Cat’s rule the internet. They are globe bestriding megastars.
Don’t believe me? Just type “cat video” into YouTube. Video number one has 8.5 million views. Pretty good. Video two on the list has almost 39 million views. Thirty nine million for a video of cats.
Still don’t believe me?
How about the 49 pages of cat memes on LOLcats? To pick just one website dedicated to cat memes.
What about the cat who ran on to the pitch at Anfield during a particularly dull 0-0 game between Liverpool and Spurs? Within minutes he had half a dozen Twitter feeds.
As enchanting and amusing as the videos and memes are (and believe me they are, I fell into 25 minute hole of cat based entertainment) they are of little real value. They are unlikely to help people live full, rich lives.
Hopefully, football coaches will help people live full, rich lives. Particularly those coaches who are dedicated and constantly looking for ways to improve. Not in profound ways. Just to keep people active, socially engaged, disciplined, all the good things that sports tend to do.
In the constant search for tools many coaches have turned to Twitter.
As a coach, why use Twitter? What do you want from it?
No two people will want exactly the same things. I turned to Twitter as a way to further my coaching education. To learn from others and share resources. About a year after joining I went on an FA course. The tutor advised using Twitter as a learning tool.
It has been invaluable. No doubt about it. Coaches I have spoken to echo that sentiment. One coach estimates that the sharing of practices and booklets has saved them several hundred pounds. Not bad for just a few clicks.
The session plans that are readily available could provide you with a full season of material. Adapt it, change it, make it fit your players. If it isn’t quite right it might spark your own creativity and drive the creation of a new, original session. Instantly you have found a sounding board. A Twitter muse.
Interesting discussions abound while job opportunities flicker and urge you to grab them. Growing your own network along the way. Feedback on your own work is available should you seek it out. The experience of other coaches is hard to put a fiscal figure on. If you are always looking to learn and improve there is no better way. At it’s best Twitter is like having a thousand mentors.
At it’s best.
Social networks are a reflector of life. A pile of good thing and a pile of bad. Just hope the good pile is bigger than the bad. Twitter is no different. The useful practices and resources can become a flow of cut and paste repeats. The healthy debates can spiral into something unhealthy. The limitations of 140 characters can lead to misunderstandings and the inability to properly correct said misunderstanding. This can then get ugly, with people forgetting it is an idea they are debating, not the worth of the person they are debating with. Lack of respect can be shown, people thinking they are better than others based on a badge or their work for a professional club.
This can lead to what is basically peacocking or posturing. Coaches saying the right things in order to fit without really believing them. Stating that they are a coach who believes in development yet loudly triumphing in the under 8 team’s 9-0 victory. Of course, it is not the victory of the children when this happens, it is the victory of the coaches ego.
“No one knew who I was until I joined Twitter.”
I have seen that statement on a Twitter page.
As a coach, why use Twitter? An answer to that question may be the same as millions of non coaches. Recognition. An outlet for your voice.
Not necessarily a bad thing. You may have something of value to say. But how do you make sure people can hear you? You need followers. This changes the way you use Twitter. Your motivation.
I want this blog to be read. I am not writing it because I just want to have a blast on my keyboard. I genuinely believe that there is something useful, interesting and informative being said. Of course not everyone will find it to be that way, I accept that prospect is extremely unlikely. How can I get people to read it? By asking my network to retweet it. I do not have enough followers to guarantee that anyone will read it at all. I am relying on a mixture of their kindness and my quality.
Yet, experience says that certain posts don’t need that sort of assistance. They don’t need any real quality.
If I were to post the cat video with 39 million views I would not need to ask for assistance. Just #catvideo would do the trick. I could also guarantee that it would garner me more followers, because cats rule the internet.
@AnfieldCat has 52,000 followers. @AnfieldCat has a far greater platform than any football coach I follow on Twitter.
How badly do you want followers? How badly do you want to promote yourself? Altruism can in fact be exceedingly selfish on Twitter. Sharing a cat video will gain followers, but I can not guarantee that those followers will be coaches, nor could it be seen as altruistic. It is the equivalent of shouting until people look.
There are Twitter users who have made strident opinions an art form. Provocative posts designed just to get others to bite. More traffic generated. More useful followers for their platform. Their underlying message may in truth be a good one. The danger is that is may get lost in the fog of war. Masked by faux hostility and eventually ignored. Different strokes for different folks. People have a right to be heard and a right to choose not to listen. Twitter understand that, they made a block button. Those who are in it to help others rather than themselves can stick with those with a like mind and remove the rest. Though where is the challenge in that?
A play or movie tends be dull when there is no conflict. That conflict does not have to be physical or violent. Mental conflict is more than enough. It stimulates the brain. Like good debate. If you are only ever with people who have the same ideas as yourself, you will be less stimulated. It may be a good idea to be a little less swift on the block button.
I am yet to share a training session or other coaching resources. This is partially because I have not found a way to share that I am completely comfortable with and partly because I have become aware that posting sessions and resources is a virtual guarantee that there will be activity on my Twitter account. Likewise with resources. I am absolutely certain that there are people who have figured that out. I can even recall accounts posting messages that suggested after x number of retweets they would post another session. Is that true altruism? Are you then there for educational purposes or purely for self promotion? Effectively turning it all into Twitter Coach X-Factor.
I want to be clear, this is not an attack on those who do post resources. Without them I would not have half the material I currently have and I am exceedingly grateful to those who do post with altruistic intentions. I am just pointing out that it is a system that can be abused.
Even truly altruistic acts can have Twitter kick backs. At present I am attempting a Twitter campaign to raise money and awareness for Breast Cancer Care. I have posted more tweets in the last two months than the preceding six. The net result of which has been zero donations but at least 25 more followers. I would rather have £25 for the charity than the followers. It would appear that those who said charity was the best form of marketing where right.
Unless you have a cat.
https://www.justgiving.com/5v5forFive/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tntOCGkgt98 – 39 million views
http://www.lolcats.com/page-1.html