Abstract

There are many social media uses for professional athletes. From sharing their personal lives, professional highlights, and opinions to product placements and endorsements, athletes are closer to fans and consumers than ever before. Social media also puts athletes in charge of the messages, images, and content regarding their careers and their lives. With the popularity of women’s sports on the rise, it is an important time for women athletes to assess their own personal branding, as well as their professional and product branding. Building on previous work, the purpose of this study is to investigate how one particular social media advancement, Instagram Stories, has been incorporated by athletes into their online branding efforts. This study examines 37 of the top female athletes’ self-presentation strategies on Instagram via an analysis of 1,948 Instagram Stories. Results highlight no significant difference between athletes’ frontstage performances and backstage performances as they embraced Instagram Stories into their personal branding. Instagram feeds and Stories features were employed by athletes for different purposes, with Instagram feeds more likely to be used for opinion expression and Stories primarily used for interaction, promotion, and sharing behind-the-scenes (BTS) stories.

摘要

职业运动员有许多社交媒体用途。从分享他们的个人生活、职业亮点和观点到产品植入和代言，运动员比以往任何时候都更接近粉丝和消费者。社交媒体还让运动员负责有关其职业和生活的信息、图像和内容。随着女子运动的日益普及，现在是女运动员评估自身个人品牌、职业和产品品牌的重要时刻。在以前的工作的基础上，本研究的目的是调查一项特定的社交媒体进步，Instagram Stories，是如何被运动员纳入他们的在线品牌推广工作的。本研究通过对 1、948 个 Instagram 故事。结果表明，运动员在将 Instagram 故事融入个人品牌时，他们的前台表演和后台表演之间没有显着差异。Instagram 提要和 Stories 功能被运动员用于不同目的，其中 Instagram 提要更可能用于表达意见，而 Stories 主要用于互动、宣传和分享幕后 (BTS) 故事。