Social media for college athletes

Re-Defining
the Game
A New Rulebook for Social Media Use
by Collegiate Athletes & Universities
Brooke Hundley & Russell Varner
Elon University Interactive Media

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The past decade has brought with it a wave of new
outlets for online communication and networking.
As social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram and Vine have become more popular, so
too have their use among student-athletes. From
recruitment to connecting with fans to showcasing
their talents on and off the field, these sites offer
student-athletes a way to craft public opinion and
their personal brand like never before. However,
with these emerging platforms come new and
unforeseen challenges.
Athletic departments at universities and colleges
across the country are challenged with monitoring
every student-athlete in every sport with limited
personnel, resources and social media expertise.
This allows for student-athletes to have free reign
over what to present online, which can lead to a
ravenous media pouncing on any misstep before
the school even realizes what has happened.
Legality only adds to the murkiness, with some
schools choosing constant monitoring, others
turning a blind eye until a problem arises, and still
others feeling handcuffed due to state laws.
The task of managing hundreds of student-athlete
social media accounts falls most commonly to
sports information directors (SIDs), often seen as
the public communicators and mouthpieces of the
collegiate sports department. Many SIDs already
maintain a hectic office controlling the media
outflow of communications through interviews,
game recaps and press releases, and are now forced
to regulate not only the media coverage, but also
the word of mouth of their own players. Steve
Shutt, sports information director at Wake Forest
University, describes the rapidly changing social
media landscape has having had a “drastic change
in how we do our job.” Curtis Snyder, associate
sports information director at the University of
Colorado Boulder, described the situation as “a
little overwhelming,” but stressed the importance
of an overall social media strategy, stating that “all
schools could and will have to put more emphasis
on [social media] and understand that if you don’t
get on it, you’re going to fall behind.”
Simultaneously, student-athletes have presented
their own concerns over what is and is not allowed
on social media platforms by their schools. These
students feel undertrained and unclear on what
exactly constitutes improper use, often only made
aware of a policy after a violation has been made
and punishment applied.1
Despite these challenges, all schools can educate
and cultivate their student-athletes into becoming
social media savvy experts through positive
reinforcement, proactive approaches and open
communication. Throughout this paper, we will
lay out guidelines for university officials on how to
educate student-athletes on proper social media
use, how to encourage student-athletes to translate
their education offline into stand-out social media
practices online, and how to engage with student-
athletes on missteps and miscues in a way that is
proactive rather than reactive.
DEFINING SOCIAL MEDIA
AND STUDENT-ATHLETES
Recent trends in social media have seen blogs,
picture messaging, chat functionality and
networking sites rise to the forefront and alter
the way people share information. With 86
percent of young adults between the ages of 18
and 29 in the United States using social media, it’s
become part of the daily routine for many college
students.2
According to Fieldhouse Media’s Kevin
DeShazo, college student-athletes – defined as
anyone participating in an NCAA sanctioned sport
in Division I, II or III – are interacting mostly on
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.
WHITEPAPER/RE-DEFINING THE GAME 2
1.) Jimmy Sanderson & Blair Browning, (2014) “Training Versus Monitoring: A Qualitative Examination of Athletic Department Practices
Regarding Student-Athletes and Twitter.” Qualitative Research Reports in Communication, DOI: 10.1080/17459435.2013.835348
2.) Jenise Uehara Henrikson, “The Growth of Social Media: An Infographic.” August 30, 2011. http://www.searchenginejournal.com/the-
growth-of-social-media-an-infographic/32788/

