4 Tips for Student-Athletes to Grow Their Brand
With comprehensive, division-wide guidance regarding name, image, and likeness (NIL) likely still months away, many student-athletes are left wondering what they can do to prep their brand for whatever lies ahead.
Here are four simple ways to prep your brand for future monetization, the job market, or both.
Clean it up: One way student-athletes get themselves into digital hot water is by failing to clean up their unflattering social media posts. Take a quiet Sunday afternoon to remove any unflattering or distasteful posts or images. Apps like TweetDelete do all the heavy lifting for you. Remember, if you leave it, you mean it.
Have a brand plan: As an athlete, when have you ever started a game or match without a game plan? Never! Creating a brand strategy is challenging but an essential element to overall brand success. What’s your end goal? Who’s your audience? How do you plan to reach them? What do you plan to say? These are all critical questions you should answer if you want to achieve long-term brand success.
Ramp up engagement: When it comes to engagement, make sure you’re always following the two Cs: consistency and community. As active student-athletes, I realize that consistently posting content isn’t top of mind. But if you want to monetize, it a must-do. Additionally, don’t post and roll out. Stick around and like, share, and comment on other people’s content. Being a good community member helps your visibility, too.
Show us what else you’ve got: It’s easy to post pics from games, practices, and marketing department photoshoots, but that’s not all there is to know about you. What about your classes, hobbies, volunteer activities, and time with family and friends? A crucial piece of brand monetization is connecting with multiple audiences, so be sure to create content that shows all of your passions or activities — allowing you to engage followers who might not even be interested in your sport.
Just like learning a new position or skill, brand acceleration doesn’t happen overnight. Student-athletes interested in growing their brand should use this time while we wait for NIL to get themselves into good brand-building habits.