The rise of social media has enabled athletes to build better relationships with fans more than ever before. With this increased engagement, what should athletes do on social media
to leverage their connection with fans?

By studying the habits of Major League Soccer (MLS) soccer players, Thilo Kunkel and his co-authors Jason Doyle and Yiran Su, PhD ’19, reveal that athletes benefit the most from fan engagement when they post multimedia content that are relatively high-quality and performance-related. They also advise that athletes should limit hashtags, include teammates and be transparent about sponsors.