Social Media as a Personal Branding Tool: A Qualitative Study of Student-Athletes’ Perceptions and Behaviors

Abstract

While previous research focused on social media and student-athletes, there is a lack of knowledge about positive functions of social media use for student-athletes, especially personal branding purposes. Thus, this study aimed to explore how student-athletes perceive and use social media for personal branding purposes. A total of 11 student-athletes at a Division I university participated in semi-structured interviews. Considering the exploratory nature of the study, a qualitative inquiry and a phenomenology approach were employed to grasp an overall understanding of student-athletes’ personal branding via social media. The self-presentation theory was adopted to help understand student-athletes’ use of social media. Emerging themes included benefits and barriers of social media use, social media strategies, and concerns about negative consequences of social media. Findings from this study shed light on the importance of increasing awareness and knowledge of the concept of personal branding via social media for student-athletes. These findings also call for more effective social media training or education programs that can foster student-athletes’ positive attitude toward social media use for personal branding.

Smartphones and Varsity Athletes: A Complicated Relationship

“…Specific feelings of being obligated to communicate with coaches and to positively represent the university online appear to be unique additional stressors for varsity athletes, which can be exacerbated by their constant connexion to smartphones. These findings are in line with literature highlighting varsity athletes' perceived obligation to maintain a curated image online (David et al, 2018 ; Sanderson, 2018 ; Park et al, 2020 ). The athletes in this study experienced unique, sport-specific FOMO based on the stress of missing essential information from coaches or information that could potentially impact their sport performance or success (e.g., starting lines, different race times).…”

“…These studies suggest that athletes' use of smartphones and/or social media at various stages prior to sport performance can disrupt concentration (Encel et al, 2017 ), inhibit decision-making (Fortes et al, 2019 ), induce mental fatigue (Greco et al, 2017 ; Fortes et al, 2019 ), and delay sleep (Jones et al, 2019 ), in some instances, leading to performance decrements (Greco et al, 2017 ; Fortes et al, 2019 ; Jones et al, 2019 ). A distinct, but related stream of research has focused on competitive athletes' self-presentation and sharing behaviours on social media (e.g., Smith and Sanderson, 2015 ; Nankervis et al, 2018 ), as well as experiences and implications of using various platforms, particularly Twitter (David et al, 2018 ; Sanderson, 2018 ; Park et al, 2020 ). Ever-evolving social media usage continues to introduce new complexities to the varsity sport context, as these platforms provide athletes with great autonomy for identity management, communication, and public sharing.…”

“…More specifically, the aim was to gain an in-depth understanding of varsity athletes' positive and negative smartphone experiences by investigating the core research question "How are varsity athletes using their smartphones, and how is their usage impacting their experience of being a varsity athlete?" • Social connectedness (Best et al, 2014;Gardner and Davis, 2014;Ryan et al, 2017) • Communication (Gardner and Davis, 2014;Bentley et al, 2015) • Identity and image management (Gardner and Davis, 2014;Chan et al, 2015;Park et al, 2020) • Self-disclosure (Best et al, 2014;Gardner and Davis, 2014) • Social and emotional support (Wright, 2012;Best et al, 2014;Frison and Eggermont, 2015) • Well-being (Wright, 2012;Best et al, 2014) • Learning (e.g., Chan et al, 2015;George and DeCristofaro, 2016) • Self-regulatory behaviours (e.g., Quelly et al, 2015) • Cognitive capacity, attention, analytic thinking, and working memory (Abramson et al, 2009;Stothart et al, 2015;Ward et al, 2017;Marty-Dugas et al, 2018) • Sleep (Thomée et al, 2010) • Task performance and information processing (Stothart et al, 2015;Carrier et al, 2018;Fortes et al, 2019) • Productivity and efficiency (Rosen et al, 2013;Carrier et al, 2018) • Social presence (Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas, 2016;McDaniel and Coyne, 2016) • Self-control (Abramson et al, 2009;Rosen et al, 2013;Carrier et al, 2018) • Well-being (Best et al, 2014;Rosen et al, 20...…”

Second Wave of COVID-19 Global Pandemic and Athletes’ Confinement: Recommendations to Better Manage and Optimize the Modified Lifestyle

“…As of July 2020, Facebook (2.6 billion active users), YouTube (2 billion active users), WhatsApp (2 billion active users), Instagram (1.08 billion active users), Twitter (326 million active users), and others actually play a central role more than ever in social ties [ 51 ]. Positive social contacts such as coaches, trainers, and other athletes can encourage athletes to beware of detraining and continue the home training [ 52 , 53 ]. Athletes can virtually connect with their team staff, management, and technical staff, as well as psychologists, physiotherapists, doctors, and sport nutritionists, for online training sessions.…”

“…The author emphasized that kinesthetic motor imagery affects corticospinal excitability. On the other hand, home confinement athletes can use social media to interact with fans, followers, and fellow athletes, build a public image, and present both athletic and personal lives [ 53 ]. Finally, these different social media platforms allow athletes to keep in touch with their staff so that they get the necessary motivation and do not feel as isolated [ 9 , 58 ].…”