Social Media Background Screening Is Real and Serious

I’ve been talking about this for the past couple of years at my Pre-Season Show Off Camp.

I am Twitter and Facebook friends with Memphis area players and I have to shake my head with some of the things that I see.

When college coaches are evaluating you to play for their college programs, they not only look at your basketball talent. They look for the type of person you are and social media is the best place to see the real you.

This week during SEC Media Day for football, Arkansas Football coach, Bret Bielema, broke it down on how he uses social media background screening and why.

(Video and article from ESPN.com)

Going back to the words of his former boss at Iowa, Hayden Fry, Arkansas coach Bret Bielema told reporters at SEC media days on Wednesday that you “recruit your own problems.” That means looking into every angle of a prospect, he said, including his social media presence.

“We have a social media background screening that you’ve got to go through,” he said, “and if you have a social media nickname or something on your Twitter account that makes me sick, I’m not going to recruit you. I’ve turned down players based on their Twitter handles. I’ve turned down players based on Twitter pictures. It’s just that’s how I choose to run our program.

“It’s the things that [athletic director] Jeff Long and our fans hold me accountable to. I’m never going to waver in that.”

Bielema entered the SEC in late 2012 after seven seasons as the head coach at Wisconsin.

Arkansas went 7-6 last season after posting a 3-9 record the year before.

“If you want to recruit somebody of high character and value, somebody you can trust to not only watch your house, but your children, someone you can count on to share carries of 1,000 yards each rather than trying to get 1,800 for one, now you’re going to build something that matters,” Bielema said.

“It’s a bunch of we, not me, and I can’t stress enough that, just because you’re a great player in the United States of America, doesn’t mean Arkansas is going to recruit you.”

I Like Tyler, The Creator

 

I know, I know.

I’m shocked too.

I don’t think I am in the age bracket that Tyler, The Creator caters to. And the young fella has a mouth on him. It does hurt my ears to hear all the profanity that comes out of his mouth.

Over the past few months, I’ve been hearing his name. So naturally, I Googled it to do some research.

I believe I ended up on his website, oddfuture.com, and I didn’t understand what in the world I was looking at.

So I was driving down Madison one day and saw the Minglewood Hall sign of Tyler, The Creator performing at an upcoming concert there. By the way, the concert is tonight. So I thought, that’s cool.

Which prompted me to do more research on him. He is a rapper, music producer, has his own clothing line, produces his own music videos, and starred in his own television show. He even has his own carnival/festival, called Camp Flog Gnaw. Did I mentioned that he is only 24. You really have to give it up to him. He has accomplished a lot.

What made me a fan of Tyler, The Creator was his thoughts about the success of Camp Flog Gnaw and all that he has accomplished. From his tumblr account he shared an inspirational open letter about how incredible it is to see “little ideas” go from dream to reality. After reading the post, I learned that he was just a young man with a big imagination and turned his imagination into reality.

And I could relate. Because the way he felt about his accomplishments, is they way I felt just one month ago after launching my E.L.I.T.E. Academy and after watching my Fall Exposure League grow. I was in awe of seeing my ideas come into existence.

Check out his letter that I found on HypeBeast.com. I replaced the profanity with dotted lines..

