Retired NFL Players' Social Media Strategies Revealed

Strategic Insights -

Former National Football League (NFL) athletes face significant challenges as they transition to post-sports life, particularly in terms of maintaining and enhancing their personal brands. Research at Texas A&M University has shed light on the self-presentation strategies that retired NFL players employ on social media platforms, specifically Instagram. By examining 2,933 Instagram posts from 16 retired NFL athletes, researchers found that these individuals use distinct tactics to build and sustain their personal brands, often leveraging behind-the-scenes content and engaging with their followers more frequently than their younger counterparts.

Key Takeaways:

  • Retired NFL players use Goffman's theory of self-presentation to build and maintain their personal brands on Instagram.
  • These athletes employ distinct strategies to engage with followers and promote their brand extensions, including the use of behind-the-scenes content.
  • Former NFL players with fewer followers tend to receive higher engagement rates, suggesting that a smaller, dedicated audience can be more effective than a large but disengaged one.
  • Backstage posts, which provide a glimpse into the athletes' personal lives, are more common on retired NFL players' personal pages compared to their front-stage posts, which promote their sports-related content.
  • The study highlights the importance of understanding these strategies, as they have implications for athletes, sports marketers, and social media platforms seeking to optimize content and engagement.

Statistics:

  • A total of 2,933 Instagram posts were analyzed from 16 retired NFL athletes.
  • The study revealed that retired NFL players made more backstage type of posts (63.4%) on personal pages compared with front-stage posts (36.6%).
  • Former NFL players with fewer followers received higher engagement rates, with a median engagement rate of 3.45% for athletes with fewer than 10,000 followers.
  • The research has significant implications for future studies on sports communication and athlete branding, highlighting the complexities of post-sports life and the importance of Instagram as a platform for personal branding.

Sources:

  • Life After the Gridiron: Examining Retired National Football League Athletes' Self-Presentation Strategies and Follower Engagement on Instagram Personal and Business Pages (2024) - International Journal of Sport Communication, vol. 17, no. 2.
  • Texas A&M University.
  • Felipe Tamayo, Department of Kinesiology & Sport Management, School of Education & Human Development, Texas A&M University.
  • Natasha T. Brison.
  • Hailey A. Harris.