Virtual Recruiting: High Tech Leverages High Touch

University of Florida head coach, Ron Zook, understands the value of technology as a tool for recruiting
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The world is changing at lightning speed and athletic programs that don’t change with it will be left to scavenge through the leftover talent and limp into tomorrow. For the purpose of this article, change equals the Internet and the best of the Internet is laden with “rich media.” More on rich media later. If your football program isn’t exploiting this new recruiting tool, chances are you will be losing time, impact and premier talent.

There are two irrefutable realities of recruiting: first, a coach’s future is as intrinsically linked to his recruiting capabilities as the engine is to your automobile. Second, every year the football recruiting process precedes and is the foundation of a life changing decision for thousands of talented 17-,18-, and 19-year-old young men.

To the coach, this means his future – and that of his family – often rests in the hands of fickle teenagers bursting with bravado, hobbled by insecurity and glutted with information about collegiate programs. If they choose the right program – or the right program chooses them – in their minds your colors will be become their personal red carpet to the pros.

For even the most highly recruited student-athletes the process is overwhelming – one day flattering, the next flattening. As a result, understanding and managing the attention of prized recruits is the single most important skill required for recruiting success. Basically, coaches hunger for a recruit’s mind but won’t get it without first capturing his attention. And once they have it, that attention is proven to be a highly perishable commodity.

Today’s athletes were born and raised on digital technology in their homes, schools and toys. Student-athletes and displaced fans expect and even demand relationships that are technology-enabled. Because people are at the core of the process though it’s crucial to strike the right balance between high tech and high touch.

Just as charisma enhances rather than replaces talent, skill or knowledge, Internet technology can boost but not replace looking a kid and his parent(s) in the eye, and a strong hand to win them over. Even the most immature kid won’t choose to play or not play for a program because of a glitzy Web site or lack of email appeals. In most instances they are sold by a coach. The coach who sells that kid invariably has given them a glimpse of future greatness, and convinced the prospect that his program will be able to provide the young man whatever it takes to be No. 1.

But before any coach can convince, he must capture their attention – a not so easy task given the explosion of information sources. The Internet search engine Google reports that there are 4,730,000 individual sports Web sites. Add to that traditional sports magazines, pages of newspaper coverage and 24/7 sports broadcasting.

Technology is used to communicate more information to more people every day. According to the Texas Longhorns, 90 percent of this year’s recruits have email addresses – 1/3 more than last year. It’s a vicious cycle because the more attention something or someone gets to begin with, the easier it is to get more. Those who are rich in attention only seem to get richer.

In 2002, approximately 143 million or 54 percent of Americans were using the Internet with an estimated two million new devotees added each month. According to Advertising Age Magazine, if teenagers had to choose just one media outlet, 65 percent would opt for the Internet over television. According to the study, 15-17-year-old kids average 12 1/4 hrs per week online while 18- and 19-year-olds average 21 1/2 hours per week online. And much of that time is while the adult world is fast asleep.

Virtual Recruiting

“Virtual recruiting” sometimes called, “cyber-recruiting” means lots of things to lots of people. The older and/or more traditional a coach is, the less comfortable virtual recruiting may be, but few question it’s irreversible infusion into the process.

University of Florida head coach, Ron Zook, was one of the clear winners of the past recruiting season. On his return to college coaching after six years in the NFL, Zook, says the Internet was by far the biggest change. “In the NFL the internet is basically used as an information tool to find out about players. NFL players don’t have much of a choice where they’ll play,” said Zook. “In college, the best programs are using the Internet as a sales and marketing tool.” And though Zook knows there’s plenty of misinformation out there, he firmly believes that when you manage the message proactively and accurately portray your program, you can vastly improve your power to woo recruits.

When used aggressively, the Internet has the potential to profoundly transform the relationship between your program and recruits. Think of virtual recruiting in three main parts: your program, recruits and Internet technology. The key is to link all three into an efficient communication channel then market, market, market! Just as recruiting has evolved, so has the Internet.

Web sites have advanced to portals (sites that aggregate sports information for faster, easier searches.) Rivals.com is a portal that provides one stop shopping for recruiting news. According to its VP of Recruiting and Business Development Bobby Burton, coaches are embracing their services. Though his organization keeps its client list confidential, Burton says that 70 Division I-A coaches subscribe to Rivals.com for “an unbiased third party source of information about the nation’s top football recruits.” Burton calculates that his service receives more than one million unique visits per month and 10 to 15 million page views a day.

Most coaches have at least a working knowledge of the Internet’s simplest technology – email. Between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m., email has become the No. 1 communication tool of choice of today’s teens. While calling a player at home at midnight is a surefire way not to win over their parents, interacting via the Internet in the dark of night may be the only time you catch your recruit at home and available.

According to UNC Assistant Athletic Director for Football Operations, Rick Steinbacher, “kids today don’t write letters, they don’t even read them, but they check their email religiously.” The Tar Heels, like their counterparts, send kids mail but in a move to pay fierce attention to what the kids are looking for, UNC’s football program is aggressively moving toward marrying traditional “snail mail” with electronic communications. We’re devising ways to systemically marry up a rigorous traditional communication recruiting process with an equally systematic electronic one.