Each social media technology is being used by at
least 78 percent of student-athletes, with Snapchat
alone rising 32 percent over the past year. The
number of individuals and sheer volume of content
created on these sites makes for a daunting task for
universities to oversee, not to mention the constant
rise of new tools attracting users daily. Add in an
undereducated user, with 40 percent of collegiate
athletes lacking any social media training, and the
work to maintain an effective reputation for both
the athlete and the school they represent becomes
a challenge for all.3
However, not all social media use warrants a ‘Big
Brother’-type approach as some usage among
collegiate athletes is simply for staying in touch
with friends and family, networking with other
professionals in a potential career field or staying
up to date on the latest news. So what guidance
do universities and colleges currently have with
regards to regulating their student-athletes’ social
media accounts?
COLLEGIATE EDUCATION
ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Every major professional sport has a formal social
media policy, from the National Football League to
the National Basketball Association to the National
Hockey League. Despite professional sports having
laid the groundwork for developing policies from
the top down, the National Collegiate Athletic
Association (NCAA) has not followed suit in
providing its schools with clear-cut rules on social
media use among its student-athletes. Despite this
fact, the NCAA has continued to punish teams for a
lack of social media oversight, such as disciplining
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
(UNC) in 2011 for violations pertaining to their
football program, partially due to the fact that “the
institution did not adequately and consistently
monitor social networking activity that visually
illustrated potential amateurism violations within
the football program.”4
With strict punishments such as a fine, a bowl ban
or the reduction of scholarships, one would expect
to find strict guidelines on student-athlete social
media use, but the NCAA has remained largely
vague on the subject. The NCAA claims that it does
not force schools to monitor their student-athletes,
yet states that “the duty to do so may arise” and
furthermore, that “such sites should be part of the
monitoring effort if the institution becomes aware
of an issue that might be resolved in some part by
reviewing information on a site.”5
In response to the punishments handed down by
the NCAA, universities are caught in the crosshairs
between charging ahead with practices that may
violate their students’ civil rights, or leaving
3.) Kevin DeShazo, “2014 Social Media Use of Student Athletes [INFOGRAPHIC],” February 13, 2014. http://www.fieldhousemedia.net/
blog/2014-social-media-use-of-student-athletes-infographic
4.) Jamie P. Hopkins, Katie Hopkins & Bijan Whelton, (2013) “Being Social: Why the NCAA Has Forced Universities to Monitor Student-Ath-
letes’ Social Media.” Journal of Technology Law & Policy, DOI: 10.5195
5.) Hopkins, Hopkins & Whelton, (2013) “Being Social.”
Fieldhouse Media 2014 collegiate athlete social media survey
results (www.fieldhousemedia.net)

themselves vulnerable to NCAA penalties if a
student or administrator makes an error
in judgment.
Mike Flynn, assistant athletics director at
Appalachian State University, commented on the
murky middle ground, stating that “as a public
institution, our lawyers here have advised us that it
would be a violation of First Amendment rights of
our student-athletes to monitor their pages.”
Despite the legal ramifications, with increasing
pressure from the governing organization, more
and more schools are trending towards making
rash and rushed overadjustments to their social
media stance to protect their NCAA standing. UNC
immediately updated its guidelines for athletes
to assign a coach or academic administrator to
monitor sites constantly and evaluate postings. Any
inappropriate posts would then result in a various
range of sanctions for the student-athlete, from a
loss of scholarship to a team dismissal.6
And UNC is not alone – other schools have taken
ever harsher approaches to negative publicity and
NCAA violations, including banning twitter use
for men’s basketball teams at Villanova University,
Mississippi State University, and the University of
New Mexico, as well as for the football teams at the
universities of Miami, South Carolina, Iowa, Boise
State, Kansas, and Florida State.7
At Mississippi
State, Twitter was banned after a player was
criticized for the team’s performance. While at
Florida State, the ban went into effect after players’
tweets were picked up on blogs with commentaries
containing subject matters from rap lyrics like
shooting police officers.8
It’s not only the athletic department administration
and the NCAA that are divided on the issues of
appropriate social media use and punishments.
Even the collegiate coaches are split on the subject.
University of Louisville men’s basketball coach
Rick Pitino has been harsh with his critique of
social media use saying, “It’s like taking a little bit
of poison…I think technology is a great thing in
many instances, and I think it’s poison in others, for
6.) Kelly Whiteside, “North Carolina, NCAA address monitoring social media.” March 12, 2012. http://content.usatoday.com/communities/
campusrivalry/post/2012/03/north-carolina-ncaa-address-monitoring-social-media/1#.Ux-87l5PLOQ
7.) Brandon Marcello, “Rick Stansbury bans Mississippi State from Twitter after criticism.” February 3, 2011. http://content.usatoday.com/
communities/campusrivalry/post/2011/02/mississippi-state-basketball-twitter-ban/1#.Ux-9HF5PLOR
8.) FOX Sports, “Will FSU’s social media ban pay off?” August 7, 2013. http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/florida-state-semi-
noles-twitter-facebook-instagram-ban-2013-season-impact-080713

