In this day and age it’s nothing new to be expected to be able to create and share content online, and building your personal brand through online content allows you to craft a platform that reflects your personal values and commercial value.

Social media should be used in a fun and engaging way, but it’s now a must-have for all athletes with aspirations of international success. There are very few people who have the means to fund themselves through a full international career. Potential sponsors will look at your online presence as part of their evaluation of your worth. That makes allocating some time each week – or even each day – to your profile is so important.

It takes some work, a lot of which we can help with, but read on to find out some steps that will help make your online branding work harder for you.

Keep your brand voice and image honest and consistent.

Take the time to think about how you want to show up, your online channels are your audiences way of staying connected long after the final whistle so you want to make sure you are talking and creating an image that is true to you, and that you can uphold as you grow.

You can never control people’s perceptions, but you can safeguard you image from damage that would come with content or images that don’t match your brands voice.

Don’t be afraid to use online marketing persona templates if you’re unsure how best to start..

Whatever you share, share regularly and engage with your audience

It is so far from the truth that the more you post, the more engagement you get. We are all probably aware of people and brands who over-post which is just plain annoying. You want to keep the lines of communication open with your audience, but you also don’t want to overshare so much that you look desperate. The sweet spot is posting around 3-4 times a week.

There will be days when you don’t post, and that’s perfectly fine. Think about when your audience would be most likely to search you out (in the moments before and after major competitions, at training, from the inner circle or during culturally relevant moments.

Posting is one thing, but listening and responding to comments, likes and mentions will fuel the social media platforms’ algorithms to ensure you rise up the searchable ranks and grow as quickly as your bank balance hopefully will too.

So what should you post?

Don’t worry, there’s no one sure fire solution - and don’t believe anyone trying to sell you otherwise - but a good starting point would be to think about what you would like to see from you own someone admire on social media channels.

To get you started, we’ve listed a few topics you could choose

• Training/competition – Where, when, how and what are you training? What is the mood before or after the game, and if possible try to involve team-mates or club staff to give even more of insightful connection to your world.

• Away days – If ever there was down time as an athlete this is surely it? Break up the monotony and share your experience if you’re going somewhere exciting, if you’re travelling in a fun way, if there are routines our ‘must-have’ things packed…and once again, involved your squad!

• Nutrition/Food – This is a really easy one, and one that sponsors in this industry are desperate for more athletes to do. It doesn’t just have to be the programmed diet, or the supplements, audiences will want to know what you eat on off days, what are the favourites from the team and whether there are any pre-event/post-event meals you always go to

• When at Home – At home is when you can relax, and you may want to keep this offline, but it is a great chance to share more of your personality with photos, TikTok’s, Stories, Lives or Polls that will allow your audience get a sneakpeek on everything from your pet’s name to your favourite go to local shop for a after dinner treat.

• Supporting your Supporters – Giving a shout out to the team behind the team, the coaches, the sponsors and your followers is always appreciated, cements your good nature and more often than not gets reshared and ensures further impressions & engagement.

• Steal the best ideas! – When you have an established platform a retweet or share goes a long way to building your network. It also let’s demonstrate your own brand values by aligning yourself to team-mates, athletes from other sports, brands, businesses and charitable bodies you can help them as well grow your reach.

This blog is FAR from an exhaustive list, but it’s a good start. We’d love to sit down together and figure out how we can make a plan bespoke for you.

It all begins with a conversation. We are founded on the belief that the Sport has the power to change the world, you simply need to have the right people supporting you to achieve your maximum potential.

EMAIL US TO START YOUR JOURNEY - info@firstfivemarketing.com