Many student-athletes have discovered the effectiveness of social media marketing when it comes to building their personal brand and making money off of their name, image, and likeness. However, there are specific rules and regulations that student-athletes must follow when using social media to prevent themselves from getting in trouble with their schools, the NCAA, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
If you are a student-athlete looking to maximize your NIL earnings by capitalizing on social media marketing, it’s crucial to understand your rights and the rules you must follow. Contact The Hughes Companies for a free consultation with an experienced NIL lawyer for student-athletes. Attorney Michael R. Hughes has been practicing law for over 25 years and understands the unique legal challenges and opportunities NIL rules present.
What Is NIL?
NIL stands for name, image, and likeness. It refers to a student-athlete’s right to seek compensation through brand deals following the Supreme Court’s decision in NCAA v. Alston (2021). Prior to this decision, student-athletes could typically only receive scholarships as payment for their hard work, despite their schools and the NCAA profiting off of them.
Today, student-athletes can receive compensation for being in commercials and promoting products for the brands they partner with. However, these rights also come with strict regulations that student-athletes must follow when posting on social media. In particular, the FTC treats these athletes as influencers and individual schools can enforce their own social media policies for student-athletes to follow.
How Athletes Can Use Social Media Marketing
Social media is a powerful tool for student-athletes who want to begin building their personal brand. They can post about their training and other activities surrounding their sport, gain followers, engage with fans, and network with professional athletes and coaches. However, they can also profit from their social media presence by agreeing to brand deals and promoting products to their followers.
For example, an athletic wear company like Nike might offer to pay a student-athlete to wear their clothing in an Instagram Reel or post about their upcoming sale on Twitter (X). Not only can student-athletes earn money from these social media marketing campaigns, but these campaigns may also lead to long-term sponsorship deals that benefit both parties.
However, it’s crucial to understand what these deals entail before signing the contracts. How many social media posts are you expected to make? Are you prohibited from working with competing brands at the same time? And does the brand deal conflict with sponsorship deals held by the NCAA and your school?
The experienced NIL lawyers of The Hughes Companies can review your brand deal contracts to make sure you are getting a fair deal and that there are no conflicts that could cause legal issues down the line.
FTC Regulations for Social Media Endorsements
Student-athletes must follow the FTC’s guidelines for disclosing sponsored content when posting paid content on social media platforms. These guidelines include clearly stating when social media posts are sponsored, mentioning the specific brand sponsoring the post, and avoiding making misleading statements about the brand’s products or services.
For example, if Nike paid you to promote its clothing in a social media post, you might mention their brand by name and use the hashtags #ad or #sponsored. However, direct payment for social media posts isn’t the only type of endorsement you must disclose. Even if you received free products instead of money, you must disclose the relationship between yourself and the brand to your followers.
A general rule of thumb is to make the endorsement as obvious as possible. If you are using the hashtag #ad, it should be on its own, not placed alongside other hashtags that could hide it. The disclosure should also be directly in the post, not your profile bio or a follow-up comment. And if the sponsored post is a video, the disclosure should come in the video itself, not the description.
NCAA Disclosure Requirements
The NCAA has certain requirements surrounding NIL agreements, such as that student-athletes must disclose these agreements to their schools under certain circumstances. For example, if the agreement is worth more than $600, student-athletes must disclose it within 30 days of signing the agreement.
Violating the NCAA’s regulations could result in fines or other penalties handed down by the Association.
School-Specific Social Media Policies
Your school likely has a social media policy of its own for student-athletes to follow. Many of these policies include the same general rules, including:
- No offensive or inappropriate pictures, videos, or comments
- No posts that violate the school’s or the athletic department’s code of conduct
- No posts that could be misinterpreted as being endorsed by the school
For example, if a brand wants you to promote their product or service while wearing your team’s uniform, that could violate your school’s student-athlete social media policy by implying a connection between the school and the brand that doesn’t exist. These kinds of misleading posts could get you in legal trouble, which is why it’s important to work with a NIL lawyer who can review your contracts and your school’s policies.
Contact an Experienced NIL Lawyer
If you are a student-athlete planning to earn money from your name, image, and likeness, it’s essential that you understand both your rights and the rules you must follow. Social media marketing is an excellent tool for building your personal brand. However, it can also leave you open to legal issues if not done right.
Contact The Hughes Companies for a free consultation with an experienced NIL attorney. Our firm is dedicated to helping student-athletes protect their rights while seeking the compensation they deserve through brand deals and other opportunities based on their name, image, and likeness.