Similar to other social media platforms, Instagram has a plethora of monetization opportunities for student-athletes to maximize.
Traditional Paid Deals
Opendorse has been helping athletes partner with brands and supporters for traditional paid in-feed and story deals for nearly a decade. We’ve taken it to the next level with Opendorse Deals™ by making it easy to connect, communicate, and complete transactions, all in one place. (find some examples)
To get the process started, athletes need to create an Opendorse Profile to make their first impression on the market. Once the profile is complete, they can market their personalized link on their social channels to let supporters know they’re open to opportunities.
Athletes tend to drive 2X+ engagements on Instagram sponsored posts compared to the traditional influencer, and sponsored content on Instagram tends to have a longer life in the feed compared to other platforms like Twitter and TikTok. Capitalizing on traditional paid deals provides big benefits for both brands and athletes.
Driving Attention to External Revenue Streams
Instagram is a great platform to drive attention to other revenue streams such as YouTube and e-commerce sites. There’s certain real estate to capitalize on to direct your followers to other opportunities.
Link in Profile
When supporters hit the follow button, they’ll immediately see your bio. The Instagram bio is an important area to showcase and sell yourself, while also providing information on how brands and fans can connect with you to pitch deals. Put your Opendorse Profile link in your bio to easily communicate you’re open to opportunities.
Another link opportunity is in Instagram Stories if you have over 10,000 followers. With this “swipe up” functionality, you can direct supporters to other channels like specific YouTube videos, a webpage for branded content, or even a recent article you’ve been featured in. If you’re shy of the 10,000 follower mark, use this as motivation to continue to elevate your profile.
Instagram Shopping
Instagram shopping is another way to drive followers to merchandise and product revenue streams. From product tags to checkout to live shopping, the opportunities to promote products are endless. The key needs to start this process are having a business or creator account, a website where products are being sold, and a business Facebook page you are connected to. The biggest time commitment will be creating a product catalog and submitting it for the review process to be approved by Instagram. If you can take the time to set this up, you’ll be prepared when a big moment occurs and you want to promote your product fast.
Instagram provides a detailed step-by-step guide to get started.
Teaser Content
An effective tactic athletes and creators do to drive attention to other outlets like YouTube, Twitch, and podcasts is teaser videos. By sharing a short clip and sparking the curiosity of followers, they’ll want to check out other platforms for more details or the full video. These monetization streams are valuable and hopefully, you can drive more than a view and capture a subscription.
Overall, Instagram provides many opportunities and it’s up to the athlete to capitalize on how to creatively engage brands and fans.
Disclosure
Be sure to disclose all payment activities to your institution or governing body to remain compliant and eligible in your sport.
