Social media plays big role in Mercer's recruiting

It wasn't exactly Bobby Lamb's idea to jump into the social media age.

But Mercer's football head coach is glad he did.

The Bears have used social media, especially Twitter, to help build strong recruiting classes since the program rebooted for the 2013 season. And those efforts have gone to another level since Mercer joined the Southern Conference before last season.

Lamb and the Bears' football staff are hoping to reel in another strong class on National Signing Day on Feb. 3.

"Recruiting is all about momentum, and certainly you want to capture that momentum and continue that momentum, and our coaches do an outstanding job of keeping everything up to date, and that's what society is about now," Lamb said. "They want to open their phone, they want a quick look at something, and they want to move on to the next thing. So really, the Twitter world has helped us tremendously in recruiting.

"They got me on it when I first got here, and I was a little bit reluctant, but once you see the product and once you see how it affects young men, it's huge. So I'm out there trying to keep up with the Joneses."

Mercer has one of the most aggressive social media strategies on the FCS level, showcasing players with videos, photos and graphics, and the school started a website (www.beardowneverydown.com) to help with the process.

"Playing a big part in it is the videos we send out, social media, the pictures we send out, Twitter. Everything that goes out on social media has been really well received," Lamb said. "Every time I go somewhere, someone says, 'Man, y'all are doing social media better than anybody in the country.' That's a credit to our coaches, it's a credit to our video department, it's a credit to our entire athletic administration. That's where it starts.

"Five, six years ago, we were basically still sending out mail. Send out a letter here, a letter there. Now there's no mail, there's no cost. It's mash a button, send a video, mash a button, send a graphic. Our graphic department has been outstanding. Our video department has been off the charts, and we feel like that has really helped us get to where we are."

The Bears are coming off a 5-6 season that featured a win over No. 3 Chattanooga. Mercer is 21-14 in three seasons.

Lamb said the program plans to sign seven players on offense and seven on defense and maybe one more player to get to 15. The target is to sign three offensive linemen and three defensive backs.

For the first time, Mercer will be at the full scholarship limit for the FCS level as it prepares to head into its third season in the Southern Conference.

"Thank goodness there are no changes," Lamb said of the constant change of the program's first few seasons. "Once you get into giving scholarships out, and this year, now we're finally to where we know exactly what we have, we know how many we're going to sign. That can change a little bit here and there, but it's a lot more comfortable going out recruiting now that you have money in your pocket, you have a great product to sell. We have been in the conference for two years now, so the recruits actually know what's going on now that we're playing in the Southern Conference.

"It's great to go out and recruit with full scholarships because now, not only are you battling the teams on the field of play, you're battling the Samfords, the Woffords, the Furmans of the world, the academies, off the field, as well."

This story was originally published January 10, 2016 at 3:10 PM with the headline "Social media plays big role in Mercer's recruiting ."