To get that coveted scholarship, you have to be seen.

College coaches like to go to events where there’s a large talent pool to choose from so camps, showcases and tournaments are great vehicles for exposure, but there’s another way creative and ambitious players are putting themselves in front of recruiters: social media.

As the saying goes, “If they can’t come to you, you go to them,” and astute players are using everything from YouTube to post skill and game highlights videos to twitter and Facebook to keep coaches updated on their accomplishments and progress.

One enterprising player who’s mastered this is Lexi Franks, a 2017 third baseman/outfielder who plays for the Oklahoma Worth Hericanes. What she’s done is an excellent model for other players to follow to best publicize their talents on and off the field through a Facebook page.

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1st Step: Establish an Athletic Resume

The first thing you need to do before shopping yourself through social media, however, is have something to offer and the Oklahoma City, Okla. player has established an excellent resume on and off the field.

Lexi hit .470 for her Westmoore High (Okla.) team and at the club level has earned game MVP honors at USSSA Nationals. She’s also attended several high visibility showcases tied into tournaments such as Ronald McDonald (Houston, Texas) and the Colorado Fireworks.

From a scouting perspective, Lexi has quick hands and feet and a good eye at the plate so she rarely strikes out. Like many dedicated players, she pushes herself through strength training and agility, batting and fielding drills.

Packaging everything including the necessary good GPA (3.66), Lexi formulated a plan to work with her younger sister, Mckayla, in creating their own Facebook page and the sisters have realized there are four major benefits of creating and maintaining an effective page:

1. Showcasing Accomplishments

“My sister and I are very lucky to be able to be close enough in age to get to play and train together,” Lexi explains.  “We dedicated a Facebook page to showcase some of our training milestones, stats and schedules.

“We called the page the “The Franks Sisters” and dedicated it to our experiences together.   We use it to post videos of our workouts and the camps and tournaments we get to attend together.”

Lexi and Makayla’s page is an example of how smart prospects update their information regularly for interested college coaches knowing that they are incredibly busy with coaching their own players, traveling, recruiting and trying to find new talent and everything else that comes with trying to win games.

The more you can do to make their jobs easier—including putting your information in front of them in a quick and efficient way to look at—the more likely you’ll be to get recruited. Video-wise, this can be game or skill highlights, but it can also be just posting quick clips showing the coaches what the player is like off the field.

“We like to post video interviews of ourselves before and after games or tournaments to let everyone know how we did and what we feel we have learned or accomplished,” Lexi adds.

2. Tracking Growth

There’s another benefit as well: it allows the player and the coaches to track the advances the athlete is making demonstrating improvement over time.

“We feel like it is a great way to track our progress and to be able to look back to see how far we have come,” says Lexi.

And for coaches they can see that an athlete is working hard and honing her skills and can project based on physical tools and raw ability how much more improvement can be made and where the athlete projects out to.

3. Making New Friends/Connecting With Others

And then there’s the friendships and relationship with peers that are gained.

“Having this Facebook page is also a great way to reach out to the softball community around us and give other girls inspiration and motivation,” the sophomore continues. “We thought it a great way to share our situation with other girls who love the game as much as we do.”

“We have had several girls from around the United States post comments or just “Likes” on our page and that makes me feel good to know that we made a connection with someone else that we don’t know but is going through the same similar things as we are.”

4. Motivation to Keep Improving

Obviously, it’s quick and easy to push a button and send the Facebook link to coaches whenever there’s something new to report and Lexi says the motivation to create new content as she documents her personal growth makes it fun too.

“For me, personally, I couldn’t ask for anything better than to maintain our Facebook page. I get to work hard improving my skills and bond with my sister while at the same time showing my training and skills progression.”

“I personally feel that in a social media-based world and what better way to help to promote yourself as a player, student and person as a whole? It is definitely a great way to show how hard you work and tracking your milestones along the way, which also helps me stay motivated!”