by By Noah Ruth
The NCAA’s Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) policy has transformed college sports. This allowed student-athletes to profit from their personal brands for the first time ever. According to NIL Network, NIL spending is projected to exceed $2.55 billion annually by 2026, social media has become the primary platform for athletes to build their brands, endorsements, and sponsorships.
According to The Athlete’s NIL Playbook, “Captiv8 conducted an analysis of Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter to compare the performance of college athletes and influencers. The research revealed that among the 319 college athletes observed, each with 20,000 or more followers, college athletes outperformed standard influencers by 1.2 times on Instagram, two times on TikTok, and an astonishing 10 times on Twitter when evaluating their respective social media posts.”
How to Leverage Social Media Platforms to Maximize Your NIL Value:
Step 1: Optimize Your Social Media Profiles
Start by converting all your social media accounts to business profiles, which provides access to analytics tools essential for tracking performance. Your profile serves as your “digital business card,” and brands cannot connect with you until it’s complete.
- Using your real name in both your handle and username for maximum searchability
- Adding a high-quality profile photo and cover image that reflects your brand identity
- Writing a clear bio that includes who you are, what sport you play, major accomplishments, and what makes you unique
- Including a dedicated business email address at the bottom of your bio for brand inquiries
- Adding keywords to your name section like “Basketball Player | Fashion Enthusiast” to improve discoverability
Notice how one of the top NIL earners, Jeremiah Smith, formats his Instagram:
Step 2: Create Strategic Value
This is where most of your effort goes. Implement the proven 70-20-10 formula from C3recruits which includes: 70% athletic content (training, highlights), 20% behind-the-scenes content (team moments, travel), and 10% personal content (hobbies, academics). An important aspect to creating value is to develop a consistent posting schedule, post 3-5 times weekly across your main platforms. Use analytics to identify when your followers are most active. Plan content several weeks ahead using a simple content calendar.
Step 3: Analyze and Optimize
In order to find what content entertains your audiences you must regularly monitor the analytics on your social media pages. Track engagement rate per post, follower growth, saves, shares, and optimal posting times. Focus on building an engaged community that trusts your recommendations. Use performance data to continuously refine your content strategy and really double down on what works with your audience.
Step 4: Secure Brand Partnerships
Approximately one-third of NIL revenue comes from athletes who proactively reach out to brands rather than waiting to be discovered. Local and regional businesses represent 33% of all NIL deals and actively seek athlete partnerships.
By condensing the process into these 4 steps, you can focus on the core activities that drive NIL value: professional setup, creating quality content, tracking performance, and actively pursuing partnerships. Each step builds on the previous one, creating a clear path from beginner to monetization.
Connect with me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-ruth-3243b8253/
References: Business Insider, NIL Network, Business of College Sports, NIL Island, Teamworks, C3recruits, NIL Certifications
Hi Noah!
Your blog post is so interesting! I especially like how you highlight the importance of a polished, searchable profile—something many athletes overlook even though it directly impacts brand visibility. The 70-20-10 content formula is also a great, practical framework for staying consistent without feeling repetitive. Overall, your four-step approach makes the NIL process feel accessible and achievable, giving athletes a roadmap they can immediately put into action. Awesome job!
I just learned about this in a guest lecture class by Justin, so it was super interesting to read about this Noah! I love the bit about profiles, as it is very important to be able to search someone’s name and have their socials come up and be polished, put together, and easy to read. I also loved the strategic value bit, as it showcases a great method to balancing your socials to seem interesting to potential sponsors. Great work!
This is done by Odile Williams
I found this post super interesting! As a student-athlete, some of these are things that have been mentioned to me before, like how our social medias show up to others, and making it look clean and polished. I’ve never heard of the 70-20-10 framework before though, and I think it is a great strategy so that athletes aren’t always having to scramble for content!
I found this article super interesting! As a student-athlete, we’ve been told to make sure we keep up a polished account, but you provided some concrete tools to use to help this. I’ve never heard of the 70-20-10 formula before, and I think it can help give a layout for what student athletes should be posting!