How to Promote Your Recruiting Video On YouTube
College tennis recruiting means different things for various groups of people.
Tennis recruiting - ATHLETES' hunt for that one good athletic scholarship. This will pave the way for their future life. Do they get into college? If so, what college? Who will they meet along the way? Fellow students, teammates, coaches? In what way will all of them affect their life? What do they end up studying and what road will they take come graduation? So much at stake for the players, who have invested lots of energy and time to get themselves in the position to have a realistic shot at college tennis.
Tennis recruiting - to land that one good scholarship offer can be the deal breaker for FAMILIES between having to take huge loans to finance their children's higher education or enjoying a welcome financial support. So much at stake for the parents financially, who have invested considerable time, energy, and money to enable their children to play the game they so passionately love.
Tennis recruiting - COACHES' race to get that one player sign with them and become a member of their college team for the upcoming season(s). The difference between a good and a bad recruit. The one who can really have an impact on the team. Or the one who does not fulfill the expectations - on a personal, athletic, or even academic level.
In today's Friday Scholarship Guide we want to highlight one dimension of the Oh-So-Important tennis recruiting process. We want to speak about recruiting videos. But not about the making of college recruiting videos and what athletes should pay attention to as a player. No, today will be about what to do with your video.
How do you channel it to the right audience to get your name out there?
Before we do so, let's take a quick glance on the various ways of recruiting, as a video is not always the starting point or at all necessary.
(If you have questions on how to produce a good tennis recruiting video we recommend you take a look at one of our other blog articles here, dealing solely with the making-of a rock solid video!)
Recruiting Channels
- Rankings/Scouting
Ranked teams' coaches in men's and women's tennis go through the rankings and reach out to the top players of the new recruiting class directly. If you are at the top of your age cohort chances are you will be contacted at some point or you might have already spoken to coaches by now. In addition, coaches visit strong regional, national, or international events to scout and make first contact directly.
- Personal Contact
Another way coaches learn about new prospects is by athletes taking the first step and reaching out to them, typically by e-mail. Coaches generally really do appreciate this channel, as it shows that recruits have done their homework and are proactive. We from Smarthlete are a big fan of the "Do-It-Yourself"-approach and highly encourage young tennis players to take this path, regardless of level of play!
- Scholarship Services/Recruiting Agencies
Players who do not belong to the group of top players often make use of well-established recruiting services which assist, advise, and guide them through the recruiting jungle.
- YouTube
Players produce a video and put it on YouTube, easily recognizable that they are seeking to get in touch with coaches to join their teams on a scholarship.
The Problem with YouTube
Far too often, we have seen cases where players produce a recruiting video. But what happens afterwards is sad to see. Nothing happens at all. The video is just up there and athletes occasionally send the link to a couple of coaches. But some really just wait and see who knocks on the door. But coaches have a lot more to do than just that and they review hundreds of player profiles.
If athletes have done all this work, all these years of practice and hard work, they might as well just do a little more with their showcase. They want to be in the driving seat of their scholarship search and that includes doing whatever they can to get their skills in front of coaches.
Smarthlete helps you do exactly that: Every day, new athletes upload their recruitment videos to their profiles on Smarthlete. We take all of these videos and add them to our Smarthlete YouTube-Channel. We do this because we are fully aware of the number of coaches who are searching for talented prospects on YouTube. And by having our users exposed not only on Smarthlete, but also on our YouTube Channel will give them an even greater exposure and visibility!
Advantages for coaches:
- Because we group the videos into starting dates (such as Spring 2016, Fall 2016, etc.), coaches can quickly identify the players, who might be of interest to them right away.
- Coaches can subscribe to our YouTube Channel, which will make them stay updated about new videos in their e-mail inbox or through suggested videos by YouTube.
- If coaches come across interesting prospective student-athletes, they are one click away from logging on to Smarthlete, checking out the rest of the athletes' profiles, and writing them a message right away.
Advantages for players:
- You want to be seen, you want to be seen, and once again: you want to be seen. The more (right) coaches see your video, the better. This will give you more contacts, more coaches to talk to, and more colleges to get information from. Or to put this very simple: you increase your chances of finding what you're looking for!
If you feel like a free Smarthlete profile and exposure on our YouTube Channel won't really help you get what you're looking for, that's totally cool with us :) Just do us the favor and really do promote your video and yourself as potential scholarship recipient to the right coaches! This is hard work, but it sure pays off if you are committed!
Got any questions about the college tennis recruiting process, how to make the video, or about Smarthlete in general? Drop us an e-mail and we're happy to help you!
Sign up with your recruiting profile right now here, and follow us on our social media accounts, Facebook and Twitter. Stay tuned for our next edition of the Friday Scholarship Guide!
