Social media for athletes: benefits and tips to start

You need about five decisions before the first post, and they go in a particular order. These are the ones I'd work through if you handed me your phone and a training schedule on a Monday.

Decision 1: what the account is for

Write one sentence that finishes "this account exists so that..." and pick the row below that matches. You can add a second goal later. Trying to serve all of them from day one gives you a feed that nobody in particular wants to follow.

Decision 2: one main platform

Look up five athletes one level above you in your own sport and open them on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Note where their ordinary videos do best. That's better evidence than any general advice about which app is growing, including mine.

On a gymnast's account I worked on, TikTok was the engine. It stood at 17 followers on January 19, 9,629 on March 2, 28.7K on May 4 and 48K on July 6, under six months from a mid-January start. On client accounts we've often made one video and cross-posted it to Instagram and Shorts, so a main platform decides where you study the numbers. You can still publish everywhere.

Please read that gymnast's curve as the top of the range. Among the eight strongest accounts I tracked from zero, the follower count at about six months ran from roughly 10K to 49K, and the same tracking sheet has accounts that stayed under 1,000. Those eight results aren't typical.

If sponsors are your goal, keep Instagram in the plan even when another app grows faster, because that's where the Insights screens and brand partnership tools a marketing person will ask about are found.

Decision 3: the rules that apply to your sport

This is general information and not legal advice. Most "get started" guides skip it, and it's the part that can cost you more than a slow month.

Supplements

If you're in a tested sport, a free tub of protein is a sponsored post and an anti-doping question at once. USADA's supplement guide says athletes "always assume some risk of testing positive" when they use supplements. It also says its High Risk List is "not complete" and that it doesn't approve or endorse any product. Its advice is to use only third-party certified products, naming programs such as NSF Certified for Sport and Informed Sport. I'd make certification a condition before any supplement goes near your feed.

The Olympics, if you're anywhere near them

The IOC's Milano Cortina 2026 FAQ covers social posts "whether paid-for or not." During the Games Period it allowed one simple thank-you message to each personal sponsor that isn't an Olympic Partner. That message couldn't use Olympic images or medals, show the team uniform, or suggest the product helped your performance. Before and after that period there's no limit on thank-yous. The rules change with each edition, so ask your national committee for the current version.

Your team, club or federation

Read your team agreement before you tag a brand. If your club has an apparel partner and you post a reel in a competitor's jacket, the conversation won't be with Instagram. And if a brand gives you anything, the FTC's influencer guide says to disclose it "if you got anything of value."

Decision 4: the profile, in twenty minutes

• Switch to a professional account, so Insights exist when someone asks for them.
• Write the sport, discipline and level in the bio. "400m hurdles, national team" tells a brand more than "athlete."
• Add a real email address. Brands don't like starting in DMs.
• Name three or four highlights after what people come for. The ballroom account I work on uses Training, Competitions, Life and Partner Search, and that last one is there because the dancer is looking for a partner.
• Scroll your old posts as a stranger would and archive anything you wouldn't want a sponsor reading.

Decision 5: what you film in the first 30 days

Bring the phone and a small tripod to every session for a month. Ask your gym or club about filming, and keep other athletes out of frame unless they've agreed. Then collect the same five things each day, and post the best four or five videos each week:

1. The small ritual before you start: tape, chalk, the same song, whatever only you do.
2. One correction from your coach, in a sentence or two, straight after you get it.
3. One attempt that went wrong, with the real sound.
4. A close-up of something you use, on the bench or in your bag.
5. Ten seconds on the way home saying how it really went.

Open each video with what's happening, in words someone outside your sport understands. A swimmer could start with what chlorine does to a racing suit in three months. A climber could start with what a day of crimping does to the fingertips. Those details are hard to copy, and they're why a stranger keeps watching.

Two things I'd keep off the account from the first day: your body weight and your location while you're still there.

How to read week 8

Don't judge the first month. By week 8 you have enough to compare videos against each other. Adam Mosseri has named "watch time, likes and sends" as the top ranking signals, so I'd sort your videos by sends, then look at what the top three have in common.

Then check how many profile visits turn into follows. On one ballroom account, 3.1K new followers from 29K profile visits worked out at about 11%. If you have plenty of visits and few follows, fix the profile. If you have few visits, fix the videos.

Once you have a few videos that fit a product category, read how athletes get sponsors on Instagram and start on a media kit. And when the first month of ideas runs out, I've written up what to post between competitions. If you'd rather train and leave the planning to someone else, that's the account growth work I do.