Exciting news: beRecruited has launched the beRecruited Player Card - an embeddable widget that highlights your stats, photos and videos. Every beRecruited athlete has one and the Player Card can be embedded directly onto your MySpace profile, Facebook page, blog, or your favorite website.Placing your Player Card on blogs and websites is a proven way to increase traffic to your beRecruited profile and improve your chances of being recruited. The widget is just a few days old and has been seen nearly 1,000,000 times. Remarkable!You can customize your widgets size and color. Either login at beRecruited or visit http://profiles.berecruited.com, find your profile and grab the widget directly from that page. Here is an example (6 other colors are available):
The most exciting news we get from our users is when one of our users commits to attend a university…that is the “ultimate connection” for beRecruited, and the reason that we come to work every day.
Until recently, we did not have a way to display these success stories. We’ve now changed that and we’ve started to have athletes update their profile when they have made the important decision regarding where to attend college.
To see the latest beRecruited athletes who have committed, click here. In a very short time, we’ve had nearly 400 athletes tell us where they are going to school.
Updating is extremely easy to do. Here’s how:
Log into your account and go to “My Profile” > “Preferences” and change your account status to committed. It only takes a few seconds, and you can provide valuable feedback to beRecruited regarding our service.
Updating your account status will remove your profile from our prospect database, add you to our list of committed athletes, and give you an opportunity to be featured in your local newspaper’s sports section. It also helps us improve beRecruited so we can make it even better for future athletes.
beRecruited has become the No. 1 online network connecting high school athletes and college coaches on the basis of a free service. In the first 50 days of 2008, there have been more than 300,000 connections made directly through our service…an average of 6,000 connections per day.
While our users (coaches, athletes and parents) know that our service is free, we have seen increased interest in our deluxe athlete upgrade. That interest is driven by results. Profiles of athletes choosing the deluxe upgrade on average are viewed 3x more than athletes with standard profiles.
Deluxe Features:
See What Coaches View Your Profile-Gain instant access to all coaches that view your profile.
“The feature I thought was most helpful was the section where you could see which coaches/colleges viewed your profile. Being able to have access to that would let me know which colleges I should follow up with.” -Ashlei , successfully recruited softball player.
Letter-of-Interest Generator-Create customized letters to express interest in collegiate programs.
“The letters to the coaches gave me the opportunity to communicate with some schools and get my name out there. It was very helpful in getting the ball rolling in my personal recruiting process and made it a lot easier.” -Justin, successfully recruited lacrosse player.
Featured Athlete-Get additional exposure to coaches by being seen more. Deluxe athletes are showcased on beRecruited’s homepage and other high traffic areas throughout the website.
“Coaches that I wouldn’t have previously thought of to email were able to find me on their own and email me. It was very helpful in that aspect. I received many offers and emails from various college divisions and locations.” -Sarah, successfully recruited softball player.
Student Advantage Membership-The latest addition to the deluxe product, athletes who upgrade to deluxe accounts receive a one-year, complimentary membership to Student Advantage, the nation’s largest student discount program. Major discounts associated with the program include:
Foot Locker: $10 off purchases of $50 or more (some exclusions may apply)
Target.com: 10% off your purchases at Target.com
ALDO shoes: 10% off
AMC Theatres: Up to 40% off box office prices
Barnes & Noble.com: Save an additional 5% at Barnes & Noble.com
CHAMP Sports: $10 off purchases of $50 or more (some exclusions may apply)
So in addition to a higher level of exposure, as well as a higher degree of functionality, deluxe members now save money through this exclusive relationship with Student Advantage.
If you want to upgrade your account, click here to get started.
Earlier, I wrote about how beRecruited Photos are proven ways to drive more traffic to your beRecruited Profile and connect with college coaches / recruiters.
Another terrific way to improve your recruiting and scholarships chances is by using beRecruited Video - another free, powerful tool!
Like photos, your videos are effective ways to communicate personality, goals, skills and technique.
Tip: the best way to drive traffic to your profile is by creating several videos that showcase various elements of your overall offering: personal, academic and athletic. Videos don’t need to be lengthy or professionally edited. My advice is to create and upload the following videos:
- Personal Introduction (introduce yourself, explain your goals and background)
- In-Game Showcases (upload in-game videos from different aspects of the game and different events)
- Training Showcases (upload videos of practice - whether it’s in the weight-room, on the track, or in the pool)
When you upload a video on beRecruited, give it a full title and accurate description (date, time, what to look for, etc).
When your video is uploaded, we then provide links to the video’s page (called a permalink) and the embed code (so that you can place it on your blog, MySpace, page, etc). Embedding your video on your other webpages drastically increases the amount of traffic you are able to drive!
Great example: Isaac Fisher
Here is a tremendous example of a beRecruited user who has used beRecruited Video effectively. He has numerous videos of different games, different lengths and showcasing different skills. His descriptions are thorough and meaningful - letting viewers know what to look for!
One of the best ways to connect with college coaches and NCAA recruiters is to add photos to your beRecruited profile using beRecruited Photos. Sports pictures convey personality, showcase skills and technique, and make your recruiting profile more robust and interactive.
To date, beRecruited users have uploaded over 110,000 photos and they have been viewed nearly 2,500,000 times. Uploading photos is a tremendous way to drive traffic to your profile - and the more photos the more traffic you can drive! Pictures don’t need to be professionally taken - you can upload pics from your digital camera or even your cell-phone. Remember - coaches aren’t looking for artwork - they are looking to learn more about you.
Tip: upload in-game photos, training photos (such as practice or bench press), and even personal pictures (like a yearbook shot)!
Below are the current top 25 beRecruited users based on their beRecruited Photos traffic.
Now that you have found beRecruited.com, the most common questions from high school athletes and their parents is how to best utilize the resources availble through the service. The Coach is here to provide you with a few tips:
1) Keep your profile updated: We have more than 9,000 college coaches who have registered for the site, and hundreds of college coaches every month. It’s important to keep the athletic and academic information in your profile as up-to-date as possible. Coaches use our service because it’s an efficient way to find athletes that meet the criteria of a particular program. You create the criteria with your profile.
2) Bookmark schools that interest you: By bookmarking a school, you notify any registered coach with our service that you are interested in that program.
3) College Profiles: Use our Colleges area of the site to search for colleges that fit the criteria that is important to you. We have recently updated and upgraded the information in this area, and have proactively asked our coaches to review the information about their particular schools. beRecruited registered athletes have often cited this area of the site as the most helpful in their process.
If you focus your initial efforts in these three areas, our history shows that beRecruited will be an effective tool for you.
