Research reveals Savannah King as the most influential prospect on social media heading into the NWSL draft. Reilyn Turner follows behind as the second most influential with Brecken Mozingo sitting in third place.
With the 2024 draft for the NWSL starting tomorrow, our research reveals the most influential draft prospects on social media.
We analyzed Instagram followers and impressions data for the draft prospect to see who the biggest social media influencers in the talent pool are and how much they could earn from social media posts.
Aspiring prospects
Our research found that Savannah King, the North Carolina Tar Heels defender, is the most significant influencer on Instagram. At the time of the study, she has 22,982 followers, potentially earning $422.5 per sponsored post. Reilyn Turner comes in second of all prospects with 16,676 followers, potentially earning $334.5 for every sponsored post. Despite being in second place, Reilyn Turner is estimated to earn 35.11% less than top influencer Savannah King. Third place on the list goes to BYU forward Brecken Mozingo. The Utah native currently has 10,642 followers, allowing her to potentially earn $234.5 per sponsored post on Instagram.
With all the prospects from this research potentially going in the first round of the draft, all of them will garner additional interest from fans across the country, and their social media following is bound to increase, further enabling their ability to earn a significant amount from sponsored posts.
Despite making strides on social media, there’s a long way to go in order to ‘compete’ with the biggest stars of the NWSL and their influence alongside their potential earnings.
Shining stars
We have identified the most influential player in the NSWL to be superstar Alex Morgan. She currently has 10,166,004 followers and could potentially earn $44,550 per sponsored post. The USWNT forward sits comfortably above the rest. In second place we find Christen Press, who at the time of the research has 765,557 followers, allowing her to potentially earn $6,250 per sponsored Instagram post. In third place, we find Malory Swanson, with potential earnings of $5,400 per post on the back of her 633,301 followers. Fourth place on the list of most influential current NSWL stars belongs to Rose Lavelle, who has 566,571 followers, allowing her to potentially make $4,950 per post. To finish off the top five, we find Dabinha. The Brazilian national currently has 526,828 followers, enabling her to potentially make $4,700 per sponsored post.
Draft implications
For the upcoming draft, it will be interesting to see if the order in which the players are drafted will be a reflection of the prospects' status on social media. It’s further interesting to note that four of the most influential prospects are all from the North Carolina Tar Heel program, a further testament to the strength of the NC program.
Here’s a breakdown of the top prospects, their Instagram followers, and the estimated earnings per post:
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Methodology
We used the top prospects heading into the draft as identified by ESPN and CBS. Follower counts and Instagram engagement was analyzed using the inzpire.me tool, which we also leveraged to determine the estimated earnings per sponsored post. All data is collected and checked as of January 11, 2024.
