<\/p>\n
RK: \u201c<\/em>The focus of the NSCAA is on coaching education. With that being said, we use social media as a tool for coaches to communicate with each other. There is a huge amount of information to be shared between coaches from all over the United States and we hope that social media can help facilitate those conversations between coaches.<\/p>\n
Coaches want to talk x\u2019s and o\u2019s, practice plans, skills and drills and give match recaps and analysis. We have not yet gone into training coaches specifically on the uses of social media, but it is a topic that I definitely am interested in exploring further (personally speaking!).<\/p>\n
The one-on-one interaction that is key in social media has been at the core of the NSCAA mission since we were founded in 1941. We embrace peer-to-peer learning\u00a0and collaboration in our coaching education and development so for us, we\u2019ve been able to extend those ideals easily into the realm of social media.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
How is the NSCAA using social media to aid football coaching US?<\/h3>\n
RK: \u201c<\/em>We use social media to find those coaches who need our help the most. By using simple twitter searches and different alerts, I come across people who are having trouble teaching their players to score, for instance. I will send a message about what they need help with and I work to get them the answers they are looking for.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Are there plans to provide a structured academic course on social media use for coaches?<\/h3>\n
RK:\u00a0<\/em>\u201cWe do not currently have a focused NSCAA social media course for coaches. My good friend\u00a0Amanda Vandervort<\/a>\u00a0and I presented a talk \u201cSocial Media for Soccer Coaches<\/a>\u201d at the last NSCAA Convention in Baltimore and received great feedback. Possibly in the future we can incorporate different types of social media education into the courses.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
What has been the largest challenge for managers adopting social media? (What\u2019s the most common problem\/question?)<\/h3>\n
RK:\u00a0<\/em>\u201cMany coaches, especially in the collegiate level, are worried about the time and effort it takes to keep up. \u00a0You have to explain to a coach who is already working 60+ hours a week why they should spend another five to update social media channels and grow a presence.\u00a0Luckily, the most successful campaigns work alongside the Sports Information Department and Sports Information Directors (SID<\/a>\u2019s) to ensure the communications coming from the coaches reach the most eyeballs.<\/p>\n
Along the same vein, many question \u201cWhy would someone want to know what I\u2019m thinking?<\/em>\u201d or the common \u201cWho wants to know what I had for dinner?<\/em>\u201d Those conversations usually take a little bit longer.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
How has social media affected player recruitment?<\/h3>\n
RK:\u00a0<\/em>\u201cSocial media is changing rapidly, and the NSCAA is attempting to keep up on this topic.Amanda wrote a great piece on this<\/a>\u00a0for the NSCAA blog a few months back. It makes player recruiting a bit tricky in that coaches and schools need to understand how they are contacting certain athletes and on what sites they engage athletes. The NCAA has released some guidelines on social media and recruiting but expect those guidelines to change yearly as social media technologies continue to evolve and change.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n
At the minute it seems to be mainly players who have got on the social media bandwagon, but it makes sense that managers (particularly those at grass roots level) start to use social media as both a co-ordination and press tool. Platforms like\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0events or\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0hashtags could in theory be used by managers to broadcast to their players and other coaches to organise training, matches or promote the game at a lower level. Equally, at a higher level it\u2019s already been speculated that\u00a0social media could replace traditional post match press conference<\/a>\u00a0(I\u2019m sure Fergie would prefer that!).\u00a0Players already are<\/a>, so why not managers?<\/p>\n
With regards to social media recruitment, watch this space as I\u2019ll be covering this very soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This week I have been very lucky to get a chance to chat with the NSCAA Manager of Digital,\u00a0Ryan Knapp\u00a0over in the US. The NSCAA (National Soccer Coaches Association of America) is the largest...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[69,67,70,73],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Interview: Ryan Knapp (Manager of Digital, NSCAA) - Digital-Football.com - Football Social Media & Digital Sports news<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n