Social media
Social media can be a very positive medium that informs, updates and creates a good public image for a player and builds your own personal profile and brand. It’s your opportunity to share your story directly with fans and create a profile that can positively influence your commercial value with brands. When used incorrectly however, it can offend others and create a negative view of a player, as well as attract bad publicity.
The LTA has social media accounts including Instagram @LTA, Tik Tok @LTA, Facebook at LTA – Tennis for Britain, YouTube at LTA and X @the_LTA. Through these channels we aim to show that tennis is a sport for everyone with the aim of inspiring more people to get into the sport.
- Share the unique lifestyle of a tennis player with your fans - a small glimpse into your lifestyle can go a long way. A few examples are:
- post training photos with the player you’re training with
- photos/videos of the cool locations you’re travelling
- behind the scenes from tennis events – remember it may seem boring to you but fans don’t ever get to see these places.
- Celebrate your big wins and titles on your social media - this gives fans a chance to engage directly with you, otherwise they will find other accounts. This can be a simple selfie photo or if at an event with Getty a photo from your Greenfly.
- Support your fellow players by engaging with their posts.
- Post what you are comfortable with - your job and the places you travel is interesting to tennis fans so don’t feel you need to be posting creative videos if you’re not comfortable doing that.
- Engage with fans but don’t get too personal - don’t share personal information and avoid getting into arguments. You’ll most likely regret comments made and it can reflect poorly upon your professional image as well as your coach & the LTA.
- Remember that everything you post is potentially public – even if it is in direct messages.
- Always check your privacy settings and ensure that your personal information is hidden (address/phone number/email etc.)
- Ensure you have a secure password and switch on two-factor authentication to keep your accounts safe - for a step-by-step explanation of how to do this for Instagram please click here.
- Avoid posting when you’re angry or upset – you may say something you regret, particularly after a loss.
- Do not post anything homophobic, racist, sexist, or make comments that belittle another person. You do not want to offend someone and potential sponsors do not want to associate themselves with someone offensive.
- And finally, always think ‘would I post this on a billboard or show my parents?’ before posting on social media.
Social media presents a great opportunity for you to share your story directly with fans and grow your brand and we want to help you where we can, so our LTA team is available to help support if you want to chat through how you can use and grow your social media presence.
Unfortunately, online trolling is commonplace and is something all tennis players with social media accounts will have experienced. Many abusive messages and comments come from people who have lost money betting on your match.
It’s important to try and put some guiderails in place to help you deal with these comments.
- As a starting point look to ignore these abusive/bullying/threatening posts – block them, delete the comments and report them to the social media network that you are on. You can also inform the ITF/WTA/ATP. Please inform one of the LTA’s Performance Lifestyle Advisors who can offer you further support and advice.
- With Instagram, try and avoid looking at you direct message requests section after a loss when there is a higher chance of more negative message requests.
- Most social media platforms also have a word blocking function which you can implement to stop comments that contain certain words from appearing on your account.