As we have discussed, social media is a fantastic way to promote yourself as brand and share your athletic journey. It provides you a means to communicate who you are, what you bring to the table and the qualities that make you someone to follow and remember. Just make sure you are leading with qualities and behaviors that you would be proud to share with the world, even if it was not your intention.

Remember, when posting on social media, the ease of shareability without permission makes your online privacy more public than you know. Don’t create or even share damaging social media posts; they will follow you throughout your athletic career and beyond. Avoid anything that could have legal consequences. More specifically, stay away from anything that is sexually explicit or potentially illicit, as well as anything remotely discriminatory, racist, sexist, prejudiced, or otherwise generally ignorant. You need to be smart about your use.

Make yourself unique among your peers for the right reasons and carefully manage your social profiles. Know who is looking at your content and what impact your online behaviors will have on them, as this will, in turn, affect you. Manage the different types of people with whom you engage online, so you can always be you and still on brand. Keep your accounts and anything attached to your accounts, like your mobile device or computer, secure.

Above all, demonstrate the kind of maturity and vigilance that your family, coaching staff and school expect from you at all times. You represent them, and if managed well, your use of social media will reinforce their support of you. Combined with your talent, character and devotion to your studies and your sport, you will go far. That’s how you protect your future opportunities.

You can see, by now, the potential power that social media can have in your academic and athletic career, but realize that this is only the beginning for you. Only with real-world practice will you be able to truly challenge yourself to master your online presence. Your success depends on it. In the end, you have to use common sense. Think about the brand of you, and decide how your voice can be one that inspires and affects others to build a positive online community.