Instagram Bios as Gateways of Virality and Influence: Signaling, Visibility, and Engagement Among Brazilian Sports Journalists

Abstract

In ecosystems of algorithmic visibility, Instagram bios operate as high salience microdiscourses of self-presentation and signaling. We examine whether observable bio attributes are associated with visibility and interaction among Brazilian sports journalists. We analyzed 151 public Instagram profiles (≥100,000 followers) and extracted bios and profile metadata via automated collection. Bio attributes (length, emojis, @mentions, hashtags, location, informational cues, and external links) were related to followers, average likes and comments, and engagement rate (primary outcome) using Spearman rank correlations under conservative interpretation. Emojis and mentions were near universal; links were common; hashtags and locations were rare. Associations were small and exploratory: personal information correlated negatively with followers; hashtags correlated positively with likes and comments but relied on five cases; and references to other platforms correlated negatively with engagement. Overall, bios appear to function mainly as signaling infrastructures, with any performance effects likely indirect and mediated by content practices and platform exposure within this ecosystem.

1. Introduction

Sports journalists have expanded their activities in digital environments where professional authority, visibility, and connection with the audience are continuously negotiated under platform logics. In these ecosystems, the public performance of the journalist depends, beyond the published content, on the first-contact artifacts of the profile that guide quick inferences about credibility, positioning, and communicational intent. Among these artifacts, the Instagram biography (“bio”) occupies a privileged position. It is a highly salient microtext, subject to material restriction (character limit) and marked by semiotic and connectivity resources (emojis, @mentions, hashtags, and links). As a static layer that precedes the feed experience, the bio can function as a microdiscourse of self-presentation and a signaling interface, reducing uncertainty and organizing the audience’s predispositions to follow and interact (Goffman, 1959; Marwick & Boyd, 2011; Bucher & Helmond, 2018; Bossio, 2023).

Instagram is particularly relevant for investigating this phenomenon for three reasons. First, the platform supports identity curation and personal branding practices, making the profile a strategically constructed presentation space. Second, decisions to follow/not follow often hinge on quick evaluations of the profile, elevating the importance of the bio as a gateway to audience engagement. Because Instagram feeds are algorithmically curated, visibility depends on more than just followers; not all content is shown to every follower. Accordingly, the bio is treated not as an autonomous driver of reach but as a high-salience gateway for legibility, credibility, and attention routing (O’Meara, 2019). Third, Instagram operates through a platform vernacular in which certain formats and signals (such as emojis and mentions) stabilize as recognized grammars of belonging and communicational competence (Gibbs et al., 2015; Highfield, 2018; Zappavigna & Ross, 2024). For journalists, however, this grammar is normatively loaded. Marks of proximity and informality can increase perceived accessibility, but they can also strain expectations of institutionality, independence, and credibility (Mellado & Hermida, 2022; Bossio, 2023; Schützeneder & Graßl, 2024). These tensions tend to be intensified in sports journalism, marked by symbolic disputes and strong identity communities.

Recent literature on journalistic branding and the “journalist-influencer” offers important foundations for understanding these dynamics. Studies show that journalists, on social media, need to simultaneously manage professional reputation, relational performance, and, in some cases, signs of monetization, operating in ambiguous boundaries between information and promotion (Mourão & Harlow, 2020; Hutchinson & Dwyer, 2022; Marques-Martins & Sixto-García, 2025). Nevertheless, a significant portion of this literature favors qualitative analyses of routines and narratives or focuses on the published content, making it less clear to what extent observable profile attributes, and particularly the bio, are associated with public performance metrics. In parallel, studies on digital language and multimodality show that choices in microtexts can function as markers of ethos and positioning, but empirical evidence of their effects on behavioral metrics remains fragmented and often derived from studies of creators and marketing, not always transferable to journalism due to the normative regime of credibility (Duffy & Hund, 2021; Audrezet et al., 2020).

This problem is methodologically sensitive for two reasons. First, platform metrics such as followers, likes, comments, and engagement rate are proxies that capture the intensity and reach of interaction, but not the quality, valence, or legitimacy of the engagement; moreover, they are sensitive to the scale and dynamics of exposure (Prochazka & Obermaier, 2022; Petre, 2024).

Second, many biographical signals can experience ceiling effects when they become nearly universal or occur with low prevalence when they are rare, which limits discriminatory power and requires conservative interpretation. Thus, the analytical objective of this article is not to assert that the bio causes engagement but to examine whether the bio operates as a signaling interface associated with observable patterns of visibility and interaction, recognizing mediations by content and algorithmic exposure and the inferential limits of cross-sectional design.

