Personal branding on Instagram: an examination of Iranian professional athletes

Abstract

PurposeThis study investigates the personal branding strategies utilized by Iranian professional athletes. It also examines the challenges these athletes face in attempting to create a personal brand. For example, unlike their global counterparts, Iranian athletes’ access to social media is limited to only Instagram, due to a ban in Iran on the use of Facebook and Twitter. This specific situation provides unique opportunities and interactions in the personal branding process.Design/methodology/approachUtilizing a criterion purposive sample of Iranian professional athletes, the authors conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews to understand the branding strategies and challenges of these athletes.FindingsTwo categories (branding strategies and cultural/societal challenges), along with Six themes emerged. The categories were derived based on the literature review and the subsequent research questions.Originality/valueThis paper provides valuable information on challenges and opportunities for athletes' personal branding from international perspectives. Also, the results of the study broaden our understanding of how athletes' personal branding can function in different countries and contexts. Findings will provide governing bodies and sport marketers have a better understanding of athletes' social media usage.

Los influencers y las relaciones públicas en la industria deportiva: análisis de los deportistas españoles en Instagram

“…No en vano "la buena gestión de la marca personal puede influir en la consecución de logros profesionales" (Cano-Tenorio y Paniagua-Rojano, 2017, p. 106). Afirman Sharifzadeh et al (2021) que los atletas utilizan las redes sociales para interactuar con sus seguidores, pero también para cuestiones relacionadas con marketing y patrocinios. En Instagram en concreto, muchas de las imágenes y vídeos están vinculados al deporte en sí mismo, pero existe un porcentaje importante de publicaciones conectadas con causas sociales, familiares, personales, patrocinadores y eventos (Sharifzadeh et al, 2021, pp.…”

Understanding and overcoming the obstacles in Muslim female athlete branding

“…Athlete branding has been the focus of research in understanding the brand-building process (Hasaan et al , 2018; Parmentier and Fischer, 2012), authenticity (Hasaan and Fişne, 2021), brand image (Arai et al , 2014) and athletes’ use of social media in this process (Hambrick and Mahoney, 2011; Sharifzadeh et al , 2021; Su et al , 2020). Research into female athletes has examined their brand identity (Lobpries et al , 2017) and branding on social media (Geurin and Burch, 2017), including Instagram (Doyle et al , 2022; Li et al , 2021) and Facebook (Emmons and Mocarski, 2014).…”

Youtuber’larin Ki̇şi̇sel Markalamanin 7c’si̇ Açisindan Değerlendi̇ri̇lmesi̇

“…Personal branding is a topic that has been studied in the marketing literature. In recent years, the subject has gained distinctive importance in social media (Petruca, 2016;Chen, 2013;Nanayakkara and Dissanayake, 2020;Labrecque, Markos and Milne, 2011;Sharifzadeh, Brison and Bennett, 2021;Wetsch, 2012;Lois and Candraningrum, 2021;Faliagka, Ramantas, Rigou and Sirmakessis, 2018;Udenze, 2019;Niemien, 2016;Vilander, 2017). Most of the studies are on how social media can be beneficial for a personal brand and an effective roadmap can be followed with developing technologies.…”