Student-Athletes vs. Professional Social Media Influencers
Read time: 2.5 minutes
I’ve been studying data I’ve collected about social media, influence, and the role that each plays in NIL.
I posted something on my LinkedIn (if you don’t already, please follow me there) and got so many responses that I decided to provide more data here.
To begin, it’s en-vogue these days to refer to student-athletes who participate in NIL via social media as “social media influencers.” While there are similarities between college athletes who earn income via social media and professional social media influencers, there are distinct differences that the data highlights.
Let’s look at three of the metrics I used in the analysis of the two groups.
1 - FOLLOWER COUNT
Follower count is simply the number of people who follow a social media account. This metric is the most basic indicator of someone’s social media popularity.
The average number of followers for a professional social media influencer can vary widely depending on a number of factors, but the average number of Instagram followers for influencers is around 45,000. On TikTok, it’s not unusual for influencers to have between 100,000-1 million followers and still be considered "mid-tier.”
While the average follower count for student-athletes can also vary widely, the median number is about 25% of the size of professional influencers.
2 - ENGAGEMENT RATE
Engagement rate measures the number of likes, comments, shares that a student-athlete’s or influencer's posts receive, relative to the number of followers they have.
Here are some general benchmarks for professional social media influencers on Instagram:
An engagement rate below 1% is typically considered below average
An engagement rate between 1-3% is generally considered average
An engagement rate above 3% is considered better than average
The average engagement for college student-athletes is about 5.5%. This high engagement rate is an indication of a strong relationship between the student-athlete and their followers. Followers of student-athletes use language like, “real,” “authentic,” and “organic” to describe the athlete and their content.
3 - CONTENT ANALYSIS
Content analysis includes factors like visual appeal, tone and style, and the authenticity of the content.
Content analysis can be scored on measures such as:
Quality
Relevance
Consistency
In a head to head comparison, followers of both student-athletes and professional influencers rated athletes about 30% higher on both quality and relevance.
Professional influencers scored higher only on consistency, which makes sense given that student-athletes have only a few hours every week that’s not accounted for with academic and athletic commitments.
Well, that’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed a little more data on social media, athletes, and influencers.
Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:
1. If you're looking for a deep dive into NIL, consider applying to the next session of the NIL/mba program. This course is a master’s level, intensive education built from my NIL course at the University of Vermont, my NIL Workshops, and Student-Athlete Insights’ research. It’s for anyone committed to learning, creating, or capitalizing on NIL - including university staff, student-athletes & parents, brands & sports organizations, and others. Apply and read more here
2. If you’re looking to get educated on NIL quickly, I recommend contacting me to schedule an NIL Workshop. These 1 hour live Zooms are intended for small groups and are customized for your audience, whether that means brands, sports organizations, coaches & administrators, and more. Read more at https://studentathleteinsights.com/#nameimagelikenessservices.
3. If you are looking for a low cost, on-demand option to learn about NIL, check out this suite of video courses at https://studentathleteinsights.thinkific.com/
Bill Carter is an NIL Consultant, Educator, and Speaker. He is a NIL Columnist for Sports Business Journal and teaches NIL in College Sports at the University of Vermont’s Grossman School of Business. Click here to read about Bill’s NIL Consulting and NIL Education for sports organizations, universities, and brands.