Thursday was a banner day for Brooks Cockrell. SMU football was buzzing on social media with the release of TempoCopter 2, a video spoof on coach Chad Morris turned action hero helio-hunting high school recruits.

Social media has become a hugely important tool for athletic departments, especially coaching staffs, to spread the word about their program to fans and recruits.

Competition is almost as intense as games. The night before the release of TempoCopter2, TCU coach Gary Patterson, a prolific tweeter, made a big hit with pictures of him and country artist Brad Paisely onstage at Billy Bob's and backstage afterward.

Fun night w/ @BradPaisley at @BillyBobsTexas! Thanks Brent! Check out Brad's new song & video today great stuff! pic.twitter.com/05fLN2Mbx4 — K.Patterson (@kels_patterson) October 13, 2016

Keeping the clicks coming with unique content is a 24/7 labor of love, as well as research, NCAA compliance issues, etc.

So we turned to Cockrell for insight on keeping recruits and fans engaged. In his second season with SMU, Cockrell produces highlight, promotional, and motivational videos for the team, and assists in running football's social media accounts.

He spent six years at Arkansas State as a video intern and graduate assistant on the coaches' film crew, assisting the video coordinator in organizing practices, filming games and running social media accounts.

Cockrell earned his master's degree in mass communication from Arkansas State in December 2014. He received his bachelor's degree in radio/television broadcasting from Arkansas State in May 2012.

Bill Nichols: How important is social media in college football recruiting?

Brooks Cockrell: It's a huge part, something that coach Morris addresses a lot. It's our most important, and easiest, way to stay in contact with recruits. We also try to build brand awareness.

Coach Morris says all the time, 'If we're not talking to those recruits, someone else is.' We need to show what our program, staff and culture is about. When I took this job, I thought social media would be an afterthought, but actually it's the opposite.

Bill Nichols: You have a pretty wide-ranging audience. Is it tough to figure out the best way to appeal to everyone in the same post?

Brooks Cockrell: It is a fine line between catering to our fan base and recruits.

We want to interact with the fans and give them looks inside the program, but at the same time, to appeal to 17-, 18-, 19-year-old kids. The fan base is generally older.

Bill Nichols: What are the keys to making a successful presentation to recruits?

Brooks Cockrell: Honestly, it can be kind of tough. When we started, our goal was to stay away from long-form media. Most kids in that age range are not going to stay with a 5-6 minute video. They don't have that long of an attention span.

Two minutes at the most, or shorter than that, to keep them in that 30- second range; you get their attention for a second and if you're lucky, they'll check out your profile sections.

We've made a pretty big push to get involved with Snapchat. The kids are really into that. (Laughing) I'm 26 and I feel like I'm too young for that. We try to cover the bases pretty well.

Twitter is our main emphasis. Facebook is good way to connect more with the fan base. Twitter is a nice happy medium between Facebook and Snapchat.

What I love about social media - memes, gifs, shared creativity, instant news.

What I hate about social media - the idiots. — Brooks Cockrell (@The_Broox) July 8, 2016

Bill Nichols: How long does it take to produce a high-quality video like TempoCopter2? You have a busy coaching staff and other factors to contend with.

Brooks Cockrell: Well, that one, from beginning of production to end was about a year. Everything in the helicopter was done last year. I wasn't sure how I would use it. It was just me and coach Morris in the helicopter flying around DFW, and then Tim Esfandiari helped me out _ just a two-man crew.

We're constantly thinking of new ideas. We'll go around with the coaches while they're out recruiting. Those videos have been popular. We've gotten calls from other staffs around the country saying, 'Why are you guys doing that, now we will have to do that.'

Bill Nichols: Coach Morris built a strong social media following as offensive coordinator at Clemson. He seems to have fun with the videos. Is he easy to work with?

Brooks Cockrell: Coach Morris encourages us to think of new stuff all the time. He's very open to trying new things. When we came up with idea to follow them around recruiting, he cleared it with the compliance staff and we were good to go.

He's really good in terms of fostering creativity and giving you the go- ahead. When he first called me, his main thing was having a big presence on social media.

Doing research on his background gave me an idea of what he was looking for. And with him coming from Clemson, they do it better than anybody. We try to emulate Clemson.

He loves doing the videos of him giving students rides to class on his golf cart. There are very few things that he's not open to. The whole staff is great to work with. Coach (defensive coordinator Van) Malone, there's nothing that he won't do.

Twitter: @BillNicholsDMN