Based on this gap, this article investigates, in the context of Brazilian sports journalism, how the observable architecture of Instagram bios is associated with public performance indicators. The question guiding the study is: to what extent do structural and semiotic-discursive elements of the bio correlate with the visibility and audience engagement of sports journalists? To answer, we analyzed the public profiles of Brazilian sports journalists with high audiences on the platform and operationalized biographical attributes (e.g., bio length, emojis, mentions, hashtags, location, informational blocks, and presence/type of external link), relating them to followers, average likes and comments, and engagement rate. The study adopts an observational and cross-sectional design, with a deliberately conservative interpretation and transparent reporting regarding multiple comparisons.

The contribution of this article is threefold. Theoretically, it integrates impression management, signaling theory, and platform vernacularity to conceptualize the Instagram bio as a high-salience “gateway” microdiscourse that structures first impressions and routes attention within an algorithmically curated ecosystem of virality and influence. Methodologically, it demonstrates how to operationalize bio signals into measurable variables and relate them to multiple public outcomes while maintaining interpretive rigor in the presence of ceiling effects, low base-rate predictors, and the constraints of cross-sectional associative evidence. Empirically, it provides systematic evidence from an under-represented context in the international literature, Brazilian sports journalism, supporting future cross-cultural and sociotechnical comparisons of platformed influence.

The remainder of the article is structured as follows. Section 2 develops the theoretical framework and mechanism-based expectations. Section 3 details the sampling, data collection, operationalization, and the analytical strategy. Section 4 reports the descriptive results and bivariate associations under a conservative reading. Section 5 discusses the implications, limitations, and directions for future research, and Section 6 concludes.

2. Theoretical Foundation

This section presents the conceptual bases of the study, treating the Instagram bio as a microdiscourse of self-presentation under the platform’s constraints and as a signaling interface potentially associated with visibility and engagement. The objective is to elucidate plausible mechanisms that connect observable signals in the bio to predispositions to follow and interact, recognizing mediations through content, publishing routines, and algorithmic exposure.

2.1. Bio as Micro Discourse and Signaling Interface in Platform Ecosystems

In platform ecosystems, the Instagram bio is not a peripheral element of the profile. It operates as a microdiscourse of positioning that precedes the content experience and organizes expectations about (i) who the journalist is; (ii) what their niche is; (iii) how they relate to the audience; and (iv) what their communicational intentions are (to inform, comment, provide service, sell, redirect traffic). This role is intensified by two complementary factors: the high salience of the profile at the moment of the “follow/unfollow” decision and the material restriction of the biographical field (up to 150 characters), which elevates the semiotic density and relevance of linguistic and multimodal choices, in this case, emojis, @mentions, hashtags, and links.

In sports journalism, this role tends to be even more critical. It is a field marked by competition for attention and interpretative authority around recurring and identity-driven events (clubs, athletes, fans), in which the audience alternates between informational consumption and community belonging. In this context, the bio functions as an identity anchor point that synthesizes credentials (affiliations and experience), performs a tone (institutional vs. conversational), and establishes bridges to other spaces of legitimacy and circulation (sites, YouTube, podcasts, newsletters). This interpretation converges with approaches that treat profiles as strategically curated showcases, in which multimodal resources structure quick inferences of credibility and authenticity (Mucundorfeanu et al., 2025; Bossio, 2023).

Consequently, it is necessary to calibrate what the bio represents in analytical terms. In this study, engagement is operationalized by likes, comments, engagement rate, while visibility is captured by followers. The literature is consistent in warning that these metrics are proxies, as likes and comments capture the intensity of interaction, but not quality (e.g., support vs. hostility), and the engagement rate is sensitive to scale effects and exposure dynamics (Martin et al., 2024; Petre, 2024). Thus, the theoretical argument of the article is not that the bio causes engagement, but that the bio functions as a signaling interface and uncertainty reduction, potentially associated with the propensity to follow and interact, mediated by affordances and platform culture. Starting from this definition, the next step is to situate the bio in the state-of-the-art, showing convergences, and above all, relevant empirical gaps for sports journalism.

2.2. State-of-the-Art in Four Clusters: Convergences and Gaps in Sports Journalism

The literature on Instagram bios presented in this section is organized into four clusters that are rarely integrated when the focus is on sports journalists in influence ecosystems. Together, these studies support the bio as an identity artifact, but leave open whether, and to what extent, observable profile attributes are associated with public performance metrics.