Its Been A Week Since The Carnival, Which I Have Now Realized Was The Greatest Day Of My Life. Seeing Everyone I Care About There Was Crazy. No, Thats Not Even The Part That Got Me Excited. Seeing What Some Stupid Little ideas Can Turn Into Is What Shocks Me. The Little Stupid Cats And Graphics I Made On Photo Shop Out Of Boredom On Flags And Murals; Seeing That Donut I Drew When I Was 15 On Stages And Everyones Bag; 10 Thousand People Came To A Place Called ‘Camp Flog Gnaw’, Wow. I Remember When I Came Up With That Name Summer 2011. I Never Been To Camp And In My Head, I Created A Place That I Figured Would Never Exist, But That Changed. Just Fliping The First Letters Of Wolf Gang Turned Into Its Own Separate Thing. Seeing All Different Races From Skinny To Fat To Everything All In One Place With Something In Common Was Mind Blowing. The Zipper Is My Favorite Ride In The World. Not That You Care, But That Fact That I Figured Out How To Get That Thing And Ride It For As Many Times As I Want Without Waiting In Line IS ……….. Amazing. I Have An Amazing Team With Me. No Matter How Crazy And Offensive Or Weird My Ideas Were, They Put Their Trust In Me And Allowed Me To Move Forward.Like Dude, We Threw A ………. Carnival In The Middle Of Los Angeles With 10k Plus People. We Didnt Have Any Crazy Sponsors And I Didnt Have To Suck Up to Anyone Or Any Of That ………, WE Did It. And The Skatepark? Did You See That Skatepark? I Was Up Till 2 Am Painting That ……….! Growing Up In Hawthorne At The Dirty ( skatepark) And Seeing My Old Friends From There Getting Clips Was Prolly The Craziest ……… Ive Seen. How Far Ive Came With Every Little Idea that I Believed In No Matter Who Did Or Didnt. Walking Around Seeing Kids In EXACT Things That I Wear Is Mind Blowing. Something That I Just Naturally Like And Put On, Its Some Kid Out There That Studies Every Article Of Clothing That Was Put On And Emulates That. Thats Crazy To Me. I Used To Do That With P, So Know That Someone IS Looking At Me The Way I Look At Him Is Really Amazing To Me. I Didnt Think I Would Change So Many Lives. Someone Retweeted An Old Tweet Of Mine From Feb 2012 Yesterday And It Read ’ I Had A Dream That Kanye Invited Me To Perform LATE With Him. I Wish’. Kanye Came To The Carnival And I Performed Late With Him. My Favorite Song By Kanye, AN Album Cut He NEVER Does, Was Performed Not Only With But During My Set And My Carnival! No Matter if You Hate Me Think Im Stupid Untalented Annoying Or Whatever, I ………….. WIN ……….. We Did This, OF Did This, Coming From Actually Jack ……… And Turned That Jack …….. In Something. I’m Just Blabbing Now. I Just Want Who Ever Reading This To Know That Anything Is Possible, No Matter How Crazy It May Seem, Anything IS Possible You Just Have To Figure It Out. Get Your Self Esteem Up And Like Yourself, Then Like Your Ideas. We Live In A World Where People Dont Even Like Their Own Ideas, That Why You Have People Copying One Thing Thats Working So Much, Then Everything Gets Over Saturated With The Same ……., And That Goes With Fashion, Music And All That. If People Actually Loved Themselves And Believed In Themselves More You Know How Many More Crazy Things Would Be Created? There Is No ………… Limit To Anything! ( Except Elevators)……………………………..Im Really Passionate About Everything I Do. From Music To Clothing To Videos. I Love Make Videos So Much. I Just Want Some Millionaire To Throw Me Money To Be Creative And Get Shots. I Remember Kids In School Always Thought I Was Weird, Not Just Cause How I Dressed Or The Music I Liked Or That Fact I Was Just Different Overall( in comparison to them), But Because I Was So Open With Future Goals. I Would Always Say The Grammies Im Gonna Get, And The Number 1 Movie Im Going To Write And Direct, And Just Random ………. Im Gonna Do. Now Those Same Dude Who Shut Me Down Are Paying …….. College Debt Doing Something They Hate, Because They Didnt Go Full Throttle On Their Own Dreams And Quickly …….. On Mines. And Im Not Knocking Anyone In College, Please Get Your Education, Im Just Saying, Do What You Love And Be Happy, Dont Live For Anyone Else. I Dont Like The Color Black. I Dont Know What That Has To Do With Anything But I Like Colors, Bright Colors, Like Flowers. It Brings A Great Energy. Ok Im Just Talking Again. Its Prolly A lot Of Typos In This But Im Just Going Off Of What Ever Is Coming To My Head. This Photo Of Na-Kel Smith Skating In Front Of The GOLF Mural At The Skatepark Means So Much To Me………………