Vietnamese athletes make money from personal brands: Don't know how to exploit social networks

Social media is one of the good 'channels' to help athletes improve their income. However, many athletes have not been able to exploit the commercial value commensurate with their value, for many different reasons.

PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS

For entertainment stars, who are used to appearing in front of the camera, building a personal brand on social media is quite simple. But athletes are different. What they face every day is a simple training and competition environment… Not every athlete can speak fluently, act, pose and show confidence and demeanor like a performing star. That is the first barrier.

Many athletes are worried about being judged as "pretentious" and not focusing on their expertise. Vietnam's No. 1 badminton player Le Duc Phat confided: "If I don't compete well, while I previously posted promotional photos or photos of my daily life, public opinion will criticize that I have neglected training, am no longer focused on developing my career and am absorbed in making money. Athletes who do not have a strong mentality will easily get discouraged and give up on building their brand. I think this is the problem and concern of most athletes."

Duc Phat was under a lot of pressure when receiving attacks from fans.

PHOTO: NVCC

A Social Media Executive, who specializes in building and developing fanpages for professional athletes, shared with Thanh Nien Newspaper: "Vietnamese audiences love athletes very much and support them enthusiastically. But if they are not satisfied, a part of the audience becomes extremely strict, even cruel to athletes. Many times I have to block comments and delete negative feedback to avoid athletes reading them, which affects their competitive mentality." For that reason, some athletes choose to "hide" completely to avoid controversy. This may help them focus on their expertise, but at the same time, they miss out on the opportunity to build long-term connections with fans and brands.

LACK OF SUPPORT TEAM

It is not easy for an athlete to "do it all" in the era of social media explosion. When everyone can become a "content creator", the competition is also greater. To be able to stand out and "trend", athletes need to invest a lot in images, video editing, writing titles, interacting with fans. While most of the time is spent on training and competing, having to do everything by themselves, which is not their forte, is almost impossible for athletes.

Therefore, athletes in Vietnam are still operating spontaneously, following their instincts or "posting whatever is available". Many people only repost images taken by reporters or organizers, without investing in their own content, without creating a clear personal mark. Many athletes are also trying to learn and improve their skills in filming and editing clips and storytelling, but maintaining stable quality and quantity is still a huge challenge. Obviously, athletes also need a support team. But at this time, another problem has appeared. Most athletes are only noticed by teams when they become stars and have a certain influence. The rest have to "do everything to make a living".

NOT SEEING BENEFITS IMMEDIATELY

Another reason why many athletes are not interested in social media is that they do not see immediate benefits. Unlike entertainment stars who often quickly receive advertising contracts if they have good interactions, athletes, especially in less popular sports, take longer to attract sponsors.

Even many athletes with tens of thousands of followers on their personal pages still do not have commercial contracts because they lack content orientation suitable for their brands. Competition and daily life moments are not attractive enough. Athletes need to build their own "color", tell a story, thereby highlighting their personality. Those are the greatest values that brands look at, not just dry numbers such as followers and interactions. Athletes need to have a long-term strategy and perseverance to build a beautiful, unique image and at that time, contracts will come by themselves. Of course, this is a process that requires a lot of time, intelligence and money and not every athlete has enough perseverance.

In addition, some athletes still have the mentality of "having good competition results before doing media". However, in the modern sports environment, results are only a part. Image, attitude, communication style, inspiration... are long-term values that social networks can help athletes spread. From there, they not only increase their self-worth but also create additional sources of income, develop their careers, even after retirement.

From success stories to cases of “lost opportunities” due to fear, it can be seen that social media is a double-edged sword for athletes. But if exploited properly, this is definitely an effective channel for building brands and earning income, especially in the context of sports increasingly being linked to media and entertainment.

Fans love athletes not only for their achievements, but also for their personality, attitude and honesty. Social media is the "playground" to connect those things. When athletes proactively open up, tell their stories sincerely and professionally, they not only attract the affection of the audience but also open up long-term cooperation opportunities with reputable brands and help them bring in a very significant source of income.

Social media is not a burden if athletes know how to turn it into a part of their career development journey. However, it must be admitted that this is not a simple task. Athletes need to research and learn on their own, and at the same time have support from many sources such as their host clubs, federations, media units, etc. (to be continued)

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/vdv-viet-nam-kiem-tien-tu-thuong-hieu-ca-nhan-chua-biet-cach-khai-thac-mang-xa-hoi-185250715204743035.htm