EDUCATION
Don't prohibit,
Be proactive
ENCOURAGEMENT
Positive reinforcement,
Practice makes perfect
ENGAGEMENT
Open communication,
Respect & leadership
people in sports especially,” adding that he would
ban his players from all forms of social media if
possible. Meanwhile, John Calipari, head coach
of the men’s basketball team at the University of
Kentucky, believes that coaches like Pitino have
the wrong mindset. Instead of limiting social
media use, Calipari believes that coaches should be
encouraging it:
“I’m not going to hold my team back from Twitter
or Facebook,” but I’m going to teach them,” he said.
“I’m going to use it as a positive… What we are
trying to tell those kids [is], Hey, you build your
brand or you break your brand down.”9
SOCIAL MEDIA MODEL
So how do athletic departments find a middle
ground in the battle between blanket prohibition
and policing, and basic rights governing free speech
and reputation building? For one, implementing a
social media strategy does not happen overnight.
Instead, it is an evolving process based on the
fundamentals of education, encouragement and
engagement. Any school can implement these
principles to find success with social media use
among its student-athletes, highlighting their
achievements while maintaining the reputation and
prestige of the schools they represent on and off
the field.
Education
Education is at the heart of every institution of
higher learning. The underlying theme in every
university or college’s athletic department is to
impart wisdom and guidance on their student-
athletes from nutrition to teamwork to equal
treatment under the law, so why don’t schools
take the same approach with social media? Lack
of instruction and training for student-athletes
in the social media realm remains an obstacle
for the majority of schools. However, instead of
addressing the problem, many institutions choose
to overpolice and reprimand in place of building
positive relationships with their student-athletes.
This creates mistrust between student-athletes and
the very universities they represent, leading some
9.) ESPN.com News Services, “Pitino, Calipari on different sides.” February 20, 2014. http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/
id/10481852/rick-pitino-louisville-cardinals-sounds-social-media

to even block university or team representatives
from viewing any of their online activities.10
Some
schools go so far as to completely prohibit social
media use on campus or among their student-
athletes, afraid their students are too immature or
irresponsible to properly use these tools. However,
when schools exclude their student-athletes from
social media use altogether, they miss out on a vital
opportunity to prepare their athletes for the world
that awaits them after graduation.
We found through our interviews with five sports
information directors at universities across the
country that the first step many take when tasked
with overseeing social media users is to speak
with the school’s compliance office to craft a social
media policy that can dictate discipline and legally
protect the university. While these policies can be
useful in an assortment of ways to instill values
and expectations, we encourage institutions to take
a different approach and place education before
policy.
Social media education should start by combing
through the athletic department’s own personnel
and finding coaches, administrators and interns
who are the most social media-savvy. Even
smaller schools should be able to find people who
understand and are active on social media and can
provide support, as well as knowledge. Matt Turk,
sports information director at California State
University Bakersfield, relies “heavily on coaches
that are more active on social media” to provide
guidance and take responsibility in assisting their
respective team. Additional resources include those
in the same position at other schools who can
provide helpful insight into how they are handling
the issue. Snyder describes his league as being an
incredible resource, stating “the Pac-12 does a very
good job of connecting all of us with similar jobs at
each school so there’s a social media kind of chain
within the Pac-12 and we try to have a call every
4-6 weeks.” These kinds of conversations give those
in the role an opportunity to discuss the issue and
seek out advice.
Members of the athletic department also need
to familiarize themselves with popular social
media applications. Administrators should have a
meeting with their staff at the start of every school
year about new technologies they are using, and
then adapting the department’s strategy to those
platforms. It is also important for administrators
to find a few minutes every week to test out these
applications for themselves and try to understand
how one might use them.
“It’s just a matter of participating in it. I‘m as active
in them as I can be in most of those things, not
necessarily Snapchat, but Instagram and those
other ones, just to see what they’re about,” said
Snyder. “I do have a Snapchat account and I thought
it’s really awkward for me to do anything there, but
I really wanted to understand what it was about. …
And who knows what’s coming next year, there’s
going to be two or three more.”
At the start of every sport’s season, the athletic
department should also provide training to
student-athletes on expectations of the university,
as well as good and bad examples of social media
use, why it matters and what is expected of
student-athletes both in school and during school
hiatuses. Administrators should seek to relate
to their student-athletes and begin building a
relationship as soon as possible, conveying the fact
that everyone is still learning about social media
because it is constantly evolving, and no one has all
the right answers.
Additionally, they should strive to make the
presentation more than just a cut and dry facts-
driven one. Each presentation should be tailored
specifically to the audience, whether it’s a high
or low visibility sport, and should address the
challenges those athletes might face. Perhaps a
more visible sport like men’s basketball will want
to engage more with their fans online or may
have to deal with more negativity after a loss. In
either scenario, effective role-playing and team
discussion on possible avenues for success can
start a conversation that continues long after the
presentation ends. Art Chase, assistant director
of athletics at Duke University, uses positive and
10.) Hopkins, Hopkins & Whelton, (2013) “Being Social.”

