Athletes’ Relationship Marketing During a Pandemic via TikTok

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the most significant disruption to the worldwide sporting calendar since World War II. In a bid to stem the spread of the virus, many professional and amateur leagues across all continents and sports took the unprecedented step to postpone or suspend their seasons to avoid gatherings of large amounts of people. While navigating social distancing protocols, athletes are experimenting with new ways to connect with their fans. Beside the established social media platforms (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram), TikTok, a short-form video-sharing platform, has gained an important value in terms of registered users and shared content. Yet, little is known about the utility of TikTok as an athlete branding tool.
Against this background, TikTok has gained significant value as the latest digital platform for fan engagement. Athlete generated TikTok videos have been widely reported on by news outlets. Examples include “Lebron James” dances with his family. By increasing TikTok popularity in the middle of COVID-19, athletes’ use of TikTok as a communication platform during this pandemic with the intention of reflecting the changing nature of sport communication and branding in this challenging time.
Most of the posts on TikTok were not related to sport, but more reflective on the personal side of the athlete. Also, athletes posted performance-related content, showing a flash glance into their new at-home training routines. Some athletes mentioned “quarantine”, “ COVID-19” or “pandemic” hashtags in their posts, including videos and captions. For example, the American professional baseball “Alex Bregman” posted his quarantine workout routine. This indicates that athletes use their posts to join in contemporary conversations and exert positivity, reflecting the potential for TikTok as a trendy social media platform among the pandemic (Su et al., 2020).
The main elements that make TikTok a featured engagement tool for athletes are playfulness, performativity, and Authenticity. Unlike the biggest competitor Instagram, TikTok is more of an entertainment and enjoyment, a platform with short-form performative videos, rather than a lifestyle platform where the user records their life events through statements and photos. On TikTok, self-image is presented in a less-polished way, mostly by amateur performers, compared with other social media platforms rife with professional production quality and preening influencers. TikTok is the video-first platform that leaves little room for users to retouch their look and the raw imagery on which makes it more relatable and genuine (Su et al., 2020).
In my opinion, communicating via TikTok presents an opportunity for athletes to enhance existing fan relationships, promote branded content, and appeal to new fan segments. In addition, athletes can influence these findings to create content for an audience that is attracted to novelty and the activities of athletes extending beyond game high- lights or interviews. Personally, I think TikTok can be profitably used as a social media tool to enhance fan engagement and brand development, by providing followers with ongoing insights into their personalities and interests even after COVID-19 restrictions are lifted and for any future scenarios where they may not be able to provide sport-related content (e.g., in the event of injury).