Fan Engagement Management: Fan Response to Brand Image Attributes of Professional Athletes on Instagram

Abstract

Athletes have actively utilized social media for brand management and fan engagement. In this study, we investigated how athletes communicate both sport and non-sport brand attributes on Instagram. We also explored the relationship between users’ engagement behaviors and brand attributes. Through a content analysis of 472 Instagram posts by two professional soccer players, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, we reveal that athletes tend to share more non-performance-related content than performance-related content. Furthermore, posts featuring performance-related content generated more ‘likes’, whereas those with non-performance content elicited a higher volume of comments. Although there exists a positive correlation between the number of ‘likes’ and comments, content type distinctly influences the form of fan engagement. Therefore, athletes should engage in deliberate and strategic decision-making when curating content for social media, tailoring it to specific customer engagement objectives.