negative examples of social media use directly from
the teams he’s training, because “nothing is a better
teaching tool than experience.”
Schools should stress maintaining a positive
attitude to their student-athletes while using
these platforms, even when faced with criticism
or negativity. Student-athletes do not need to
respond to every outside comment to gain positive
public opinion, but rather should be encouraged
to concentrate on publishing content that has
personal value. By being proactive about the
content they post online, rather than reacting to
everyone else’s opinions, student-athletes can more
effectively control and define their own personal
brand.
Some schools may feel more comfortable with an
outside source giving a training presentation to
their student-athletes. This can be appropriate if
the sources are appropriately vetted beforehand.
Schools should investigate all backgrounds and
ensure that the company is up-to-date and actively
using the most current social media tools for their
own company.
Kevin DeShazo is one such media expert. DeShazo
founded Fieldhouse Media and has worked with
more than 50 programs across the country,
educating student-athletes, coaches and staff on
how to use social media to benefit not only the
athletes, but the institution as well. He suggests
a two-fold approach to a successful social media
education. The first step is encouraging student-
athletes to develop an online identity – “who they
are and what they want to be known for.” The most
important part of building an identity is having
the student-athletes understand their strengths on
and off the field and then highlighting them online
whether it ‘s a sense of humor, a strong faith or
cooking skills. Chase reminds his Duke athletes it’s
important to “be true to who you are,” and not be
swayed by others’ online opinions.
The second aspect of education DeShazo advocates
is the idea of adding value to everything that is said
online, rather than adding to the “noise.” Often a
student-athlete’s content may not be inappropriate,
but is still a “brain dump” onto social media that
will add nothing of value. “There’s not a right way
to do it, but you have to have a purpose before you
do it, and most of them don’t really have a purpose,”
DeShazo commented.
Coaches and athletic departments should talk
to their athletes about viewing social media as
a stepping-stone to their career and ask them
to share content that could be of value to future
employers. Student-athletes can post content
that is relevant to their industry of interest, that
advocates for a good cause or that shows off their
unique skills, all of which an employer might find
value in in determining if they would be a right fit
for their company.
Remember that policies and punishments do not
create positive behaviors; education does.
Encouragement
A successful social media strategy doesn’t end with
education. Education provides student-athletes
with the tools and the message of what proper
social media use can look like in its best form, but
it’s up to the athletic department to continue to
SOCIAL MEDIA SCORECARD
Positive Negative
AJ McCarron - On
gamedays, the Alabama
quarterback posts photos of
himself with a bow tie and
dedicates it to a cause like
fighting breast cancer.
Johnny Manziel - After
winning the Heisman trophy,
the Texas A&M QB posted
photos of himself in clubs
drinking, even though he was
under 21.
Johnny McEntee - The
backup quarterback at UConn
has become an Internet
sensation thanks to his ‘trick
shot quarterbackʻ YouTube
videos.
John Urschell - The former
Penn State football player
and mathlete is keeping an
online diary on his road to the
NFL Draft.
“Be true to who you are.”
Braxton Miller - The Ohio
State quarterback often
communiates with fans, and
posts photos with inspirational
quotes.
Courtney Fortson - This
University of Arkansas
basketball player was sus-
pended indefinitely after
comparing practice to a
sexual assualt on Twitter.
Marlon Williams - After a
Texas Tech basketball coach was
late to a meeting, Williams
critcized his coach on Twitter and
had his social media priviledges
revoked.
“We had a baseball player who
started a Twitter feed called
‘Sh** this other player says.ʻ
Every time he'd say something
stupid, they'd tweet it." - Sports
information director
-Art Chase, Assistant Director of Athletics at Duke University