2.2.1. Cluster A: Digital Identity, Impression Management, and Platform Vernacularity

Studies in journalism and digital communication show that profiles are artifacts of self-presentation and personal branding, in which professional identity is negotiated under expectations of authenticity and proximity (e.g., Kester & Prenger, 2021; Mellado & Hermida, 2022; Bossio, 2023). The concept of platform vernacularity suggests that specific forms (emojis, hashtags, mentions) stabilize as recognizable grammars of belonging and communicational competence in each sociotechnical environment (Gibbs et al., 2015; Diaz-Ruiz, 2024).

Research on journalists’ social media presence also shows that personal branding has become part of professional visibility work, as journalists stage expertise, personality, accessibility, and institutional affiliation across platform profiles (e.g., Brems et al., 2017; Molyneux & Holton, 2015). On Instagram specifically, profile-level elements such as the bio may contribute to the construction of the journalist’s personal brand by condensing professional identity, communicative style, and audience orientation into a constrained space (Sudoł-Kaszuba, 2024).

The recurring gap is that a significant part of these analyses prioritizes routines and qualitative narratives, making it less clear whether observable profile attributes, such as bio elements, are associated with public performance metrics.

2.2.2. Cluster B: Multimodality and Microdiscourses of Authority

Studies on microtexts and bios highlight that in short and highly visible spaces, style choices, informational density, and visual resources function as markers of ethos, positioning, and intelligibility (Cocco et al., 2023; Zappavigna & Ross, 2024). Emojis can act as pragmatic markers of affectivity and communicative intention, enhancing readability and modulating tone (Highfield, 2018; Balcıoğlu et al., 2025). In journalism, however, there remains a normative tension if the same resource that signals accessibility can be interpreted as excessive informality and reputational risk.

2.2.3. Cluster C: Discovery, Connectivity, and Social Indexing

Hashtags and @mentions in the bio are clickable, connecting the profile to communities and networks of accounts and transforming the bio into a routing and discovery device, not just a presentation one. The literature on visibility on platforms suggests the strategic value of connectivity, but with contingent effects (e.g., Al-Rawi et al., 2022; Giannoulakis et al., 2023). Hashtags can enhance niche discovery and simultaneously disperse attention; mentions can function as endorsement or affiliation but also as a sign of dependence.

2.2.4. Cluster D: Influencer Journalism and Commercial Signaling

The figure of the influencer-journalist combines informational authority with performance and relationship, operating at the boundaries between information and promotion and personal branding (Marques-Martins & Sixto-García, 2025). In this scenario, the bio not only presents but also structures opportunities for monetization and traffic (commercial contact, partnerships, external links, cross-platform references). The critical point, still under-tested in sports journalists, is how commercial signals affect trust and engagement.

This position involves boundary work, as journalists on social media may move between professional information, personality-driven communication, audience intimacy, and promotional practices, creating tensions between journalistic norms and platform visibility logics (Maares & Hanusch, 2020; Laor & Galily, 2020). These tensions may also vary. Journalists associated with media outlets may operate under newsroom social media guidelines, brand expectations, and reputational boundaries, whereas independent or less institutionally attached journalists may have greater autonomy to develop personal branding, commercial partnerships, and cross-platform promotional strategies.

Although there is solid evidence that digital identity, authenticity, and connectivity are central to social networks, there is limited systematic testing of how the observable architecture of the bio is associated with visibility (followers) and interaction (likes, comments, engagement) among sports journalists, particularly in Latin American contexts. This article addresses this gap by focusing on the biographical field as a static, first-contact layer of professional signaling that broadens the analysis beyond published content.

2.3. Integrated Analytical Lenses: Impression Management, Signaling, and Authenticity Regimes

To transform the bio into an analytical object, it is necessary to specify dimensions that connect its structure to followers, likes, comments, and engagement. Three articulated lenses support this logic.

First, through the lens of impression management and public–private boundaries, the bio constitutes a condensed stage for self-presentation (Djafarova & Trofimenko, 2019; Kaipainen, 2024), in which the journalist calibrates formality, proximity, and credentials. In journalism, this adjustment is normatively loaded, as it articulates the expectations of objectivity and independence and the demands of authenticity and relationality on platforms (Mellado & Hermida, 2022; Bossio, 2023; Bowd, 2020).

