Social Media Use By NCAA Student –Athletes and Sports Information Directors

Social media is everywhere in professional sports today. It is only natural that the college sports world would mirror this social media craze.  In a 2014 study done by field house media, over 500 student athletes responded to the survey, and some pretty interesting stats were discovered.

• ·      78% of student-athletes are using Twitter, up from 72% one year ago.
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• ·      78% of student-athletes have a Twitter account
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• ·      35% of student-athletes check it 5 times or less per day without tweeting
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• ·      37% of student-athletes check it more than 10 times per day
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• ·      87% of student-athletes tweet 5 times or less per day
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• ·      76% of student-athletes have between 100 and 500 followers
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• ·      11% of student-athletes have more than 500 followers
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• ·      67% of student-athletes have a public account
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• ·      7% of student-athletes have shared personal info on Twitter (phone #, email address, etc)
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• ·      18% of student-athletes have tweeted something inappropriate (drugs, alcohol, sexual, racial, profanity, etc)
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• ·      6% of student-athletes have received hateful/critical tweets from fans, 72% of them responded
• Twitter is the most popular public platform for student-athletes, but also it is the platform where most have posted something inappropriate.

Social media in the sports world is a medium that will need to catch up in terms of how it is regulated and monitored.

Some rules exist, and universities have tried to be proactive in helping the athletes adapt and be smart. It is time now for the NCAA to step in and set some solid rules and regulations so that everyone can get on the same page.

With the stats provided above, it is clear that social media is a real factor in a student athlete’s life.

With so much social media exposure, it is important to teach these athletes the proper way to represent themselves and their university athletic program in a positive way.  

Just as Social Media is increasingly becoming a part of the athletes that the Sports Information Directors cover, the SID’s themselves are becoming increasingly more consumed with social media as well.

In a podcast done by Chris Syme (@CKSyme) who specializes in social media for athletic departments discusses how the life of the SID’s are being forced toward the future when it comes to twitter and other social media platforms.

She discusses the issues that have been raised by this new responsibility that have been shoved on the sports information directors who are learning on the go just as the athletes that they are writing stories and taking stats for.

Just as I mentioned above that rules and regulations need to be put in place for the student-athlete Syme agrees and says that there should be “department wide initiatives to do social media the right way.”

Social media is here to stay in college athletics both for the athletes and the administration. Keep your eyes open as we watch this new trend develop and weave its way into the sports culture and become a mainstay for years to come.