What is it about?
This study explores why people choose to follow their favorite athletes on Instagram. We found that fans are more likely to follow athletes who share unique, creative, and engaging content that fits their personal interests. An athlete’s brand image—based on their performance, appearance, and lifestyle—also plays a big role in attracting followers. In other words, fans don’t just follow athletes for their sports skills, but also because of the image and personality they show online. By understanding these factors, athletes and sports organizations can utilize social media more effectively to foster stronger connections with fans and create more effective promotional opportunities.
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Why is it important?
This study explores why fans follow their favorite athletes on Instagram, focusing on how an athlete’s performance, appearance, and lifestyle shape their personal brand image. It is one of the few studies to combine social media characteristics with the concept of athlete brand image (ABI) and to test how these factors influence fan behavior. What makes this work unique and timely is its focus on Instagram, a rapidly growing platform for athlete–fan engagement, while most previous studies have centered on Facebook and Twitter/X. The research also uses a large sample of Indonesian sports fans (N = 1,477), providing valuable insights from a non-Western context that is often underrepresented in sports communication studies. This study is significant because it demonstrates how athletes can utilize social media strategically—not just to entertain fans, but also to foster stronger relationships, enhance credibility, and attract sponsorship opportunities. It also provides guidance for sports marketers, teams, and digital strategists seeking to understand the dynamics of fan loyalty in the digital era.
Perspectives
As a communication scholar, I view this study as an important step in understanding how digital media reshapes relationships between athletes and their audiences. The growing influence of Instagram has transformed not only how athletes present themselves, but also how fans construct emotional and social attachments to them. Personally, I was inspired to explore this topic because social media now functions as a space where identity, performance, and fandom intersect—especially among younger generations. Through this research, I realized that athlete branding is no longer limited to achievements on the field; it is deeply connected to how athletes communicate values, authenticity, and lifestyle online. I hope this study encourages more scholars, practitioners, and athletes to think critically about how digital platforms can be used ethically and strategically to build meaningful engagement, not just visibility.
Kholidil Amin
Universitas Diponegoro
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: "You are Amazing! That's Why I Follow You": Athlete Brand Image through the Fan's Point of View, Jurnal Komunikasi Malaysian Journal of Communication, September 2025, Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM Press),
DOI: 10.17576/jkmjc-2025-4103-03.
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