How often should you (social marketers) retweet? It’s a question many solution providers have, and now, thanks to a rule change by the NCAA, it’s a question college coaches are confronting as well.
According to The Associated Press, “Athletic department staff members are allowed to retweet or show their approval of social media posts made by recruits. The policy change has been nicknamed ‘Click, Don’t Type’ because coaches still aren’t allowed to add any sort of comment to a recruit’s post.”
It might not seem like much, but the change is a big deal. Social media has increasingly become an important aspect of recruiting, particularly in college football. Some coaches—Jim Harbaugh of Michigan is probably the most notable example—have been highly active on Twitter, largely for the sake of branding. Now, albeit on a limited basis, they can interact with recruits.
Many coaches’ answer to “how often should you retweet” is “extensively.” Tennessee football coach Butch Jones is one of them. He smiled and shook his hand to symbolize how much retweeting he had been doing, The AP reported. Why so much? Here are two major benefits coaches, and their assistant coaches, are getting from retweeting recruits:
- The recruits are given regular reminders that a college program values them. This is important because NCAA rules limit the contacts coaches can have with recruits.
- They get their fan base involved. Fans typically make up the bulk of Twitter followers for both programs and coaches. So when a coach retweets a recruit, fans see it. And because they don’t have the ‘Click, Don’t Type’ restriction, they can follow the recruit, urge the recruit to go to the program—making the recruit feel wanted. In fact, one Tennessee recruit told the AP that, after Jones retweeted him, he had 250 new followers in an hour.
HR solution providers can achieve two similar benefits by emulating coaches:
- Retweet targets (or sharing their content with an @mention) such as influencers, media members, potential customers, etc., to remind them that your company values them and pays attention to them. You also make them (more) aware of you. Like with recruits, it can be hard to reach these targets otherwise.
- You too can boost the visibility and impact of your social efforts by involving your “fans.” Your “fans” are collaborators like employees, partners, etc., with Twitter accounts, although unlike college football fans, you need to organize the collaboration. When you publish a tweet, you have them retweet it or do their own supporting tweets. The key is to have a system that encourages your collaborators to follow through. Too often companies seek only external retweets; getting collaborators to boost your social efforts is a greatly underused, dependable and valuable strategy. Especially when your collaborators build up their social networks.
And, of course, you have a big advantage over college coaches: there are no NCAA policies restricting how HR marketers reach your targets on Twitter.
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