Next, anchored in signaling theory, the second lens is based on the principle that in environments of informational asymmetry, observable signals reduce uncertainty. In the profile, these signals include informational density (bio length), professionalization (informational cues), addressing and external validation (links), as well as connectivity (mentions) and indexing (hashtags). The empirical contribution of the article is to operationalize these signals as measurable variables and test associations with public metrics.

Finally, the lens of vernacularity and regimes of authenticity considers that emojis, hashtags, and mentions are not ornaments, but part of the vernacular repertoire of Instagram (Gibbs et al., 2015; Bossio, 2023; Highfield, 2018). For journalists, the empirical inquiry is whether such markers augment engagement via proximity and legibility, or for specific audiences, diminish credibility owing to informality (Audrezet et al., 2020; Hendrickx & Opgenhaffen, 2024). Together, these lenses indicate that the bio should be read as an integrated set of signals, with potentially indirect and contingent effects.

2.4. Mechanisms by Variable: Why Bio Elements Can Be Associated with Visibility and Engagement

Based on the previous theoretical lenses, this subsection details specific mechanisms by which each element of the bio can (or cannot) relate to visibility and engagement. For this, the attributes are interpreted as components of a signaling package that can operate through clarity and credentials, vernacularity and proximity, indexing and connectivity, and traffic and commercialization orientation.

2.4.1. Length of Bio (bio_character)

Length serves as a proxy for informational density. Very short bios can be efficient but ambiguous; long bios can increase clarity but reduce scannability and generate noise. Under a 150-character constraint, small variations can represent substantive changes in the number of credentials and calls to action. The expectation is for a possibly non-linear association, with potentially higher performance at intermediate lengths. Clarity without loss of readability.

2.4.2. Information in the Bio (bio_info, by Subfields)

This block captures credentials, contacts, professionalization cues, mentions of other networks, and commercial signals. Theoretically, it combines competing mechanisms: reducing uncertainty and functional legitimacy versus activating skepticism through explicit commercialization, especially in normatively sensitive journalism. Since it is a heterogeneous block, analytical validity is maximized when subtypes are distinguished (professional, personal, contact, advertising, other networks), avoiding treating signals of potentially opposing effects as if they were a single entity.

2.4.3. External Links (bio_exturl_presence and bio_exturl_type)

Links are mechanisms for cross-platform circulation and conversion, capable of signaling a professional ecosystem (portfolio, vehicle, projects) and facilitating external validation; at the same time, they can shift attention off-platform and compete with in-platform interaction. Analytically, the presence of a link can be associated with visibility through validation/portfolio; effects on engagement rate are indeterminate. The type of URL can indicate different positions (e.g., institutional vs. creator/marketing).

2.4.4. Emojis (bio_emojis)

Emojis add a pragmatic layer: they modulate tone, increase scannability, and can encode identity (e.g., ball, microphone). As part of Instagram’s vernacular, they can signal proximity and communicative intent. However, in journalism, it is a conditional expectation in which emojis can enhance accessibility but also reduce perceived formality among certain audiences.

2.4.5. Hashtags (bio_hashtags)

Hashtags function as thematic belonging indexers and discovery mechanisms, connecting the profile to interest flows. The analytical expectation is of potential association with visibility through discoverability; effects on engagement rate are uncertain, and given the limited focal evidence for journalism, should be treated as exploratory.

2.4.6. Mentions (bio_mentions)

Mentions can operate as endorsements or affiliation (vehicle, project), network strategies, and shortcut to ecosystem assets. Being clickable, they reinforce connectivity. The expectation is for exploratory engagement with followers, and possibly with comments, depending on the target (institutional vs. promotional).

2.4.7. Location (bio_location)

The location can signal regional affiliations and specializations. However, in profiles with national reach, the effect tends to be small, and in the absence of focused literature on sports journalism, the expectation remains exploratory.

Instead of hard hypotheses for all relationships, this article formalizes analytical expectations consistent with the observational design and the plausibility of the mechanisms, distinguishing what is directional from what is exploratory.

2.5. From Theory to Analytical Expectations

Taken together, the mechanisms discussed above suggest that profile attributes operate as a clustered signaling interface, rather than isolated performance drivers. Considering that the expected associations depend on prevalence/variance (ceiling effects vs. low base-rate instability) and unobserved mediations closer to the profile’s gateway function (profile visits, follower conversion, link clicks), these were framed as analytical expectations rather than confirmatory hypotheses. Such an approach is consistent with a cross-sectional associative design and the use of public platform metrics as proxies.

