Production, distribution of graphics is central to UK's recruiting efforts
Social media has dramatically changed the way the world works in almost every respect, and college football recruiting is no exception.
Recruits have always wanted recognition. They’ve always wanted attention. Now, because of Twitter and other social media platforms, they just want more of it, and they want it more instantaneously, than ever before.
Whether you’re a fan of the trend or not, it’s here to stay and it’s changing the way not only Kentucky, but every football program, recruits. The production and distribution of graphic images for players and for social media is a big part of the change that technology has brought about, and according to director of football recruiting operations Dan Berezowitz that’s a big part of how Kentucky’s recruiting staff spends its time.
“Well, I mean, it’s big as you see across our conference and the country,” Berezowitz told CatsIllustrated.com this week. “Everybody’s pouring lots of resources into graphics and social media and video and all that stuff. It’s the new way to communicate with kids in a real time manner, because mail still takes whatever, three, five, seven days to get to wherever it goes. So the stuff you were mailing is basically a JPEG (image) and now you’re sending it to them in real time and they’re getting it instantly. You know, with kids, they want stuff right away. They want stuff all the time. They want stuff on their phone. They want stuff they can tweet.”
Recruiting staffs everywhere are looking to tell stories and market their programs in strong visuals that instantly capture a player's attention. For instance, Kentucky has a number of successful former linebackers who are enjoying productive, lucrative careers in the National Football League. Thus, Class of 2018 linebacker commitment DeAndre Square and other recruits at the position are likely to see graphics highlighting that, such as the one provided above.
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According to Berezowitz, social media has changed the way recruiting works at an astonishing rate. He recalled Drew Barker’s recruitment, which was not even five years ago, and compared how the staff handled that compared to the way social media and recruiting graphics work today.
“We sent him 100 handwritten notes and he took a picture of them and it kinda went viral,” Berezowitz said, noting how recently that was. “And so that’s how it’s changed. We wrote those notes. The staff wrote them (and) we mailed them. It probably took two weeks to get all that done, by the time you write them, mail them, postage them, deliver them to his house.
“And that, if you did that now, I don’t know how much affect that has on kids now because they want to see stuff all the time. They want to see stuff instantly and two weeks that go by can totally change a kid’s recruitment because everybody’s sending them that stuff on a daily basis.”
If you’re wondering whether a program could get away with bucking the trend in favor of a more old-fashioned, low key approach, think again. Berezowitz referenced a piece by Rivals.com national analyst Adam Gorney, in which he compiled a list of all the visuals from written offers from every program nationally.
“And it’s big because everybody’s spending a lot of time doing it so it’s gotten to be competitive. I mean, you saw when Rivals, when you guys, start putting out every offer letter graphically in a list for every conference in the country, it’s becoming more and more relevant and recognizable the kind of graphics you do and the quality you do every day.”
When Rivals100 athlete and star wide receiver Blue Smith of Huber Heights (Ohio) Wayne tweeted out his written offer graphics from Ohio State, Kentucky and Cincinnati, a couple of things jumped out. Whereas Ohio State's letter referred to him as "L'Christian," the offers from Kentucky and Cincinnati read, "Dear Blue." And only Kentucky's included a photo of Smith decked out in a Wildcat jersey, with a picture that had been taken while he was on an unofficial visit to UK.
How often will something like that tip the scales in a player's recruitment? Almost never. But little things added to other little things can change perceptions, shape attitudes and have an impact.