Social Media and Sponsorship in BJJ

Social media avenues such as FaceBook and Instagram make it easier than ever to “brand” ourselves in relation to our jiu-jitsu. This can be both a good or bad thing, depending on what your goals are.

Some people look to social media to become overnight superstars for whatever reason – ego, finding sponsorship, etc. In BJJ, it is common to find hobbyist BJJ practitioners (including kids) actively looking for sponsors. Yes, having a lucrative social media profile does increase your chances of getting noticed by potential sponsors. BUT, this also means that you need to have the personality and the talent to back it up – especially if you’re eyeing larger, more established sponsors.

With that being said, the way that people are “branding” themselves on their social media can be misleading. For example, let’s say you have Joe Jitsu with 15K followers on Instagram. Joe posts on a daily basis – what he’s eating, what he looks like before/after training, or what gear he is repping today. Joe sounds kinda cool right? He wears all the hottest BJJ gear, eats clean, and always has positive and motivational things to say. Yes, he has a lucrative social media profile… but would you change your mind if you knew that Joe used an Instagram bot to like random people’s pictures so that he can get more likes and followers? Or what if you found out that while Joe is posting how “hard” he trained today, his teammates would say otherwise?

Or what about the children under the age of 10 who have their own Facebook "athlete" pages and Instagram accounts where they regularly post motivational/inspirational things? You have to really wonder how many of those kids are actively on their own social media accounts (actually, you don't because it's pretty obvious whose account it really is).

This overnight stardom for some people creates a sense of entitlement. They think that just because they are winning tournaments (large or small) and have a large social media following that they should be sponsored. This is the wrong attitude to have - especially when approaching potential sponsors. While confidence can be attractive, cockiness is not.

A lot of small and large companies I have talked to about what they look for in potential athletes/brand ambassadors all similarly say the same thing. If someone legitimately believes in and supports the brand, works hard, is a good person (this also goes along the lines of having a good personality to fit the brand), and represents well in competition – this is the type of person that is more attractive than the social media star who messages them every other day about what they can do to be sponsored. You don’t need to build your social media profile in order to get noticed. Sometimes the little things that you do are worth more – and the social media following will come later if you want it to.

So what’s the moral of the story? Be real. Not fake. Nothing is worse than meeting someone you thought was cool on Instagram only to find out that they are nothing like what they portray on social media. This also doesn’t always sit well with sponsors – especially the ones that you want to have a good relationship with. Just train, support the brands you believe in, and stop trying to become an overnight internet superstar.