Confidential · March 2026
Instagram Strategy · 2026
HARRY
HICKFORD
Football Agent
This strategy is built around that one sentence. Your Instagram should feel like watching one of the best agents in UK football just getting on with it. Not performative, not try-hard, not trying to be an influencer. Just a guy who closes elite deals, looks after his players, runs marathons, eats well, and happens to have a great life. The goal is simple: any young footballer in the UK looking for a new agent should land on your profile and immediately think "that's who I want."
Your eight priority clients are the proof that you deliver. Every goal, assist, call-up, and deal is content. Celebrate them visibly when the moments happen — it signals to prospective clients that you're genuinely invested, not just commercially, but personally. A consistent pattern of celebrating your players builds a clear picture over time: this agent shows up for his people.
The marathon is a gift for content. It's relatable, personal and shows a completely different side of you — the same competitive drive that closes 8 deals in a window being channelled into running 26.2 miles. It builds a narrative over months, gives your Stories daily texture, and taps into a community of runners and fitness people well beyond the football world. Here's how to play it.
The simplest content you'll create. After a run, share your Strava activity directly to Stories. No caption needed — the data does the talking. Distance, pace, route. On weeks that feel significant, add a short one-liner about where you're at with your targets — mileage goals, pace targets, how many weeks out from race day. It shows the work happening behind the scenes, the same discipline you bring to everything else.
One early post to frame the whole journey. Why you signed up. What you're trying to prove to yourself. No waffle — 4–5 slides, your voice, honest. This gets shared because people connect with the "normal person doing something hard" story.
Once a month, a training recap carousel. This doesn't need to be long — 4–6 slides capturing the month: mileage, a key session, how training is fitting around work travel, what's been hard.
The week before the race, a "race week" carousel builds genuine anticipation. People who've followed the training journey will want to see this. Keep it personal — nerves, logistics, what you're thinking about.
This is the big post. Start line, mid-race if possible, finish line, time. A few words about what it took. People who've followed the whole thing will be genuinely invested in this — it's a proper payoff moment. Don't undersell it.
It's the discipline-meets-lifestyle story that makes your brand feel whole. An elite agent who also runs marathons is memorable. It signals the same qualities — work ethic, resilience, pushing yourself — that you bring to your players' careers. And let's be honest: most agents are older, out of shape, and completely unrelatable to the players they represent. Harry training for a marathon while closing top-level deals is a genuine USP — it makes you feel like one of them, not just someone in a suit who takes a cut. It also gives you daily content (Strava), a monthly hook (training update), and two genuinely big posts (race week + finish). That's months of built-in narrative, organically.
One post per month that just shows who you actually are. No agenda, no brand positioning, no trying to be impressive. A carousel of the best 8–12 photos from the month — whatever they happen to be. A good meal, a client's goal, a view from a run, a weekend with family, a skiing trip, watching the NFL. The caption is two or three words, or nothing. These are often the posts that get the most saves and shares because they feel genuinely real.
Gather as you go. Don't try to remember everything at the end of the month. Keep a camera roll folder called "Monthly Dump" and drop photos in as they happen. A screenshot of a Strava run. A quick shot at dinner. A photo from the stands. By the 28th of the month you've got 20 things to choose from.
The caption. Either nothing, or something very short — "March." / "Good month." / a single emoji. The point of the post is the photos. Resist the urge to write something clever. The photos do the work. Post it on the last day of the month, every month, no exceptions. Consistency is the whole game.
Consistent beats impressive. You don't need to post every day — you need to be reliably present and consistently quality. The goal is to make this as easy and natural as possible, with the heavy lifting happening behind the scenes. Think of this not as a schedule, but as a list of things worth capturing over the course of a week. Real events always take priority.
| Format | Purpose | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| Carousels | Client wins, travel, marathon updates, monthly dump | Medium — quality over speed |
| Feed Posts (single) | Milestones, portraits, travel, race day | High — only when the photo is genuinely good |
| Stories | Presence, personality, Strava shares, match reactions, client wins | Low — spontaneous is the point |
| Monthly Dump | Personality, humanity, real life — the post people look forward to | Low — just collect as you go |
| Story Highlights | Optional — permanent portfolio if you want it: Clients · Transfers · Marathon · Life | Low — 15 minutes at end of month |
Your roster is your credibility made visible. Celebrate them consistently and genuinely — it shows prospective clients exactly what working with you looks like.
Stories (immediate): Repost the goal clip, the match stat, the call-up graphic as soon as it happens. A flag emoji or a fire is enough. Speed matters more than a perfect reaction here.
Carousel (within 24–48 hrs): A clean, well-designed carousel. Player photo + milestone + date. Tag the player, tag the club. Caption: proud but understated. Not "over the moon" — just genuinely happy for them.
Transfer announcements: When you broker a move, post a bespoke graphic — club crests, player name, date. Never reveal fee or terms. Over time this grid of moves tells the whole story better than any bio ever could.
Season highlights: At the end of the season, a carousel of each priority client's best moments. This is the content that prospective clients will actually look at when they're deciding whether to reach out.
