Professional Athletes’ Visual Self-Presentation Strategies: An Investigation on Instagram

Year 2023, Volume: 14 Issue: 1, 22 - 42, 27.04.2023

Pelin Gönkek , R. Timuçin Gençer

https://doi.org/10.54141/psbd.1260960

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine how professional athletes in different branches perform their visual self-presentation on Instagram, a social media platform. Embedded design, one of the mixed methods, examined 24 professional athletes. To create the group for study in this research, including football, basketball, tennis and track and field athletes, we used criterion sampling, a purposeful sampling method. Specifically, a total of 5030 posted photos and 854 videos were analysed. In the study, we used thematic coding to conduct content analysis by the subject and purpose of the research (Geurin-Eagleman & Burch, 2016) as well as open coding. Chi-squared was calculated to measure gender differences. Most of the athletes’ shared contents and their likes and comments fell under the theme of business life, followed by personal life content. The professional athletes showed differences according to gender and sport in the themes of what they posted on Instagram. The men posted much more actively than the women. Athletes in individual sports also posted less content than team sport athletes. It was striking how little content these professional athletes, especially women and individual athletes, produced about their fans. This research can contribute to the diversification of research on the brand development and strengthening strategies of athletes in the Instagram application and to better understand the use of Instagram by professional athletes. It can also provide a perspective on Instagram usage strategies for professional athletes and athletes with high-performance potential.

