Athlete Influencer Club Launched for UCLA Student-Athletes
LOS ANGELES, CA (Mar. 7, 2024) – UCLA student-athletes have launched the Athlete Influencer Club (AIC), a peer-led organization for student-athletes looking to advance their personal brand and social media following. Members meet weekly to participate in specialized workshops, photoshoots and speaker events.
The group was founded by fifth-year swimmer Aislinn Walsh, who currently serves as the club’s president.
“I started this club to create a community of individuals who share similar interests on social media and to create a judgment-free zone on something I feel like can be easily judged by our peers,” Walsh said. “I wanted to have a community where we could create together and share our success outside of athletics.”
There is no minimum social media following to join. The only criteria is a willingness to actively participate in the weekly meetings and support the other members of the group. Some members entered the AIC with over 100,000 TikTok followers, while others downloaded TikTok the day of the first workshop. Despite their different starting points, the group clicked instantly and went from meeting bi-monthly to at least once a week.
“In a lot of my one-on-one meetings with student-athletes, they tell me they don’t know what to post, or they don’t have anyone to help them create content,” said assistant director of NIL Maddie Walsh, who serves as the staff liaison to the Club. “The AIC offers that much-needed peer support and direction.”
In addition to peer support, members benefit from specialized education and content workshops, such as photoshoots in athletic facilities. Moving forward, the AIC plans to take their content workshops off campus via local field trips and will continue to build their individual brands in pursuit of NIL opportunities. Student-athletes seeking to join can fill out this application form.
The Athlete Influencer Club is the latest addition to UCLA’s immersive NIL programming. Other in-person resources for student-athletes include the annual brand networking event “Westwood Exchange Live” and the bi-weekly NIL Law Clinic run in partnership with UCLA Law’s Ziffren Institute for Sports, Media, Entertainment, Technology, & Sports Law.
More information on UCLA's NIL program is available on uclabruins.com/westwoodascent.
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Liza David
Sr. Associate Athletic Director, Athletic Communications
