Becoming a Brand as a 15 Year Old

These past few weeks has been an exciting time on social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter. It's that time of year when high school football prospects announce their commitment to a college team. After being born and raised in the south and under a household that loves SEC football, it is a very exciting time. We get to see how our incoming recruits compare to other teams and what is in store for the future of a specific program. I don't know about you, but my parents are glued to their phones around this time of year to see who is committing to their school-which is University of Georgia. While I do find this interesting, seeing who is committing where, especially the school I currently attend, I know it is a bigger deal for some people.

A fun example of commitment posts we see on Twitter and Instagram

However, after being in this social media communications class, I had a different point of view on commitment posts. A lot of the times when I see someone commit to a school I am a fan of, I like to click on their profile and "stalk" them. See what kid of player they are, what they represent, how they put themselves out there for everyone to see... so basically I like to see their brand. But it is crazy to me because for a sport like football, these athletes and players have to start building their brand at such a young age! Freshman in high school come in and after their first season typically decide if their goal is going to be college football or not. If it is, every move they make on social media has to be watched like a hawk. College coaches, college football fans, "haters" and the NCAA are all watching, and expect this level of maturity from high school boys. That is only the beginning! once they get to college they have a reputation they have to keep with even ore fans, college students and even more the NCAA watching your every move. Then if they go to the NFL, the stakes get even higher and their brand gets even larger. By that time though they have been building their brand since they were 15 and are pros at it.

Football is just one example of how athletes are brands too. The other professional leagues- NHL, NBA, MLB, MLS etc. all have athletes that are forced to create a specific brand that represents their team, their sport, and so much more. They have a much larger audience than your regular average Joe. Sometimes I think this is hard for the athletes because all they simply want to do is play their sport and live their life, but starting at a young age when the sign up for a social media account they have to be so cognizant of the content they are posting. As my mom always tells me- once its out on social media, even if you delete it, its out there forever. There are some dedicated people out there that will dig forever to dig up some dirt on an athlete just to give their team (which is probably a rival team) an advantage. Even on the next level-national team and Olympic teams, having a brand is so important to their careers. Especially because a lot of them have contracts with other brands. For example an Olympic simmer might have a deal with TYR, or a rower might have a deal with JL (which is a popular rowing clothing brand).

A good example of athletes who can represent a brand and themselves as one

So then at that point not only do they have their own brand to hold up, but also another company's brand to make look good. I find this so interesting with the industry I plan on going into, because there are not many other industries where one single person has such a large spotlight on them and have to not only represent themselves but represent several other brands all at the same time, while having to be perfect, or else they get torn apart. I had no idea how much money some athletes make off of their own brand and representing other brands.

An excellent graphic that shows just how important building your brand as an athlete is.

Sport and social media go so hand in hand together that social media can uplift an athlete and make them look "spotless", but social media can be the one single thing that drags them down and ruins their career. This is why athlete activism is such a highly debated topic, because it can either help an athlete and their brand, or one poorly written tweet can bring down their whole career. Again, that is absolutely crazy to me, when all they want t do is play a sport they are passionate about. Once you have gotten to the level of professional sport or Olympic level, you have probably been trained more than once on how to build your brand on social media, or even a blog or podcast. I believe at that point it becomes easier to build or start creating your own brand, and if an Olympic or professional athlete is good at it, they can make so much money off of it. At the end of the day, athletes are just normal people who have a strong passion for their sport, but have to learn how to brand themselves to success.

This comes from a book titled "Athletes are Brands Too", and is a great visual of an athletes journey in how much of an influence they are