If people use Facebook to connect with friends and family, while professionals use LinkedIn to expand their network, why don’t athletes have their own community to fuel their driven lifestyles?
That was the question behind former University of Hawaii football player, Chris Smith, founding Athlete Network, the world’s largest social network for collegiate, professional, and everyday athletes.
Simple enough: If you’re an athlete and you’re looking to advance your career or connect with people of similar backgrounds, Athlete Network allows you to do so in its online community that’s providing a new social media experience designed to bring back relevancy.
The platform’s proprietary algorithm, referred to as the Athletic Quotient (AQ), provides users with new, tailored content, potential connections and career opportunities based on your athletic background and interests.
“What we’ve learned in the last couple of years in our beta concept is: When you take family out of the picture, the next most important thing in an athlete is their career progression and athletic pursuit. And there’s not really a network that services that,” Chris Smith, CEO of Athlete Network, explained.
What seems like an interesting concept has become an actual reality – In its second year with the platform, there are 170,000+ members part of the Athlete Network. In addition, it’s partnered with more than 500 employers and recruiters to deliver career opportunities to its users.
“Employers love hiring athletically-minded people. They love the results-driven, competitive nature of somebody that likes to compete. These large pioneers like LinkedIn have gotten so crowded that we really can bring efficiency to athletes,” explained Chris.
The platform has shown to be helpful for athletes in taking advantage in new career paths – and not just in sales, but from IT, engineering and accounting firms as well, according to Chris.
There’s great diversity among its users: 60% males, 40% females. The most predominant age groups fall within the 18-24 year olds and 24-36 year olds, each making up 40% each. Moving forward, there will be a greater global presence as it just launched the platform to accept international industries.
Even at its early stages, Athlete Network has garnered positive attention. In what Chris’s coolest success story has been so far was when they were recently recognized as “Partner of the Year” for Fortune 200, medical device company, Stryker – Beating out competitors including LinkedIn and CareerBuilder largely in-part to the relevance and efficiency the platform has been able to create.
With the recent launch of its mobile application, they’re looking to release its first update in the next 90 days for a simpler experience, using their recommendation system. Later on, the team will look to implement features that will suggest nearby athletes with similar interests to connect with, as well as sporting gear and accessories that would peak your interest based on what you currently own.
With the user-base growing, the Athlete Network may start to become the essential social media platform for athletes and its pioneers such as Facebook and LinkedIn. The more that the athletes use the platform, the stronger the community becomes.