communicate that message throughout the year. If
a team is expected to represent its institution well,
then the coaches that oversee its players and the
athletic department need to continue to have the
discussion on proper social media use. DeShazo
breaks down student-athletes who have received
effective social media training into three groups:
those who will change for the better and see value
in building their personal brand (60%), those who
will modify their behavior for the short term before
returning to their old ways (30%) and those that
will simply never change their poor social media
behavior (10%). In order to effectively reach the
student-athletes who only improve for the short-
term, positive reinforcement must be a heavily
utilized technique.
Positive reinforcement can work in any
environment, whether it’s a child learning how
to ride a bike or an adult receiving a bonus for
a job well done at work. Student-athletes thrive
on a combination of positive reinforcement and
competition; it fuels their time in the gym, their
time on the practice field and their game time
performance. So why not combine these two
techniques within the social media arena as well?
Coaches and athletic departments should
view social media training similar to a sports
environment in which the user’s skills will only
get better with frequent repetitions and a solid
support system. The more encouragement the
student-athlete receives to use social media in
a positive way and the more he/she posts, the
more it becomes a second nature to the individual.
DeShazo instructs the coaches he advises to “tell
your players to tweet on every game, because they
more you talk about it, the more you encourage
them to tweet positive things, the more that’s
going to be in their minds,” and the more value
and impact it will have over time on the positive
representation of the school and the athletic team
online.
It’s not only repetitions that lead to success, but
also small recognitions along the way that the
student-athlete is excelling online with their use of
social media tools. DeShazo recommends scrolling
through your player’s tweets every now and then,
finding positive ones, and “highlighting one of your
players, saying thank you for sending this out, you
represented yourself well, you represented our
team well.” This creates a competitive environment
among an already competitive crowd where those
that aren’t promoted are left to question what they
could be putting online that would warrant such
recognition and how they can better represent
their team. Some of Wichita State and Oklahoma
State’s athletic programs go so far as to publicize
and promote their players’ Twitter accounts by
re-tweeting the best ones in order to further
acknowledge their great work in a public setting.
Engagement
Many schools and universities have acknowledged
monitoring as a part of their student-athlete
social media approach. Unfortunately, for many
schools monitoring accounts and punishing bad
behavior is the only aspect of student-athlete
social media use they engage in. The techniques
covered thus far slice away at this outdated practice
and pave the way for responsible users and
personal empowerment among student-athletes
supported by a knowledgeable and encouraging
administration. However, just like learning anything
new there will be missteps. So what does effective
monitoring look like in this setting and how do
coaches and athletic departments appropriately
hold student-athletes accountable for their online
activities? It all starts with active engagement.
Engagement is best implemented by developing
open communication, respect and student
leadership. Athletic departments and coaching
staffs should maintain an open-door policy where
student-athletes feel trusted rather than policed.
Often student-athletes feel undervalued and
untrusted by the administration to use social media
effectively, when they should be viewed as capable
adults who are learning the best practices of a new
tool. Student-athletes should never fear reprimand
for asking questions about boundaries in social
media use including who to follow or if re-tweets or
re-posting content by other people is acceptable.

Chase says that, like at many schools, cases have
arisen in which student-athletes used social
media inappropriately, but that the Duke athletic
department takes advantage of these missteps as a
teaching experience. “We’re all human, and we’re
all going to make mistakes, but what we try and do
is use these as teaching tools…if a red flag goes up
we can offer assistance and guidance and say hey
maybe that’s not appropriate for you to be putting
on Twitter or that’s not an appropriate picture to
appear on your personal Instagram account. We
can help them learn best practices.”
Furthermore, student-athletes maintain their own
student leadership in the form of team captains and
seniority within the team. An athletic department
or coach is in position to be able to task those
student leaders with not only representing the best
examples of social media use online, but also with
looking out for their teammates as much on the
social media front as they do in the locker room.
Disciplinary practices will be a part of every
strategy and while those policies should be written
so that the mistakes are punished appropriately
for the action that occurred, it’s important to also
keep in mind the desire for student-athletes to
return to the social media space after making a
mistake. Students should feel confident revisiting
their online channels with new skills and a desire
to do better than before, rather than a distress over
messing up again. Many schools choose to monitor
profanity, drug, alcohol, or sexual references, or
violence and keep a tally on those that do so on a
repetitive basis. This can be an effective approach if
used for teaching rather than policing. Often simply
showing student-athletes their mistakes laid out
in front of them produces a level of understanding
and desire for self-improvement without the need
for further discipline.
DeShazo sums it up best stating, “if you show them
what they’re doing online, most [student-athletes]
have no idea. They just pull out their phone, type
140 characters, hit send, and go about their day…
it’s just second nature to them.”
By effectively reminding them of the education
they’ve received, the positive reputation they’re
building and the lasting impression they want to
leave both on the program and on their future
employers, coaches and athletic departments can
make student-athletes not only social media savvy,
but also able to create a positive reputation both on
and off the digital playing field.
CONCLUSION
As social media use reaches unforeseen levels,
the importance of training student-athletes
on its appropriate use becomes all that more
important. Many in collegiate athletics cite the
media’s coverage of irresponsible occurrences in
social media as validation for the end of its use
among student-athletes. Yet those whose very
roles are defined by higher learning miss out on an
opportunity to educate.
Social media has helped millions of people in
purposeful ways to build businesses, fundraise
or gain financial backing and achieve coveted
exposure for a cause or brand. These platforms
can also provide positive reputation awareness
for student-athletes and the universities or
colleges they represent. The formula for student-
athlete social media success rests on the pillars of
proactive education, positive reinforcement, and
active engagement. With this strategy set in place,
schools can make a positive difference in the lives
of their student-athletes, better preparing them
for the real world, and allowing them to move into
successful careers with a lasting impression of an
alma mater that supported and cultivated their
talents on the digital world stage.

Social media for college athletes

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