Analysis the fans response to self-expression of female professional athletes on Instagram (Case study: Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams)

The purpose of this study is the to Analysis the response of the fans to the professional athletes’ self-presentation in the social media of Instagram. 328 posts shared during 2019 on the official Instagram page of two female professional athletes, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams, were analyzed and classified. The sample included 328 posts from both players, 120.716.122 likes and 2.246.584 comments. The analysis results of the pages of these two athletes showed that Serena Williams, on her Instagram page, has focused respectively more on social-role-related posts (32%), advertisement posts (25%), sports posts (23%), pictures showing her body (11%), selfies (4%) and nature and environment (2%). In contrary, Maria Sharapova respectively has posts with the contents of social role (28%), sports pictures (28%), nature and environment pictures (15%), advertisement pictures (11%), selfies (8%), pictures showing her body (2%). Also the results have shown that posts with sports content, body-showing, selfie and advertisement, respectively have the most number of likes and posts with the contents of social and nature and the environment, respectively have the most number of comments. The results of the present study highlight the importance of the content type of women athletes' Instagram posts for fans and followers. It also offers new insights and knowledge through a better understanding of the response (likes and comments) of followers to build a strong relationship and interaction, engagement and engagement.