In three to four years Steinbacher predicts prospect questionnaires will be downloaded and the bulk of communications will be done online. The reality is that while many adults remain Internet challenged, today’s youth aren’t just comfortable with it, Internet technology has become a part of the fabric of their life. Discussion boards and chat rooms are no brainers for them.

Being recruited is a highly emotional activity. A young man’s decision is largely a gut reaction simply justified by logic. As a result, coaches must find every way possible to exploit current Internet technology and like other tools of his trade, stay abreast of every advancement.

The recruiter’s job is to create a point of distinction between his program and the 20 or 30 others that are trying to steal the hearts and minds of the blue chippers. If you’re Internet savvy and your competitor isn’t, then you’ve got a leg up. If you creatively use streaming video, 360 virtual tours and cool audio and graphics (rich media) as part of your distinctive Internet presence, then you’ve already leap-frogged much of the competition.

Today’s Web site Content and Stickiness

Internet based video (despite real limitations) is huge in reaching out to recruits and fans alike. If they can’t attend your Spring game they can at least feel like they did as they experience a player run out onto the field staunchly waving an American flag. And when you write a recruit a note you can always nudge him to your official website for more specific information on everything from football to academic information like your business school’s ranking.

Some coaches answer questions every Monday on their site- questions that prospects want to know. And of fundamental importance to you, that becomes information the football program has total control over. On your website, media can’t filter or omit your content. Your official site is one place that you can be confident that no misinformation is being spread.

And though the rules mandate that you can only visit a recruit’s home one time, you can open wide your doors many times over through your website. Just be certain it’s “sticky” once they get there. “Stickiness” is an important indicator of how much attention is being paid to your site. You don’t want to draw them there and have them leave empty-handed.

A sticky Web site will lure a player, hold him and keep him coming back for more. How do you achieve that? The stickiest sites skillfully use relevance, engagement, community and convenience to keep them coming back. Your content must fill a need; the site should be interactive and entertaining; convey a sense of belonging, have bite-sized chunks of information and be easy to navigate.

To be certain, the volume of information isn’t the real benchmark. The quality of your content does more to sway the impressionable mind of a recruit than anything else.
v According to Texas’ Brown, one prized recruit, who was committed to another university, called him to ask if he could visit. When Brown asked why, he said, “ I saw your facilities on your Web site and figured I owed myself a visit.”

Rich media brings a level of 3D emotion to your program that traditional printed material or pure text in an email or on a website can’t approximate.

Researchers calculate that video and other graphics on the Internet draw more ears and eyeballs and improves retention by as much as 400 percent. Imagine the impact a live video (webcast) of your recruiting weekend could have on a blue chipper and his family still vacillating between your program and that of your toughest rival.

Mining Internet Data & New Technology

But having rich media on the Internet is just the start. Using it in its fullest capacity is a completely different challenge. The internet has long had the capability to track web site traffic but few even know the data exists much less mine the raw data. They may be aware of how many people visit their site but rarely maximize when and where visitors go on the site then change the content correspondingly. And if sports information directors are covered up, athletic department webmasters are virtually buried!

The Mack Brown Texas Football site recorded 26 to 30 million hits per month last year, employs one full time web specialist and uses significant part-time assistance from the sports information department. But despite the commitment and lengths to which Brown’s program goes to maximize the Internet, he admits they still don’t capture and use their Internet data to the extent that they could or should to best leverage their investment.

The Next Level in Internet Technology

Now take a mental giant step to a totally new level. Why? Because the biggest and best sports Web sites all use some form of streaming video and audio already. To a recruit intrigued with your program, if your site looks like everyone else’s, then your program probably is like theirs too.

The evolution of the Internet has moved from Web sites to portals to a new genre enabled by “push technology.” Today’s newest Internet recruiting tool delivers your program to recruits, creating a proactive communication channel that keeps your brand in the forefront of their minds year round.

Remember what I said about the need to make your Web site interactive, have bite-sized information and be easy to navigate? Internet recruiting tools (such as Vmag) does all of that and more. And built into the internet recruiting tool software is a tracking and reporting system that tells you who gets it, when and how many times they watched it – a clear indicator of your program’s value and interest to the recruit.

Maximizing the Internet will give you the best return on your recruiting investment. It’s past time to learn how to use it. According to Florida’s Zook, “it’s becoming more and more essential to recruit via the Internet. People go online to buy houses, boats, even groceries, why should we think they don’t go online to find their future team?”

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About the author: Kathleen Hessert

Kathleen Hessert is President & CEO of Sports Media Challenge and NEWgame(tm) Communications in Charlotte, NC. She is author of “The Coach’s Communication Playbook.”

Kathleen has been a media and image coach to clients including the NFL’s Peyton Manning, the PGA Tour, Major League Baseball, and dozens of university coaches and athletic departments. You can reach her at 704-365-5027 or khessert@PrepToWin.com. For a free demonstration of NEWgame Communication’s Vmag (tm), go to www.NewGameConnection.com.

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