Kids these days who happen to be good at sports are using Facebook, a new technology that connects people via the internet, to grow their celebrity status before they even enter college. Take Marcus Lattimore, a high school junior football star who posts highlight reels on his Facebook page so his fans can watch.
What else happens? Well recruiters from all over the place post on his wall, trying to get him to attend their probably crappy school. See, through this Facebook they can break the 4th wall and get into Marcus’ head and play with his frontal-lobeless brain until he unwittingly chooses some college that will pay for him to run up and down a field.
Says he: “Every time I get on [Facebook], no matter what time I get on there, somebody is saying, ‘Come be a Tiger,’ ‘Come be a Gamecock,’ ‘Come be a Nittany Lion’ or something,” he said. “They’ve written on my wall or sent me a message. I read all of them and, I mean, it’s just crazy.”
Without even knowing it, Marcus is building brand value. Or, does he know it? This quote is from a different kid (a quarterback) who does the same thing. “I thought my friends would like to see my highlight videos, and now everybody gets a chance to see them. A lot of people like to question my ability, so it’s right there for them to see. If you do things right, you can really use Facebook [to your advantage].”
Yeah. And to build interest (which he calls letting people know what’s up) leading up to deciding his college pick, the quarterback plans to announce his top 5 picks via a status update.
This stuff is what Nike, Under Armor, Gatorade, EA Sports and the whole crew drool over. Not only are the kids becoming stars before they step on collegiate grass (beyond what their predecessors could have imagined), the ones that really make it are setting themselves up for even bigger paychecks when the bigs come calling.
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