Like many other professionals, Nick Rolovich conducts an annual self-evaluation, looking for ways to improve at his craft. Three years ago he decided he needed to improve his social media game.
“I made a commitment,” said the University of Hawaii head football coach, who was the Nevada offensive coordinator in 2013. “I got better at it.”
Rolovich’s platform of choice is Twitter — for the simple reason that it is where the recruits hang out (when they’re not on Snapchat, hiding from the grownups). So do cyber bird dogs, who are essentially matchmakers; Rolovich said they help him and his staff find players that will be a good fit for UH.
“I don’t even know who they are. You got lookouts, you got guys searching for guys. I get direct messages from guys, they might be girls, I don’t know who they are. ‘Hey this guy just decommitted.’ We got eyes, feelers, through Twitter. They deserve some credit,” Rolovich told the Star-Advertiser’s Jason Kaneshiro on Wednesday, on letter of intent day after Rolovich introduced his first UH recruiting class. “There’s thousands of kids and probably hundreds of relationships that we don’t know about. ‘Hey this guy’s uncle is so-and-so who played here,’ and, boom, maybe we have a connection. The online personas were very helpful for us since I took the job and I hope they know they were helpful.”
And it’s all OK with the NCAA. Coaches can even interact with prospects on Twitter via direct message during dead periods, when they’re not allowed to text recruits.
“Any time you want, brother,” Rolovich said. “It just takes a little effort.
“(Twitter is) almost like a recruiting website. But instead of paying thousands he can put his highlights there free,” Rolovich said. “His personality will come through.”
As will a coach’s.
Rolovich looks for opportunities to react to what potential Rainbow Warriors post on Twitter, and to determine if they will fit in here. If they post a highlight, he may comment, and not necessarily positively — like if he thinks a prospect is a little too self-congratulatory after a big play.
He knows adults can make mistakes on social media, too.
“I probably take Twitter to the edge. I’ve been there with my thumb itching above the send button,” he said. “You gotta think about it.”
His former boss, Nevada head coach Brian Polian, is the latest of many to err on social media. A shot at another school’s academics, probably meant as a private message, was sent publicly — an easy error to make on Twitter, but an embarrassing one.
Then there are the hashtags. Rolovich understands the relationship between social media and branding, and #priderock has caught on with UH fans and recruits. It’s not just about comparing a football program’s status to the plot of “The Lion King.” He also realized the words “pride” and “rock” fit perfectly with his plan to bring winning back to an island’s college football team.
“I think electronic communication can be very powerful. You don’t have to use a lot of words; it allows you to be very spontaneous, allows you to jolt,” Rolovich said. “I call it creative spontaneity. You can use it to break the ice. But the finishing touch has to be genuine and in person.”
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.
