Money Smart Athlete Blog

Social Media Strategies for promoting the Money Smart Athlete’s Brand

Jan 23, 2019 | The Athlete's Brand

By Lazaros Ioannou, APC Sports Consulting Ltd

The Athletic Brand of Money Smart Athletes can be built in such a way so that it can transform them into local or global signature brands, which can be leveraged to sell, endorsed and make a profit. Money Smart Athletes can build and capitalize on their brand by creating proper personal marketing strategies, with well-defined branding activities which are in line with their life plan. A large part of these personal marketing strategies can be implemented successfully through the use of social media.

Social media are communication and socializing tools that we use in our everyday lives. As per the latest statistics, the number of social media users worldwide in 2018 was 3.196 billion, with an increase of 13 percent from the previous year. Companies and individuals use social media to promote their brand, products and services. Money Smart Athletes currently use social media quite heavily in order to market themselves and communicate with their fans, sponsors and potential sponsors.

Through social media, Money Smart Athletes are able to build their personal brand, become known and develop brand equity. Social media is not only a way to promote one’s self, but also a means to promote a sponsor’s products and services. Therefore, by having a high social media presence, athleteS create lucrative financial opportunities through sponsorships and endorsements.

Social media, is a powerful tool in a sports persona’s overall personal branding strategy and below we present some useful Social media strategies which will guide Money Smart Athletes in building and promoting their personal brand successfully through social media.

Define the goals which you wish to achieve through social media. Through social media you will be able to develop a specific public image and tell your personal story, increase your fanbase and ultimately get sponsorships and endorsements.  By defining your goals, you are able to design your strategy towards achieving them.

Determine which is your audience. You have to decide which is the demographic of the audience you wish to reach. In order to do that, you have to know to which target group you are most appealing to and will most likely connect with you and become followers in the various social media outlets where you have presence.

Choose the right social media outlets. Depending on the target audience you want to reach, you have to choose the most suitable social media outlets through which you will do that. For example, if your target audiences are teenagers, then Instagram and Facebook are more appropriate social media platforms than Twitter or LinkedIn.

Decide on the content of your posts. You want to develop a certain public image and you want to express your beliefs and opinions through social media. Choose carefully the type of content that you will be sharing with your fans in order to achieve that.

Post original content. Your own text, pictures and videos are more likely to gain attention than sharing someone else’s content.

Keep your privacy, but always have in mind that fans want to feel like they are part of their athlete idol’s personal life, so it is important to have content from you daily life. Such content must be carefully chosen so that it does not disrupt your or your loved ones’ private moments. You may also make fans feel like they are part of the game by providing them with a sneak peek of behind the scenes material of your athletic world.

Be careful with the content of your posts. Have in mind that once posted it cannot be undone! Everything posted online is there forever, even after it’s been deleted. Therefore always be careful when expressing opinions, especially if they are politically related, controversial or relevant to a matter that is considered of public interest.

Engage with your followers. Engaging with your audience through questions, discussions, comments, replies etc. can help you build a strong relationship with them, ensuring the loyalty of your followers towards your personal brand.

Tag others on your posts. Engage your team, teammates, sponsors, national organizations, etc, by tagging them in your posts, thus you will broaden your reach through being visible to the tagged person’s/organization’s fanbase as well.

Be consistent and post regularly. You want to build a relationship with your followers and being consistent in your posts will increase fan loyalty. It is important to understand that social media platforms use algorithms which decrease your posts views on people’s timelines if your posting frequency decreases. The more social you are, the more air time you get. In order to achieve that, the best thing to do is to create a content calendar through which you will define what and when you will post and stick with it.

Social media is one of the best platforms to build and promote your personal athletic brand nowadays; it is free, it is vast and it has tremendous potential in connecting you with a global audience. Depending on your personal and athletic standing, there are various personal and athletic considerations to take into account when designing your social media strategy. For more information on crafting a suitable personal social media strategy, you may contact us via email at [email protected]

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