With the conclusion of the latest college football recruiting season, it’s impossible to deny the presence of athletes on social media, and the impact their posts can have on their future. Big name recruits post a picture or hashtag suggesting a commitment to a certain college and fans go nuts at the prospect of snagging a star player for their favorite program.
The majority of football players with a shot at a college scholarship have a link to their highlight tape in their bio, allowing them to market their play to others at the click of a button. When most recruits announce their commitments, a post pledging allegiance to the university is not far behind. The big-name players get flooded with interactions, praise and hate, while players with smaller names or those who participate in some of the less publicized sports fall to the wayside.
PlayerLeak is a service that was created by former athletes Chris Patterson and Robert Plant, both graduates of Towson University, to help bridge that gap between the marquee recruits and want-to-be walk-ons. Patterson played basketball, baseball and ran track and field in high school, before starting a club basketball program in his college years. Plant played hockey for 20 years, from a child to playing junior hockey in a Tier III league, before pursuing club hockey in college. Plant is currently coaching collegiate hockey as well. The two founded PlayerLeak to establish an athlete-specific social network, creating a system for communication and interaction between athletes, coaches, teams, fans, parents and representatives from sports product or service companies.
The cofounders have stated on their website that they felt if a network like this existed when they were pursuing their sports careers that it could have helped them in their pursuit of a greater opportunity as athletes.
PlayerLeak has different features for each category of member, allowing six unique experiences that combine to create a platform to push athletes to another level.
Athletes
For the real subjects of PlayerLeak, the goal is simple; to get the athlete out there and make them more visible to potential fans, and coaches, while also allowing a connection between current fans, family, teammates and manufacturers of sports-related products and services. The site is designed to allow an athlete to showcase their abilities, share achievements, and get feedback for improvement, as well as praise. Athletes have a unique platform to present to followers, and a place to share interests and goals with those they have followed back and established a “friend connection” with.
Fans
Fans make up a large part of the PlayerLeak world. Fans can use the site to keep track of their favorite athletes, interact with other fans and find new players to follow. Giving fans a direct avenue to athletes allows for a connection between spectators and players, with the focus of updates being sports, eliminating more of the unwanted chatter that pops up on Twitter.
Coaches
As athletes know, coaches play a crucial role in the process of moving to the next level, as well as in facilitating growth as a player and a person. Coaches can use PlayerLeak to keep track of their players, establish team goals, promote their own athletes, interact with coaches at the next level, create connections and even interact with fans of their own.
Teams
Teams can use the site to interact with each other more directly. The site provides an avenue for communication within an entire team at once. Being able to see what other members of your team have been doing and interacting with the group as a whole is a unique opportunity that PlayerLeak presents to athletes and their teams, that is new to the traditional world of social media.
Parent
The PlayerLeak network allows parents to have a platform to praise their star player at all times, without flooding a Facebook feed with pictures of jerseys and cleats. Parents are given a direct line to the sporting career of their pride-and-joy, while also being able to keep track of practices and things that they may not be around to see firsthand.
Sports Product/Services
PlayerLeak gives companies a lane for a direct connection with potential patrons and a locale for promotion of their products or services that can be followed by other users. With this network, coaches, parents and players have a new way of finding products that they are interested in, and creating a brand identity that has a more direct relationship than catching an ad or commercial by chance.
With a specific experience for users of these different categories, PlayerLeak definitely has a way of creating an enjoyable network of those interested in the sporting world. The site has operating features to let users interact and participate in the site in unique ways.
Following
Like most traditional social media sites, the ability to follow is granted to users. Members are able to follow other PlayerLeak pages and see updates, likes, and posts from the pages they choose to follow, on a news feed. When a page receives a follow, it is notified and given the option to follow back, but it is not a requirement. Pages are not notified when they are unfollowed.
Friend Connection
Player Leak contains a feature coined as a “friend connection”, in which both parties involved follow each other, which creates a link between networks, while also giving a deeper permission for viewing specifics posted by athletes, including interests and goals, as previously mentioned.
Posting, Commenting, Sharing and Props
Like other outlets, the PlayerLeak network lets users post, comment on posts, share posts from others and “like” posts. The “like” method that PlayerLeak employs is a unique one in its own way. PlayerLeak users give “props” to posts that they like, as a more direct form of support and approval. The posts that receive the most props are featured for others to see, while all props are presented for the recipients to be notified of.
With features designed for interaction and specific lanes for users to choose to get the best experience, PlayerLeak has the infrastructure to be a tool to help athletes. The platform could be an opportunity for sports to create new connections that haven’t been established yet. While the user base is small at this point, the concept behind the site is a novel one. With the whole idea behind PlayerLeak being focused around an integration of sports and a niche social media presence, the site acts as a new avenue between the two that hasn’t really been traveled before, which could make for an interesting fusion of disciplines.