Taken together, the mechanisms discussed above suggest that bio attributes operate as a bundled signaling interface rather than isolated performance drivers. Because expected associations depend on prevalence/variance (ceiling effects vs. low base rate instability) and on unobserved mediations closer to the bio’s gateway function (profile visits, follow conversion, and link clicks), we frame them as analytical expectations rather than confirmatory hypotheses. This stance is consistent with a cross-sectional associative design and the use of public platform metrics as proxies.

3. Materials and Methods

This section describes the design, the sample, the data collection, and transformation procedures, and the analytical strategy used to test associations between bio attributes and public performance metrics. The objective is to ensure transparency and replicability compatible with an observational and cross-sectional design, respecting its inferential limits.

3.1. Research Design and Methodological Rationale

The study adopts an observational, cross-sectional, and mixed-methods design to examine how the structure and semiotic-discursive resources of bios on Instagram are associated with public indicators of visibility and interactional performance of Brazilian sports journalists. The design is guided by two assumptions: (i) the bio functions as a strategic artifact of self-presentation and credential signaling; and (ii) the bio also operates as a space of performative authenticity, mobilizing vernacular registers in environments shaped by algorithmic visibility logics. To connect these assumptions to measurable evidence, a convergent-parallel mixed-methods design was adopted, integrating interpretative reading of the biographical microtext and quantification of observable attributes within the same temporal frame.

The qualitative stage uses reflexive thematic analysis to map self-presentation repertoires (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2019). The quantitative stage translates attributes into indicators and applies tests compatible with the asymmetric distributions typical of digital metrics. The adequacy between objective, technique, and design limits guides inferential quality (Tashakkori & Teddlie, 2010).

3.2. Sample and Inclusion Criteria

The sample was constructed in three stages: (i) creation of an initial seed list through online searches and consultation of media websites and social media profiles from Brazilian sports outlets, general news organizations, and digital-native sports media (n = 73); (ii) the search for these profiles on Instagram and expansion through platform recommendations and cross-profile connections (n = 541); and (iii) refinement by inclusion and exclusion criteria: profiles had to belong to Brazilian sports journalists, be public, have ≥100,000 followers, and show recent activity, defined as at least one post in the week of data collection. Private accounts, athletes, fan pages, inactive profiles, non-journalistic influencers, and journalists no longer active in sports media were excluded, resulting in a final corpus of 151 profiles.

The follower cutoff was adopted to ensure the observability of biographical signals and the analytical relevance of examining consolidated actors in the attention economy and in influence-oriented digital marketing ecosystems (De Veirman et al., 2017; Jin et al., 2019; Lou & Yuan, 2019). At the same time, this choice limits generalization to emerging journalists or smaller accounts.

The definition of “journalist” in platform environments is porous; therefore, the adopted criterion is made explicit. The adopted definition was based on self-declaration (text/profile category) and adherence to the sports field, recognizing the fluidity between journalism, entertainment, and branding on platforms (Highfield & Leaver, 2016; Leaver et al., 2020; Schützeneder & Graßl, 2024). Private profiles and profiles without the minimum necessary public data were excluded as they hindered consistent observation.

3.3. Data Collection and Automated Extraction

The data collection was conducted through web scraping due to the impracticality of manual extraction at scale and API restrictions, limiting it to public data and adopting ethical-legal precautions and damage minimization in digital research (Kozinets, 2010; Zimmer & Kinder-Kurlanda, 2017). On 16 June 2024, bios and profile metadata were extracted using the Instagram Profile Scraper (Apify), parameterized by a list of usernames and exported in .csv format. Manual validation by sampling was carried out to verify the integrity and consistency of the extracted fields (Valova et al., 2023).

The study focused on the profile layer (bio and metadata), linking it to aggregated metrics by profile derived from the project’s publication set. The analytical scope was therefore the profile dataset (bio and associated metadata). Performance metrics were used as dependent variables aggregated by profile from the set of publications collected in the project within the same time frame, recognizing that they represent proxies of interaction and do not measure intermediate mechanisms such as profile visits or link clicks.

3.4. Operationalization of Variables

The study used followers (user_followers), likes (user_likes), comments (user_comments), and engagement (user_engagement) as dependent variables, understood as public indicators of visibility and interaction performance. It is recognized that platform metrics are proxies and can be subject to scale effects and should be interpreted with caution regarding the valence and quality of interaction.