Keywords

Gender, Instagram, Mixed methods, Professional career, Professional sport

References

• Achen, R. M. (2017). Measuring social media marketing: Moving towards a relationship-marketing approach. Managing Sport and Leisure, 22(1), 33–53. https://doi.org/10.1080/23750472.2017.1379883
• Achen, R. M., Kaczorowski, J., Horsmann, T., & Ketzler, A. (2020). Comparing organizational content and fan interaction on Twitter and Facebook in United States professional sport. Managing Sport and Leisure, 25(5), 358–375. https://doi.org/10.1080/23750472.2020.1723432
• Anagnostopoulos, C., Parganas, P., Chadwick, S., & Fenton, A. (2018). Branding in pictures: Using Instagram as a brand management tool in professional team sport organisations. European Sport Management Quarterly, 18(4), 413–438. https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2017.1410202
• Arai, A., Ko, Y. J., & Ross, S. (2014). Branding athletes: Exploration and conceptualization of athlete brand image. Sport Management Review, 17(2), 97–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2013.04.003
• Babiak, K., Mills, B., Tainsky, S., & Juravich, M. (2012). An investigation into professional athlete philanthropy: Why charity is part of the game. Journal of Sport Management, 26(2), 159–176. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.26.2.159
• Baena, V. (2019). Global marketing strategy in professional sports. Lessons from FC Bayern Munich. Soccer and Society, 20(4), 660–674. https://doi.org/10.1080/14660970.2017.1379399
• Barnett, B. (2017). Girls gone web: Self-depictions of female athletes on personal websites. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 41(2), 97–123. https://doi.org/10.1177/0196859917691504
• Barnfield, A. F. (2013). Sport, Movement, and the Event: Understanding the expressivity of football. University College London.
• Bireline, G. M. (2014). Social media in sports: A phenomenological study of athletes and online communication. Liberty University.
• Biscaia, R., Ross, S., Yoshida, M., Correia, A., Rosado, A., & Marôco, J. (2016). Investigating the role of fan club membership on perceptions of team brand equity in football. Sport Management Review, 19(2), 157–170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2015.02.001
• Brison, N. T., Byon, K. K., & Baker III, T. A. (2016). To tweet or not to tweet: The effects of social media endorsements on unfamiliar sport brands and athlete endorsers. Innovation, 18(3), 309–326. https://doi.org/10.1080/14479338.2016.1237304
• Brown, Z., & Tiggemann, M. (2020). A picture is worth a thousand words: The effect of viewing celebrity Instagram images with disclaimer and body positive captions on women’s body image. Body Image, 33, 190–198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2020.03.003
• Carpenter, J. P., & Krutka, D. G. (2014). How and why educators use Twitter: A survey of the field. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 46(4), 414–434. https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2014.925701
• Corbin, J. M., & Strauss, A. (1990). Grounded theory research: Procedures, canons, and evaluative criteria. Qualitative Sociology, 13(1), 3–21. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00988593
• Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2016). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Sage Publications.
• Dart, J. (2014). New media, professional sport and political economy. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 38(6), 528–547. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193723512467356
• Dumont, G. (2017). The beautiful and the damned: The work of new media production in professional rock climbing. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 41(2), 99–117. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193723516686285
• Edwards, A., & Skinner, J. (2009). Qualitative research in sport management. Routledge.
• Eschenfelder, M. J., & Li, M. (2007). Economics of sport. Fitness Information Technology.
• Fan, M., Billings, A., Zhu, X., & Yu, P. (2020). Twitter-based BIRGing: Big Data analysis of English national team fans during the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Communication and Sport, 8(3), 317–345. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167479519834348
• Filo, K., Lock, D., & Karg, A. (2015). Sport and social media research: A review. Sport Management Review, 18(2), 166–181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2014.11.001
• Gainor, K. (2017). Self-Presentation of Male and Female Athletes on Instagram: A continuation of gender roles found in advertisements? [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Bryant.
• Geurin-Eagleman, A. N., & Burch, L. M. (2016). Communicating via photographs: A gendered analysis of Olympic athletes’ visual self-presentation on Instagram. Sport Management Review, 19(2), 133–145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2015.03.002
• Goffman, E. (1978). The presentation of self in everyday life. Harmondsworth, London.
• Green, M. R. (2016). The impact of social networks in the development of a personal sports brand. Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, 6(3), 274-294.Hambrick, M. E., & Mahoney, T. Q. (2011). 'It's incredible–trust me': exploring the role of celebrity athletes as marketers in online social networks. International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 10(3–4), 161–179.
• Hipke, M., & Hachtmann, F. (2014). Game changer: A case study of social-media strategy in Big Ten athletic departments. International Journal of Sport Communication, 7(4), 516–532. https://doi.org/10.1123/IJSC.2014-0022
• Jungherr, A. (2016). Twitter use in election campaigns: A systematic literature review. Journal of Information Technology and Politics, 13(1), 72–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2015.1132401
• Kane, M. J., LaVoi, N. M., & Fink, J. S. (2013). Exploring elite female athletes’ interpretations of sport media images: A window into the construction of social identity and ‘selling sex’ in women’s sports. Communication and Sport, 1(3), 269–298. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167479512473585
• Korzynski, P., & Paniagua, J. (2016). Score a tweet and post a goal: Social media recipes for sports stars. Business Horizons, 59(2), 185–192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2015.11.002
• Lamirán-Palomares, J. M., Baviera, T., & Baviera-Puig, A. (2019). Identifying Opinion Leaders on Twitter during sporting events: Lessons from a case study. Social Sciences, 8(5), 141. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci8050141
• Lebel, K., & Danylchuk, K. (2014). An audience interpretation of professional athlete self-presentation on Twitter. Journal of Applied Sport Management, 6(2), 13.
• Leng, H. K., & Chiu, W. (2019). The 27th SEA Games Myanmar 2013: A Facebook perspective. Sport in Society, 22(3), 449–461. https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2018.1490270
