, national signing day is almost like a holiday for football geeks. A day when grown men can gather around computers to celebrate 18-year-old boys choosing where they will play a game they still love, America’s game, football. Fans are no longer questioned about their fanatical following of recruiting updates. It is all just part of the college football landscape undoubtedly changing due to the rise of social media.

One of the best examples of this change is the constant updates through blogs, such as Black Shoe Diaries. Fans no longer have to wait until tomorrow’s paper or even a web article to be posted to find out who is signing where. For the instant gratification nuts in the room, social media is now being used to put all this information in the palm of your hand at a second’s notice. For instance, as soon the recruiting deadline passed, Black Shoe Diaries posted this article, which highlighted Penn State’s successes on a rocky recruiting day. 

The fact that information is accessible immediately is undoubtedly the driving force behind national signing day entering a whole new realm of hype and media personnel are not the only ones taking advantage of this hype. Coaches and players alike have turned to social media to assist in the recruiting process. Coaches find that they must join social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, to keep up with the competition. They also use social media to get a better understanding of who the players are and gauge off the field character.

Players are also using these mediums to get their name out there and boost their recruiting prospects. They can use Twitter direct messages and personal Facebook messages to contact coaches without any recruiting violations being imposed. This is a great way to get around all of the violations hype that has been flowing in the recent years.

Gone are the days when we would find out about the recruiting class from our favorite college next year on the field. Now, whether we like it or not, college recruiting has been changed by social media. The process will continue into the future, as well, as mediums change and new mediums form.

Social Media Changes the Super Bowl

Let’s face the facts; social media is changing our world and everything we hold sacred. Even the Super Bowl, America's greatest tradition has been altered by social media. Sure the on-field portion of the game is still the same, but everything else surrounding the game is changing to catch up with the public’s new favorite form of communication.

One of the most cherished portions of the week leading up to the Super Bowl does not actually have anything to do with football. The buzz about this year’s Super Bowl commercials grew to an all-time high with the increased exposure thanks to Twitter and Facebook. Corporations paid up to $3.5 million for a 30-second advertisement spot in Super Bowl XLVI. Many of these commercials also encouraged fans to get Tweeting about their products, such as Budweiser’s #herewego and #makeitplatnum, as well as, GE’s #whatworks, and Audi’s #solongvampires Twitter campaigns. 

Coca-Cola also ran an ingenious marketing strategy including the now-famous Coke bears. The advertisements aimed to get people interacting with Coke on Twitter and Facebook, as well as, checking out CokePolarBear.com where the bears were ready to interact with fans.  Conversley, Papa John’s also lost big this Super Bowl by running a social media campaign stating that the company would give away free pizzas to America if the opening coin flip was heads. #Oops

To top off this opportunistic marketing moment, companies vied for the “most talked about” award. The award was created to honor the company that garnered the most mentions on Twitter in the week prior to the Super Bowl. This season, Dannon’s commercial, featuring John Stamos, earned the “most talked about” award with 1,170.4% increase over normal traffic on social media sites. 

We even are starting to judge the teams on the field by how much buzz they created on Twitter leading up the game. The New York Giants blew away the New England Patriots with roughly 63% of the tweets about Super Bowl containing a Giants mention.

Finally, the game day experience is changing, as fans look to Twitter for in-game news and updates about the teams, commercials and halftime show. In fact,  during the game, every trending topic was consistently about the Super Bowl. Some of the most popular hashtags went to #SB46, #jasonpierrepaul, #Madonna and #thisM&M. Whether we like it or not, American is changing to fit with the times and that includes out most sacred of events: the Super Bowl.