The architecture of the bio is operationalized as a set of observable signals that materialize previously discussed dimensions (

Table 1. Theoretical-operational mapping of bio variables.

Variable	Coding and Operationalization	Conceptual Anchoring
bio_character	Number of characters in the bio (0–150)	Information density under constraint; clarity vs. scannability.
bio_emojis	1 = ≥1 emoji; 0 = none	Tone and scannability cue; may signal proximity (context-dependent).
bio_mentions	1 = ≥1 @mention; 0 = none	Affiliation and routing cue; connects the profile to accounts and projects.
bio_hashtags	1 = ≥1 hashtag; 0 = none	Topic and community indexing and discoverability cue (often rare).
bio_location	1 = explicit location; 0 = none	Situated identity cue (often rare); may signal regional belonging.
bio_info	Presence: 1 = any informational cue; 0 = none. Subfields (binary): bio_info_professional, bio_info_personal, bio_info_contact, bio_info_advertising, bio_info_other_social	Credentials and contact reduce uncertainty; commercial cues may trigger skepticism; personal cues may increase proximity.
bio_exturl_presence	1 = external URL present; 0 = none	Portfolio and routing cue; may support validation but also shift attention off platform.
bio_exturl_type	URL type (only if link present): social media/website–blog/link aggregator/other (categorical; dummy-coded when needed)	Link destination signals strategic orientation (institutional portfolio vs. creator hub).

). As independent variables, the bio attributes were operationalized into four blocks: (i) informational density under constraint (bio_character); (ii) vernacular and connectivity markers (bio_emojis, bio_hashtags, bio_mentions, bio_location); (iii) informational signals (bio_info), analyzed as aggregated presence and by subfields (professional, personal, contact, advertising, and other social networks) to preserve construct validity; and (iv) connectivity through external links, treated as presence (bio_exturl_presence) and type (bio_exturl_type), operationalized by category, and when applicable, by mutually exclusive dummies. Low-prevalence variables (e.g., bio_hashtags, bio_location) were treated as exploratory, and their interpretation considered sensitivity to outliers and limitations of statistical power.

3.5. Qualitative Coding and Consistency Guarantee

A qualitative stage was conducted with reflexive thematic analysis to map patterns of self-presentation and repertoires of authority and authenticity in the microtext of the bio (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2019). The criteria for reading and categorization were anchored in the theoretical foundation and consolidated during the coding process. The analysis involved familiarization with the bios, initial coding of recurring cues, grouping of codes into broader repertoires, and refinement through discussion between the coders.

Two coders participated in the interpretative coding. Double-checking and consensus resolution were adopted as safeguards, given that part of the interpretative categories was converted into binary and ordinal indicators for quantitative analysis (Sandelowski et al., 2009; Braun & Clarke, 2019; Neuendorf, 2017; Guest et al., 2012; Saldaña, 2021).

3.6. Analysis Strategy

The quantitative analyses were conducted in R with RStudio (version 2024.04.2+764), focusing on transparency and reproducibility (Kronthaler & Zöllner, 2021). Considering the typical asymmetry of digital metrics and the distribution of biographical attributes, non-parametric procedures were favored.

The analytical strategy followed two stages. First, descriptive statistics and frequencies were produced to characterize the prevalence of bio elements and the distribution of key metrics. Second, bivariate associations between biographical attributes and dependent metrics were estimated using Spearman correlations (r_s), suitable for monotonic relationships and robust to non-normal distributions, including situations where predictors are binary (Hauke & Kossowski, 2011).

Given the number of tests, results were interpreted conservatively with attention to multiple comparisons. No formal multiple-comparison correction was applied. Rather than treating isolated p-values as confirmatory evidence, interpretation focused on direction, magnitude, theoretical plausibility, and sensitivity to prevalence constraints.

To maintain inferential consistency with the observational design and the unequal prevalence of attributes, the interpretation was deliberately conservative. The interpretation of the results considered direction, magnitude, and substantive plausibility, avoiding causal inferences from cross-sectional associations (Pearl, 2009). Two aspects of the dataset guided additional caution: (i) ceiling effects, when an attribute is almost universal (e.g., emojis), reducing variance and discriminatory power; and (ii) low prevalence of some attributes (e.g., hashtags and location), which increases sensitivity to influential cases and limits inferential stability. Scripts, codebook, and documentation of the analytical pipeline are available in a public repository at DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18266049.

