A quick guide to aligning your social media channels with your values

Resources

• Finding your Brand Voice

• Telling Your Personal Brand Story worksheet

• Social Media: Personal? Professional? Both? (with examples)

A study conducted earlier this year of female Olympic trials marathon qualifiers examined the relationship between social media image and sponsorship (Camy, 2020). The study concluded that female athletes identify that in order to receive sponsorships, financial gain, attention, fame or acceptance that they have to often compromise their self, values or belief system, in order to build a larger following or fan base. Further, the study found that there needs to be more guidance for athletes when in terms to building a personal brand. A stronger personal brand is likely to lead to garnering sponsors that align with an athlete’s values.  

Values at their most basic level are a person's principles or standards of behavior; one's judgment of what is important in life. Often, they guide us in our decision making. Placing your values as a driver of your personal brand allows you to show what is important to you and more importantly, attract a following of those with similar values.

Defining Your Values

In the Telling Your Personal Brand Story worksheet, there is a list to help you pick your top five values. Values such as accessibility, love, or creativity can be broad. Define how you would apply this value, for example, accessibility to the sport, the freedom to love who you love (the LGBTQ movement) or the right to express yourself creatively.

Once you understand your values, here are the next steps for reflecting them on your social media feed.

Research

Research is not just for term papers. If your goal is to gain followers on your social media channels there are several questions you need to answer to shape your social media feed: 1) what communities/followers/channels are likely to embrace my values? 2) what are others already doing in the space? 3) what type of content is likely to attract followers/sponsors?

Pew, Nielsen, and a search engine can help you understand who similarly holds your values. For example, you might value women’s equity in sport. Your first inclination would likely be that women athletes would support this value. If you are a runner, your content will likely feature running. It would be good to understand the women’s running community. In 2018, 50.24% of runners were women according to the State of Running report. According to Hootsuite, in 2020 52% of Instagram users are women. Even more so, women make up the majority of activewear consumers. From this research, you could conclude that there is a large community of women runners, they are on Instagram and are likely to spend on activewear.

You could also search “Who supports women’s sports equity” and find the Women’s Sport Foundation. The next step would be to explore their social media channels noting hashtags they use, the content they feature, who interacts, and what content is popular. Conversely, researching potential sponsors to see if their values align with yours can also help answer the above questions. Most brand websites will layout their values under a company info or about page. Make sure to research current athletes they sponsor and explore their social media channels noting hashtags they use, who interacts and what content is popular. Finally, I suggest searching “(brand) + scandal” to see what possible conflicts you could have with the brand.

This research will help guide you in managing your personal brand and social media channels.

Find Your Community

One participant of the previously cited study said “Most of my followers on my social media account are men. Men do not want to see pictures of my family, or whom I am in a relationship with. They want to see me in my running clothes and posting photos of myself, and with other female runners. That is what gets me followers and likes on my Instagram.” (Camy, 2020)

Incongruent followers can often skew what sort of content is popular. If your values are not garnering the social metrics you would like, understand that you could just be talking to the wrong audience – you might need to lose a few followers to gain followers that identify with your brand. Finding a community that will uplift and affirms is important. Follow the hashtags that you identified in your research, watch what other athletes are posting and follow other accounts that hold similar values. Do not forget to participate – leave comments, respond to stories, and share content that resonates. Simply posting is not enough, you cannot expect to passively gain a following.

Be Authentic in Content Creation

You have your base research and now it is time to create content. In simpler terms, you are creating posts for your social media accounts. Your posts should express your values in language and imagery. It should also highlight what makes you unique. Your values shape your world view, your social media is an expression of your worldview. Your content should add value to your personal brand. Remember to be yourself and use spellcheck.

A few ideas to get you started include sharing tips and tricks, adjacent content and non-promotional content. For example, you might share this Women’s Running article “This is How You Raise Healthy Female Athletes” to support your value of women’s sports equity.

Keep Track of Your Success

Most social media channels include metrics beyond just likes and shares. Instagram (creator account) and Facebook (page) both have accounts that are public facing and include analytics. Look at your baseline and note growth. These metrics should help you understand what content is popular, what attracts followers and the demographics of your followers.

This is just a start when it comes to managing your personal brand but a good base will help your success.

Camy, Elizabeth, "Elite Female Long-Distance Runners and the Impact of Social Media on Their Lives Professionally and Personally" (2020). Dissertations. 330.
https://digitalcommons.brandman.edu/edd_dissertations/330