College Sports Information Directors of America

Note: Article updated on March 10 to reflect more information and the infographic, below

by Kevin DeShazo, Fieldhouse Media

Follow DeShazo on Twitter (@fieldhousemedia)

Over the last few weeks we’ve been compiling data on our third annual survey looking at the social media use of collegiate student-athletes (can see the results from our 2013 survey here and 2014 here). This isn’t a perfect science but it does allow us a good look into how college athletes use social media. This helps us be more effective in our social media education and training sessions, and also provides valuable insight as we help athletics departments craft social media strategies.

This year we had nearly 1000 student-athletes participate. We owe a huge thanks to the administrators who passed on the survey and encouraged their student-athletes to take it, and of course to those who took the time to fill it out.

Kevin DeShazo, principal at Fieldhouse Media, provided CoSIDA with some early analysis of the data. We will post additional data and analysis as it becomes available.

According to DeShazo, "There are a few takeaways from the data as it relates to both the education of student-athletes on social media and how we reach this audience. In terms of education, we’re seeing that 43% spend more than an hour on social media each day with 37% of them saying they’ve posted something regret. Meanwhile, half have received less than an hour of training/education on social media use.

"This is also evident in that almost half believe that Yik Yak is anonymous, and almost 40% have posted something inappropriate on Snapchat, which implies that they believe that it is private and pictures disappear," DeShazo noted. "It’s well beyond time that we make educating our student-athletes on social media use a priority."

"From a marketing standpoint, student-athletes are part is a generation that everyone is desperate to reach," said DeShazo. "It’s important that we not just look at where they spend time but why/how they spend time. They spread themselves out across platforms, posting at least once per day on almost each of the main four (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat). Instagram is a platform that we should continue to focus on from a marketing/communications perspective, as 33% said that it was their most used platform and 81% say they follow a brand on Instagram

"When it comes to reaching and engaging with this generation online, the opportunities are there. We just have to do the work to meet them in the right places with the right content," DeShazo concluded.

Here are the results of our 2015 survey on the social media use of student-athletes:

Participants: 927

Level of competition: NAIA 4%    Division III 10%    Division II 6%    Division I 80%    Male: 65%    Female: 35%

Twitter: 73% have an account
43% check it more than 10 times per day without tweeting
19% check it between 5 and 10 times per day without tweeting
93% send 5 or fewer tweets per day
37% have more than 500 followers
50% have between 100 and 500 Twitter followers
70% have a public Twitter account
5% have posted personal information (phone number, address, email address)
20% have tweeted something inappropriate (profanity, racial, sexual, drugs, alcohol, violence)
13% have received hateful tweets from fans
22% have responded to hateful tweets from fans
78% say they follow a brand on Twitter

Facebook 94% have a Facebook account
63% said they use Facebook less than they did one year ago
14% check Facebook more than 10 times per day
56% check it 5 or fewer times per day
92% post between 1 and 5 times per day
69% have more than 500 Facebook friends
7% say they’ve posted something inappropriate on Facebook
92% say they utilize the privacy settings on Facebook
68% say they “like” a brand on Facebook

Instagram 81% have an Instagram account
67% have their Instagram account set to private
31% check it more than 10 times per day without posting
43% check it between one and 5 times per day without posting
94% post between 1 and 5 times per day
8% say they’ve posted something inappropriate on Instagram
81% say they follow a brand on Instagram

Snapchat 89% have a Snapchat account
57% send 5 or more snaps per day
41% have posted something inappropriate to Snapchat
36% have received snaps from someone they don’t know
7% say they follow a brand on Snapchat

Which social media platform do you use the most? Instagram: 33%    Facebook: 29%   Snapchat: 21%   Twitter: 13%

Other platforms being used
Tumblr: 11%
Yik Yak: 37% (48% said that they have posted to Yik Yak)
Vine: 29%
Google+: 16%
LinkedIn:
Kik: 10%

Other statistics
43% say they spend more than 1 hour per day on social media
25% say they spend 30 minutes per less on social media each day
37% say they’ve posted something on social media that they regret
8% say they’ve witnessed teammates being cyberbullied
13% have posted something inappropriate to Yik Yak
48% say they believe Yik Yak is anonymous
6% say they’ve checked social media during one of their games
3% say they’ve posted to social media during one of their games
52% say they’ve met someone offline that they first interacted with on social media
16% have used social media to network or connect for a job/internship
45% say they’ve had no social media training
50 % say they’ve had at least one hour of social media training

Last week we published the results of our latest survey, looking at the social media use of college athletes. With nearly 1000 participants, the data gave us a good look into where this group is spending their time online. There are a few takeaways from the data as it relates to both the education of student-athletes on social media and how we reach this audience from a marketing and communications perspective.

In terms of education, we’re seeing that 43% spend more than an hour on social media each day with 37% of them saying they’ve posted something regret. Meanwhile, 45 have had zero training/education on social media use. This plays out in that 48% believe Yik Yak is anonymous and 41% have posted something inappropriate on Snapchat, which implies that they believe that it is private and pictures actually disappear.

It’s troubling to see these numbers. Fieldhouse Media was started based on the idea that student-athletes can use social media well, if we simply provide guidance and support on what that looks like. Daily we see student-athletes in the news for inappropriate social media use, yet half haven’t been educated on what it means to use social media in a positive, meaningful, appropriate way. Are we setting them up for failure? As administrators and educators, it’s on us to prepare them for success. We have to be intentional about it. It’s well beyond time that we make educating our student-athletes on social media use a priority.

From a marketing standpoint, this is a generation that everyone is desperate to reach. It’s important that we not just look at where they spend time but why/how they spend that time. They spread themselves out across platforms, posting at least once per day on almost each of the main four (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat). Instagram is a platform that we should continue to focus on from a marketing/communications perspective. 33% said that it was their most used platform and 81% say they follow a brand on Instagram. While Snapchat is the shiny new toy (if we can call it new), only 7% of student-athletes say they follow a brand on the platform. That’s either an opportunity for brands or an indicator that users are there for more personal interaction, away not only from mom and dad but from brands as well. We also need to consider what message we’re sending them when we do engage on Snapchat. With the targeting capabilities of Twitter and Facebook, you can – and should – be creating content specifically for this audience.

This generation is spending a significant amount of time online. As educators, we need to make sure we’re preparing them to not only use it wisely but also to get the most out of their social media use. As marketers, we need to be intentional in creating content that matters to them, on the platforms that matter to them and that help us to be the most effective in telling our stories.

Calendar

Important Dates