Student-athletes put extraordinary levels of effort into their sport and academic life to give themselves a chance at playing in college. Unfortunately, sometimes this is not enough. To ensure young athletes get noticed, they need to up their exposure with personal branding.
The most important aspect of college recruiting for any young athlete is exposure. Media exposure and exposure to coaches, athletic directors, and admissions officers are all vital to display a holistic vision of potential programs.
An effective personal brand includes an athletic profile, but it also requires scholarly data and extracurricular interests. With a holistic personal brand, a wide range of coaches find your student-athlete and connect them with the best programs.
HOW TO CREATE AN EFFECTIVE PERSONAL BRAND
With social media and the internet, almost everyone creates a personal brand whether they want to or not. The key to making an effective personal brand for young athletes is providing coaches and recruiters with curated information they want to see.
The best way to do that is on a personal website, in-person dissemination of print media, and consistent content updates.
● Build a personal website
The first step to gaining personal brand exposure is creating an online home for your brand. Building a website or dedicated social media page is an accessible way to display all the relevant information about your student-athlete, making it easy for coaches to review.
The website should primarily focus on your student athlete’s sports abilities and achievements. Recent statistics links to videos and a biography explaining the athlete’s development and versatility tell coaches what they need to know about the players they can recruit.
A personal branding website should also include a tab on academics. Colleges require that their student-athletes maintain specific academic standards, so an effective personal brand displays a young athlete’s academic ability and accolades.
Along with athletic and academic profiles, information on the person behind the student-athlete is essential. Include information on interests and family to leave a recruiter with a well-rounded understanding of your student-athlete.
● In-person print media
Print media is excellent when they see a coach in person and want the coach to remember them. Ensure your athlete always has business cards that include their student athlete’s website URL, especially at camps and showcases.
Print media can expose a coach to a young athlete’s well-rounded brand rather than just their athletic side.
● Keep it updated and send it out
Once you have the building blocks of a personal brand made, you need to consistently update it with new statistics, videos, and schedules. Email the athletic programs to get coaches to see the website. They may never see it otherwise.
● Include personal details
It’s essential to use websites and social media pages to give coaches a holistic view of your athlete. These platforms allow you to share more about who they are outside of the sport. Highlight volunteer work, community involvement, and hobbies that set them apart from other players.
WHY BRANDING IS NECESSARY
There are nearly eight million high school athletes competing in sports every year. Competition for limited positions on college teams is fierce, and even when a student-athlete has the skills, they can be challenging for coaches to find and recruit.
If Michael Jordan and Carmelo Anthony failed to make their high school basketball teams, it’s understandable to think a college coach could miss some fantastic talent. Personal branding is one way you can stop this from happening to your student-athlete.
● Create meaningful exposure
Personal branding exposes coaches to meaningful information about a student-athlete. Coaches need to sift through mountains of information to find the right person for their team. When all they receive is athletic profiles, they are left wondering about their recruits’ academic and personal attributes.
● Give coaches a clear picture
Be proactive and give coaches the whole package with holistic personal branding. They will remember the person you present more than they remember, just another athletic profile.
THE BENEFITS OF PERSONAL BRANDING
The initial benefits of personal branding for young athletes are more contact with coaches and options on their decision day. With more options to choose from, student-athletes have the freedom to pick a school they love rather than choosing the only school that notices them.
● Scholarships
Beyond school choice, getting lots of exposure leads to media and name recognition leading to scholarships for some, and for an elite few, there could be money to be made off jersey sales. Considering the hard work student-athletes put in, a lack of exposure should never hold them back from the opportunities they deserve.
● Overcome pandemic limitations
Finally, in the current pandemic landscape, student-athletes need an online personal brand to set themselves apart from the crowd and connect with coaches who cannot travel.
Recruitment trips and evaluation cycles are no longer the foundation of college recruitment. Online research is more critical than ever for coaches searching for their next star player.
SET YOUR STUDENT-ATHLETE APART WITH PERSONAL BRANDING
The level of effort student-athletes exert daily to perform their best, and the support their friends and families give them means they deserve to make a college team. Give them the best chance to do so with a holistic personal branding that displays their athletic, academic, and personal life.
The ultimate goal is to match your athlete with the right college program for them.
At Scout Logix, we know what you are going through because we went through it with our student-athlete daughter. We created Scout Logix to help student-athletes gain exposure among the sea of high school athletes.
We will build your young athlete a personal website, create print media, and keep your student athlete’s brands updated throughout their seasons. Contact us today for more information about our personal branding services.
