THE GAME HAS CHANGED

The Digital Athlete was born when founder Carly Post attended a social media marketing conference in the US and it dawned on her that athletes in Australia were not being educated and empowered to use social media in order to create a resilient online profile.

This is critical in a world where, if you are in the public eye and not pro-actively cultivating your own online profile, the media and the ‘trolls’ are going to make that profile up for you.

It is even more critical in a world where yesterday’s headlines are no longer just today’s fish and chip paper; the 24/7 news cycle and immediacy of information via the internet means that those headlines can come back to haunt you with the click of a mouse.

This extends to high school and college teams, local club sports, kids who have been earmarked for potential draft into professional sporting teams and those wanting to get noticed by recruiters through to athletes in post-retirement. Misuse of social media is rife in sports and most of it isn’t malicious but rather, a lack of understanding of the potential ramifications.

Carly has since had discussions with many student athletes, professional athletes, coaches, teachers, player management, employees at major sporting clubs and organisations as well as with her own brother who played AFL and it is apparent that there is little direction being given beyond “don’t post anything offensive” along with some basic media training. Older generations who have not grown up with social media don’t understand it and don’t want to deal with it, but the reality is that is it irresponsible and quite foolish to instruct athletes to simply “stay off social media.”

With hundreds upon hundreds of career-ending, scholarship-losing and school-reputation-ruining case studies in Australia alone, Carly believes that athletes are not being given the tools they need to adequately navigate the digital age we find ourselves in. That’s even before an athlete’s mental health and well-being come into the picture.

An athlete herself – netball, lacrosse and now women’s AFL – as well as having a background in Public Relations as the owner and director of a successful communications agency, Carly has seen firsthand how the rise of social media has changed every aspect of sporting culture and is well-placed to advise athletes on how to create a resilient online profile in order to navigate and manage any online risk, maximise any sponsorship or ‘influencer’ opportunities, as well as teaching lifelong social media management skills that will only serve well in the future.

She has now launched The Digital Athlete which offers group sessions as well as one-on-one consulting for athletes at any point in their career, as well as schools and local sporting teams.

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