Cowboy Fans are Crucial in the World of Social Media Recruiting

Take OState AD for example. He puts out multiple Oklahoma State podcasts a week despite being hundreds of miles from Stillwater. He goes to battle every day for the university in a treacherous social media market.

The OkcPoke has a tremendous ability to track down recruits the second they are offered. On more days than not, the top comment on any Oklahoma State offer is typically the OkcPoke. You have names like the WanderingPoke, BuffalOKstate and the Baseball Sloth dominating the social media recruiting world.

I quickly learned that no one cared about identities and all that truly mattered was the love of Oklahoma State athletics. The color orange runs deep throughout Cowboy Nation, and no recruit is safe from the outpouring of school pride expressed by the Poke faithful.

OState AD (Cody Stovall) is the voice of the Locked on Oklahoma State podcast and avid Cowboy fan. OK State on SI recently caught up with him to talk about the importance of the social media aspect of Cowboy sports. He explained the importance of social media, not just to the athlete, but also for recruiting.

"In today’s ever-changing landscape, social media is a direct avenue to exploring potential compensation abilities," Stovall said. "Engagement equals marketability, more marketability equals profitability & profitability equals sustainability. As for recruiting, fair or not, recruits can read the amount of fan engagement and equate it to how much a fan base cares about how valuable his commitment is compared to other schools."

The social media battle continues to grow into the future of recruiting. Cowboy fan Chaz Cook recently summed it up best: "Social media bad, but social media also good."