3.7. Ethical Considerations and Methodological Limitations

The research exclusively used public data, with anonymization and aggregated reporting, following principles of digital research ethics and harm minimization (Zimmer & Kinder-Kurlanda, 2017). The analysis was limited to variables necessary for the study, without access to private layers of interaction.

As limitations, the following stand out: (i) the cross-sectional and “snapshot” nature of an editable object (bios can be altered); (ii) the absence of intermediate metrics directly linked to the theoretical mechanism of the bio (profile visits, conversion to follow, clicks); and (iii) the cutoff of ≥100,000 followers, which favors consolidated profiles and may limit the representativeness of emerging strategies.

4. Results

This section presents the results, examining associations between Instagram bio attributes and indicators of visibility and interaction performance. Under non-parametric assumptions and a conservative reading, prevalences and descriptives of biographical signals and bivariate associations are reported, considering that the discriminatory capacity of each attribute depends on its variance and prevalence.

4.1. Elements of Biographies and Frequency of Use

The descriptive inspection of biographies revealed an asymmetric ecology of practices, in which some resources are almost universal and others are rare. According to

Table 2. Prevalence of formal resources and informational themes in Instagram bio.

Domain	Variable	Yes, n (%)	No, n (%)
Bio features	bio_emojis	146 (96.69)	5 (3.31)
	bio_hashtags	5 (3.31)	146 (96.69)
	bio_mentions	122 (80.79)	29 (19.21)
	bio_location	7 (4.64)	144 (95.36)
	bio_exturl_presence	94 (62.25)	57 (37.75)
Informational themes	bio_info_contact	90 (59.60)	61 (40.40)
	bio_info_personal	98 (64.90)	53 (35.10)
	bio_info_professional	125 (82.78)	26 (17.22)
	bio_info_advertising	37 (24.50)	114 (75.50)
	bio_info_other_social	53 (35.10)	98 (64.90)

, emojis appeared in 96.69% of profiles (n = 146), establishing a dominant pattern of stylization and visual segmentation in the biographical microtext. This prevalence suggests that quick visual communication, pragmatics, and identity marking have become the norm of presentation in the analyzed segment.

In contrast, the use of hashtags in the biography was minimal (3.31%, n = 5). In addition to indicating that sports journalists rarely use hashtags in the fixed space of the bio, this pattern imposes inferential caution, as any associations involving hashtags were estimated from only five cases, increasing sensitivity to outliers and idiosyncratic profiles. They should therefore be interpreted as exploratory and illustrative rather than as generalizable evidence.

Mentions of other profiles appeared in 80.79% (n = 122), suggesting a widely spread strategy of relational anchoring (e.g., vehicle, project, partnership, or institutional account). Location was rarely specified (4.64%, n = 7), indicating that the geographical reference operates as a weak cue in a segment whose audience often transcends territorial boundaries. The presence of external URLs occurred in 62.25% (n = 94), indicating that the bio is also used as routing infrastructure for adjacent digital ecosystems. The external link types among these profiles were social media (43), websites/blogs (30), and link aggregators (21).

The thematic dimension of biographical content complements this structural reading: professional information was present in 82.78% (n = 125), while personal information appeared in 64.90% (n = 98). The presence of contact/commercial information (59.60%, n = 90) suggests the use of Instagram as a space for professional opportunities; advertising (24.50%, n = 37) indicates moderate integration with monetization practices; and the mention of other networks (35.10%, n = 53) suggests a multi-platform strategy in a significant portion of the sample.

Regarding the length of the biographies, high variability was observed, with values ranging from 4 to 150 characters. The average was 102.7 and the median was 111. The interquartile range was 75 to 133.5 characters. Most profiles displayed an explicit association with media outlets or organizations (71.50%, n = 108), while the remaining profiles (28.50%, n = 43) did not display such affiliation and were coded as independent. This attribute indicates visible affiliation in the profile, not contractual employment status.

This pattern indicates that a substantial proportion of profiles use a large part of the available space in the bio, suggesting an emphasis on condensing information and identity signals into a shorter microtext, although length alone does not imply better performance in the analyzed metrics.