• Litchfield, C., & Kavanagh, E. (2019). Twitter, Team GB and the Australian Olympic Team: Representations of gender in social media spaces. Sport in Society, 22(7), 1148–1164. https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2018.1504775
• Maderer, D., Parganas, P., & Anagnostopoulos, C. (2018). Brand-image communication through social media: The case of European professional football clubs. International Journal of Sport Communication, 11(3), 319–338. https://doi.org/10.1123/ijsc.2018-0086
• McHugh, M. L. (2012). Interrater reliability: The kappa statistic. Biochemia Medica, 22(3), 276–282.
• Moreau, N., Roy, M., Wilson, A., & Atlani Duault, L. (2021). ‘Life is more important than football’: Comparative analysis of Tweets and Facebook comments regarding the cancelation of the 2015 African Cup of Nations in Morocco. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 56(2), 252–275. https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690219899610
• Nankervis, B., Ferguson, L., Gosling, C., Storr, M., Ilic, D., Young, M., & Maloney, S. (2018). How do professional Australian Football League (AFL) players utilise social media during periods of injury? A mixed methods analysis. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 21(7), 681–685. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2017.10.034
• Parmentier, M.-A., & Fischer, E. (2012). How athletes build their brands. International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 11(1–2), 106–124.
• Patton, M. Q. (2014). Qualitative research and evaluation methods: Integrating theory and practice. Sage Publications.
• Pegoraro, A. (2010). Look who’s talking—Athletes on Twitter: A case study. International Journal of Sport Communication, 3(4), 501–514. https://doi.org/10.1123/ijsc.3.4.501
• Salinda Premadasa, H. K., Kapila Tharanga Rathnayaka, R. M., Waruni Thiranagama, A., & Walpita, C. N. (2019). Remodeling the educational usage of Facebook in smart-mobile age. Education and Information Technologies, 24(1), 41–61. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-018-9759-6
• Romney, M., & Johnson, R. G. (2020). Show me a story: Narrative, image, and audience engagement on sports network Instagram accounts. Information, Communication and Society, 23(1), 94–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2018.1486868
• Sanderson, J. (2011). It’s a whole new ballgame: How social media is changing sports. Hampton Press. Santomier, J. P., Hogan, P. I., & Kunz, R. (2016). The 2012 London Olympics: Innovations in ICT and social media marketing. Innovation, 18(3), 251–269. https://doi.org/10.1080/14479338.2016.1237305
• Sen, S. (2020). Reviewing methods studying violence in women’s “everyday”. Sociological Bulletin, 69(1), 83–94. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038022919899019
• Shilbury, D., Quick, S., Funk, D., Westerbeek, H., & Karg, A. (2020). Strategic sport marketing. Routledge.
• Siguencia, L. O., Herman, D., Marzano, G., & Rodak, P. (2017). The role of social media in sports communication management: An analysis of Polish top league teams’ strategy. Procedia Computer Science, 104, 73–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2017.01.074
• Smith, L. R., & Sanderson, J. (2015). I’m going to Instagram it! An analysis of athlete self-presentation on Instagram. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 59(2), 342–358. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2015.1029125
• Song, J., Han, K., Lee, D., & Kim, S. W. (2018). ‘Is a picture really worth a thousand words?’: A case study on classifying user attributes on Instagram. PLOS ONE, 13(10), e0204938. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0204938
• Statista. (2021). Distribution of Instagram users worldwide as of January 2021, by age and gender. https://www.statista.com/statistics/248769/age-distribution-of-worldwide-instagram-users/
• Sun, Z. (2008). Worker, woman, mother: Redefining urban Chinese women’s identity via motherhood and the global workplace. Asian Journal of Women’s Studies, 14(1), 7–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/12259276.2008.11666037
• Tankovska, H. (2021). Daily time spent on social networking by internet users worldwide from 2012 to 2020 (in minutes). https://www.statista.com/statistics/433871/daily-social-media-usage-worldwide/
• Thompson, A.-J., Martin, A. J., Gee, S., & Geurin, A. N. (2018). Building brand and fan relationships through social media. Sport, Business and management: An International Journal, 8(3), 235-256.
• Thorpe, H. (2017). Action sports, social media, and new technologies: Towards a research agenda. Communication and Sport, 5(5), 554–578. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167479516638125
• Toffoletti, K., & Thorpe, H. (2018). The athletic labour of femininity: The branding and consumption of global celebrity sportswomen on Instagram. Journal of Consumer Culture, 18(2), 298–316. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540517747068
• Toffoletti, K., Pegoraro, A., & Comeau, G. S. (2021). Self-representations of women’s sport fandom on Instagram at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Communication & Sport, 9(5), 695-717. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167479519893332.
• Vale, L., & Fernandes, T. (2018). Social media and sports: Driving fan engagement with football clubs on Facebook. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 26(1), 37–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/0965254X.2017.1359655
• Wang, Y. (2020). Building relationships with fans: How sports organizations used twitter as a communication tool. Sport in Society, 1–15
• We are social, H. (2020). The global digital report. https://wearesocial.com/digital-2020
• Witkemper, C., Lim, C. H., & Waldburger, A. (2012). Social media and sports marketing: Examining the motivations and constraints of Twitter users. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 21(3).
• Yıldırım, A., & Simsek, H. (1999). Sosyal Bilimlerde Nitel Araştırma Yöntemleri (11 baskı: 1999-2018).
• Zanini, M. T., Carbone de Moraes, F., Lima, V., Migueles, C., Lourenco, C., & Reis Irigaray, H. A. (2019). Soccer and Twitter: virtual brand community engagement practices. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 37(7), 791-805.
• Zapata, S. B., & Ulbinaitė, A. (2017). Business integration as a strategy of growth in the social media and network markets: The case of Facebook. Knowing enough to be dangerous: The dark side of empowering employees with Data and tools, 210.
• Zauner, A., Koller, M., & Fink, M. (2012). Sponsoring, brand value and social media. Revista de Administração de Empresas, 52(6), 681–691. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0034-75902012000600009
• Zhou, L. (2017). How Visual Communication Strategies, Brand Familiarity, and Personal Relevance Influence Instagram Users' Responses to Brand Content [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. The University of Southern Mississippi.