The sports industry has seen a new trend in recent years, the influx of social media becoming a part of any athlete's life, the way he connects with his audience, how he markets his public persona, and how he contributes to helping in social issues. Social media has changed the game for athletes enabling new arenas for fan interaction, personal branding, and social activism. We study recent events and trends examples to understand the heavy impact of Social media on athletes and the sports industry.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mind the Game (@mindthegamepod)

Social Media Influence from the Athlete

Athletes as Brands
Sports stars are more than just athletes these days—they're brands as well, and they use social media to grow their brand profile and engage with their fans all year round.
By providing athletes a platform to interact with their fans, and showcase their events and contributions while promoting sponsors, they can grow their public profile. This can put themselves in a better position to increase opportunities and financial gain as their careers further develop.
Social Activism 
Meanwhile, social media also equips athletes with a platform to advocate for their beliefs and bring attention to social issues. Athletes often take to social media to spread the word and help several social causes, and quite powerfully, making use of their influence to change things for the better.

The Influence of Social Media on Sports Media

Changing Dynamics 
Social media has played a major role in sports media, mainly in the field of marketing and communication. Now, using social media, sports marketers promote campaigns and photos, events, and sports activities, with traditional journalism forming the messages of different social media every day.
Fan Engagement
The social media revolution has changed the dialog about sports, making it an almost two-way conversation that has brought fans as close to their favorite teams and athletes as they would like, in some cases, perhaps, closer than some might care to get. This has translated into more fan engagement in live sports events.

The NBA's social following of 1.6 billion followers is a testament to how social media continues to be the most powerful tool in fan engagement, with the fan engagement content the NBA released during the stoppage being some of the most impactful during the time the NBA was not playing.

The Athlete Fan and Fan Athlete Trends

Personal Branding
Athletes are taking to social media to build their brand through sharing more of their personal experiences, promoting products, and engaging with fans on a more human level.
Behind-the-Scenes Content 
With social media platforms favoring longer, more unique content, athletes have gone about showing what lies behind the curtain: providing a broader insight into their personal life, which has naturally benefited the breakdown of the new type of relationship emerging.
Social Activism
Socially Concerned Athletes — Athletes are taking to social media to raise awareness around social issues, and to lend their support to a variety of causes, helping bring a more nuanced and authentic image that appeals to fans globally.

In the End

Finally, the overall effect of social media in sports has been monumental, thus providing athletes with a new platform to interact with their fans, creating personal brands and involvement in social issues. Fan engagement and interaction with sports media have changed enormously due to the influence of social media. Social media has also been adopted by athletes as a platform for self-branding and influencing global audiences to raise their voices against social issues, contributing towards making Sports more vibrant and all-encompassing than it has ever been!
For social media, this perfect storm has cast the sports industry in a blatantly different light; it has chiseled an intimate and interactive relationship between fans and the players they idolize, while simultaneously evolving to become a place where athletes can shout their beliefs from the mountain tops.