Building a personal brand is hard, it gets even harder when you are not a 20 yo influencer but a football coach. Today, talent alone isn’t enough to secure your place under the spotlight and you have to be creative in how you build your audience online. Athletes and coaches now compete not only on the field, they have to become influencers if they want to stay afloat after the end of their careers. It requires a lot of effort and storytelling to become an influencer and grow your audience in the social networks. Personal branding turns athletes and coaches into thought leaders and in most of the cases (at least for coaches) it’s hard to turn into an online celebrity.
Millions of fans now rely on Facebook and Instagram for news and entertainment. The average screen time is 6 hours and 40 minutes, no wonder that traditional media like TV is no longer popular. People are now consuming sports through social media, podcasts, and streaming platforms. But where there’s a change, there’s an opportunity and athletes and coaches can now extend their reach and reputation far beyond the field. There are lots of people with strong personal brands. Athletes like Cristiano Ronaldo and LeBron James represent their lifestyle and spread their thoughts and views all around the internet lightning fast.
Building a personal brand is no longer optional, it’s something you must do if you want to still be relevant after your career ends. It’s the foundation for sponsorships, partnerships, and long-term financial sustainability in the long run. Whether you’re a rising star or a coach with tens of years of experience, understanding how to communicate with your audience is a key to personal branding and sponsorships from brands like 777 fun.
Step 1: Define Who You Are
You’ve decided to launch your first campaign to get more subscribers for your social media accounts and give yourself some exposure online. Now what?
The very first thing to invest your time is preparation. You have to prepare your look, your message and the ideas you will be spreading online. Before posting any video or signing a sponsorship contract you should have a clear understanding of your straights and what you stand for. A personal brand isn’t something that’s built overnight, but if you have the wrong message, you can lose your popularity overnight. Work on clarity and the way you communicate with your audience.
Ask yourself what are your values as an athlete or coach? What makes you different and what message do you want to share with the world? Some start positioning themselves as motivators and community leaders to start getting more sponsorship deals but this is not how it works these days. In 2025 you need to become a well established thought leader before you will start earning any noticeable income from your presence in social media. So be yourself because pretending to be someone else may work in the beginning, but will lead to a failure in the long run.
Step 2: Shape Your Story
Every strong brand tells a story, so does every famous sportsman. Your story is something that makes you different from other athletes and coaches. Something that fans remember and sponsors want to be associated with. If you had past injuries, center your personal brand around the fact that you overcame injury to return stronger. If you are a coach who built a championship team from a local youth program – tell this story to the global audience because with social media you can reach people living tens of thousands of kilometers away with a single post or video..
Write your story as if explaining it to a new follower. Define your origin, your turning point, and your mission. Share your milestones and highlight important moments and insights from your career and life. People love personal experience and honest influencers. The more genuine the story, the more your audience will invest emotionally.
Step 3: Work on Your Visual Identity
No brand comes without a unique style. Your brand’s visual style should be recognizable but it doesn’t mean you should start wearing strange clothes just to get as much attention as you can. Athletes often collaborate with designers to craft jersey numbers and sneakers. Keep that in mind when you will be thinking of your first move towards getting more credibility and recognition through visual identity.
Consistency is everything here and a simple mistake like using different profile photos across all platforms can slightly harm your progress. Make sure you use the same fonts and graphic styles that match your tone and differentiate you from competitors. Never forget about hashtags and proper video intro to keep your audience engaged and your videos easy to find. If you’re a coach, build your identity around professionalism and insights.
Step 4: Online Presence is Everything
Social media is the foundation of your personal brand. It’s hard to imagine anyone building a personal brand without being represented in at least 3-4 different social networks. Yea, it takes time but if you plan to invest into this, hiring a SMM manager will untie your hands and free a couple hours a day for you to concentrate on what you used to do for a living.
Not knowing the basics of social media marketing can turn all efforts to ashes because simply being active and posting tens of posts a day isn’t enough. You have to be intentional and reach your audience with a message. If you have a TikTok account then you can use it for storytelling through short videos. The same approach works for Instagram where you can show training tips, behind-the-scenes footage, and personal moments. X or previously known Twitter is perfect when you want to share quick text insights from a specific match or about some situation in sports.
On the other side we have YouTube that is not that good for text content but you can post longer videos and shorts there so the platform is pretty packed for any video content. Try to release long-form content there like interviews and tutorials that will stay relevant for years. LinkedIn is barely usable for athletes and chances are low that somebody will search for a coach there, but being present there wont do any harm so why avoid this at all?
- Start showing your training sessions, progress and highlights.
- Try to share more of your daily life and daily routine.
- Discuss the role of experienced athletes and coaches for younger generations.
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