ATHLETES ON SOCIAL MEDIA: LESS APOLOGIES AND MORE ACCESS
We live in the age of the apology post: a social media sub genre that has gained particular infamy recently due to Manchester United’s on field woes and off field grovelling. The likes of Harry Maguire, Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford and David De Gea have been falling over themselves to apologise for poor performances, missed penalties and general mediocracy. This has garnered many column inches and has even resulted in player ratings for apology posts; a sub-sub genre that we most likely don’t need in our lives.
Many have questioned the authenticity of these posts, especially when the ‘brand of the player’ in question is considered. An empty gesture to show face to supporters? Or, are they coming from a place of genuine hurt to connect with the fans and let them know they too feel the pain? Going one step further, is it even the players posting or a PR team behind the scenes? Any excuse to resurface this Victor Anichebe gem from 2016:
Whether you are an apology post sympathiser or sceptic, it does beg the question: what do we want from athletes on social media? What constitutes ‘good social’? People can over-complicate this, as is the case with much of digital media generally. We spend a lot of our time working with athletes, rights owners and brands in the sports social sphere and have put together the fundamentals, as we see them. We have simplified this under 3 A’s to help those with fading attention spans:
ACCESS
What is the core benefit of social media for fans in relation to athletes? It is the direct access you have to those sportspeople. We take it for granted now but go back 20 years and the mainstream media were the gatekeepers of athlete access. Press conferences were disseminated to print articles and TV interviews broadcast to the masses.
Naomi Osaka’s decision to disregard pre-tournament press conferences, for example, would not have happened without the advent of social media - a direct communication tool with her own audiences. She doesn’t need the press to talk to her supporters or the general public. The irony here, of course, is that social media has likely been a heavy contributor to the mental health pressures she has encountered.
However, this is the functional access whereby athletes have platforms as a means to communicate directly with an audience. What fans truly want is actual access to the life of an athlete. We want to be brought behind the scenes and given a lens into the magic but also the mundane. People want insight they cannot get in the mainstream media.
We often hold UFC’s Embedded as a shining light; the behind the scenes digital series which goes out on fight week. What makes this series especially interesting is that, aside from the odd chair going through a bus, nothing particularly outstanding happens. However fans are brought inside the ropes on fight week. They are eating chicken with Conor McGregor in Las Vegas, heading to the gym with Francis Ngannou and over Dana White’s shoulder at the weigh in.
This access to athletes routines and their personalities is what drives its success. From the UFC’s perspective, the commercial benefits are clear too: sponsorship on the programming and a direct correlation to PPV buys. A win-win.
On the lower end of the scale, we see Tyson Fury bringing fans into his training environment; on runs, in the gym and on downtime. The result is massive views and engagement levels:
few body shots for wilders skinny body. #destroy #2021 pic.twitter.com/N1b1WPma7V
— TYSON FURY (@Tyson_Fury) May 29, 2021
AUTHENTICITY
Speaking of Fury, one of reasons for his striking popularity is his authenticity. When you watch one of his Instagram stories, you never get the sense that it is sanitised or staged. Whether you like or loathe Fury, you consistently get the feeling that he is being himself. This absolutely resonates with fans, who want access to the real person.
Staying in the heavyweight division, the opposing criticism has been levelled at his British rival Anthony Joshua, who has been accused of being more on the brand friendly side of social media.
Why does the apology post grate on people? It is because it often doesn’t feel authentic or genuine? Someone who is quite good and provides an authentic reaction to their performances is Champion Jockey, Oisin Murphy. In the video below, he simply reviews his rides on a day at the track but it is brilliant in its simplicity. It is immediate, insightful and authentic.
What this type of post also highlights is the benefits of using rich media such as video. It is difficult to communicate your true feelings through text as you get no feel for the mood or moment.
With video, you get a truer sense of the person, their emotions and genuine reaction. More athletes should publish content like this to connect with fans in a more meaningful way. These types of posts also travel well because the athletes are owning their own media narrative and at ease, as opposed to having a guard up when speaking with journalists.
How much value do we really get from interviews from professional footballers or rugby players after a game? ‘Focus on the next game’, ‘Team effort’, ‘All about the process’, ‘Fine margins’ are all common tropes that offer us nothing of note. When they are controlling the output and talking directly to fans, that guard is dropped and honest reflections can emerge.
One thing is for certain, we’ve come a long way from 2012, when Wayne Rooney brought us ‘inside the ropes’ of his new Facebook page:
Although, who would have predicted in 2012 that we now have Robert Lewandowski dancing terribly on a platform called TikTok. Scoff though some people may, it is a fun way to engage with one of the best players in the world and somehow this video has 21M views.
ACTIVE
Being active sounds like an obvious one but many athletes fall down at this initial hurdle. Posting sporadically will not help you build an engaged fanbase, clearly. Beyond this though, it is important to treat each platform in relation to its native characteristics. For example, simply sharing your Instagram posts to Twitter is a bad experience for the Twitter user as any media has traditionally been hidden. Thankfully, this is changing with Instagram cards coming to the Tweet Machine.
It is important to leverage the traits of the various channels. Two immediate examples of those who are good at this are Gary Neville and Cesc Fabregas. The former Spanish International regularly does Q&As on Twitter where there is a live conversation and engaged audience in that window. Fans crave this insight and engagement levels are consistently massive.
Related to this is being active in the interactive sense. A reply, share, RT or even a ‘like’ can make a fan's day. It is simply not conceivable to reply to everyone, clearly, but a simple action on occasion demonstrates that you are present. These are interactive platforms after all and not simply broadcast tools in the traditional sense.
Whether it is Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Twitch, Snapchat, or Facebook each platform should be treated within the spirit and trends upon which they are built.
Simone Biles is a good example of how you leverage these tools in a manner that allows you to get your message across to fans. The Olympic champion had well documented mental health issues at the Tokyo Games this year which ultimately forced her to pull out of an event. Rather than let the media own this news cycle and drive the narrative, a mini series was produced for Facebook Watch.
This enabled Biles to tell her story, in her words, to a wide audience without ever having to work with a broadcaster. Simultaneously, she could promote this directly to her own audience of nearly 7m on Instagram, driving awareness and engagement with a relevant viewership around the programming.
OVERVIEW
We live in an age where the line between an athlete and a brand is more blurred than ever before. Fans are conscious of this. Why has the apology post garnered such media attention? It’s because it is representative of a form of corporate culture blandness that we don’t want from our athletes. Above all else, we want access and authenticity.
