A University of Kansas study unveils the impact of shared social media accounts on European women soccer players’ followings, revealing hidden gender disparities and offering insights for improving athletic branding.
Women’s professional soccer has garnered increasing attention over the last decade, complemented by the rise of social media as a pivotal tool for athletes to enhance their personal brands. A new study by the University of Kansas sheds light on how professional women soccer players in Europe leverage social media for brand promotion and how various factors, such as their teams’ social media strategies, influence their online popularity.
The research, led by Nataliya Bredikhina, an assistant professor of sport management at KU, reveals surprising outcomes. According to the study, when a women’s soccer team shares its social media presence with a men’s team, the move adversely impacts the women players’ followings.
“Intuitively, you’d think when men and women are branded together on one account it would be good,” Bredikhina said in a news release. “It exposes them to a larger audience and more followers. But it actually has the opposite effect. It verifies, essentially, the same gender discrimination we see online and in society.”
Bredikhina, who specializes in athletes’ branding, conducted two comprehensive studies analyzing the Instagram activity of European women soccer players. The research reviewed posts from the end of the 2020-2021 season and a three-month period during the 2021-2022 season, evaluating how a team’s branding, media presence and market size affect the players’ online influence.
The first study established that team verification, indicated by an official “check mark,” positively impacted both the team’s and players’ followings and engagement. However, joint social media accounts for men’s and women’s teams led to a decrease in followers for women players.
The second study delved deeper into teams’ branding strategies, confirming that media use and verification significantly bolstered athletes’ Instagram accounts. Nonetheless, teams with combined accounts notably posted more about men’s teams, making it harder for women athletes to achieve verification and equal attention.
“We have to be conscious here that verification helps grow status. Media has influence over who can get those check marks,” Bredikhina added. “Gaining prominence as a woman athlete is much harder. Accounts that are already more heavily promoted get continued attention and get recommended by the algorithms. It’s like the rich getting richer.”
Interestingly, the study found that a team’s ranking and geographic market size had no significant effect on athlete followings. Bredikhina proposed that this might be due to in-person attendance not affecting Instagram follow activities or players transferring between teams influencing their regional popularity. These findings highlight areas for future research.
Bredikhina emphasized that these insights could bridge gaps in existing research on athletic branding and assist teams and athletes in refining their social media strategies.
“Traditionally in sport management there is an overemphasis on male athletes’ brands,” she added. “It can also sometimes be generalized that what happens in men’s sports applies to women’s sports as well. Social media these days is often looked at as a proxy to athletes’ lives, and it is highly important to the monetization of brands. Women have not been the focus of these studies.”
For women athletes, understanding and enhancing their branding strategies is crucial, especially given the ongoing pay disparity with their male counterparts. Improved marketing approaches could significantly benefit clubs and athletes alike.
“Making the investment to have dedicated accounts for women’s teams and to post about them more frequently should not be hard for teams to do and could help build a team’s brand, which can spill over to the athlete,” Bredikhina concluded. “It could also help women boost their careers and give insight on how to dedicate resources and help them build their own brands.”
The study, published in the Sport Management Review journal, was co-authored with Thilo Kunkel of Temple University, Heather Kennedy of the University of Guelph, and Francesca Fumagalli of Cantú Next in Italy.
Source: University of Kansas