The reflexive thematic coding complemented the descriptive mapping by identifying three recurrent repertoires of self-presentation in the bios. First, a professional-authority repertoire foregrounded roles, institutional affiliations, credentials, and contact information, presenting the journalist as a recognizable and accountable professional actor. Second, an authenticity/proximity repertoire used personal descriptors, emojis, emotional language, fandom cues, humor, or everyday references to show that the speaker is close to their audience. Third, a connectivity/commercial repertoire used links, @mentions, advertising contacts, and references to other platforms to route attention beyond the profile and position the journalist within a broader cross-platform presence. These repertoires were not mutually exclusive; numerous bios integrated professional legitimacy, personal proximity, and attention routing within the same limited textual space.

In anonymized and paraphrased form, these configurations include bios centered on professional roles and affiliations (e.g., “reporter at [media outlet]|host|commentator”), proximity-oriented bios (e.g., “sports lover|parent|opinions here”), and cross-platform routing bios (e.g., “watch more on [platform]|partnerships by email”).

From this ecology, marked simultaneously by highly prevalent normative and rare signals, one moves on to associative tests, emphasizing magnitude, direction, and robustness.

4.2. Bivariate Associations Between Bio Attributes and Performance Metrics

In this subsection, bivariate associations between biographical variables and dependent metrics are reported using Spearman (r_s) and consolidate in

Table 3. Bivariate associations between bio attributes and performance metrics.

Dependent Variables	Independent Variables	rs	p
user_followers	bio_info_personal	−0.171	0.036
	bio_location	0.147	0.072
user_likes	bio_hashtags	0.186	0.022
	bio_location	0.159	0.051
	bio_info_other_social	−0.150	0.066
user_comments	bio_hashtags	0.187	0.022
	bio_info_other_social	−0.156	0.056
	bio_location	0.145	0.075
user_engagement	bio_info_other_social	−0.165	0.043
	bio_hashtags	0.153	0.060

. Given the number of tests and the low prevalence of some attributes, the reading is deliberately conservative: in addition to p < 0.05, magnitude and direction, substantive plausibility, and expected stability given the group size were also considered.

4.2.1. Visibility: Followers (user_followers)

Among the tested attributes, only personal information in the bio showed an association with followers (r_s = −0.171; p = 0.036). The negative signal suggests that profiles that include personal information tend to have slightly smaller follower bases. This was a weak and non-causal correlation, compatible with different positioning strategies (e.g., more intimate vs. more technical) and/or confounding by unobserved factors (e.g., external notoriety, type of content, posting frequency). A weak trend was also observed for location (r_s = 0.147; p = 0.072) and for hashtags (r_s = 0.131; p = 0.110), without conventional significance. In summary, at the correlational level, static attributes of the bio explained little variation in followers, with a small negative indication linked to personal information.

4.2.2. Average Likes (user_likes)

The presence of hashtags in the bio was positively associated with average likes (r_s = 0.186; p = 0.022). Although the effect was weak, it should be interpreted as exploratory, since only five profiles used hashtags in their bio, which makes the estimate highly sensitive to influential cases. Variables close to the threshold included location (r_s = 0.159; p = 0.051) and other networks (negative: r_s = −0.150; p = 0.066), suggesting non-confirmatory trends.

4.2.3. Average Comments (user_comments)

The pattern replicates the above: hashtags in the bio were positively associated with comments (r_s = 0.187; p = 0.022), again with a weak effect and the same base limitations (small sample size). Trends close to the threshold appeared for other networks (r_s = −0.156; p = 0.056) and for location (r_s = 0.145; p = 0.075), both interpreted with caution.

4.2.4. Engagement Rate (user_engagement)

For the engagement rate, the strongest bivariate signal was the presence of other networks in the bio (r_s = −0.165; p = 0.043), with a weak and negative effect. From a non-causal perspective, this pattern is compatible with the hypothesis of attention dispersion and the fragmentation of interactions between platforms, which reduces the proportional intensity of engagement on Instagram. Hashtags approached the threshold (r_s = 0.153; p = 0.060), maintaining an exploratory nature.

4.3. Summary of the Results

In descriptive terms, the bios of Brazilian sports journalists on Instagram showed an almost universal adoption of emojis and a high incidence of mentions, frequent use of external links, and a strong presence of professional information; hashtags and location were rare. In associative terms, the results indicate small effects (|r_s| ≈ 0.15–0.19), highly conditioned by prevalence and the number of tests. The signals do not hold up as confirmatory evidence, reinforcing an exploratory interpretation compatible with indirect mechanisms.

5. Discussion

This section interprets the results considering the framework that conceives the bio as a microdiscourse of self-presentation and a signaling interface in platform ecosystems. Taken together, the findings suggest limited direct effects on the analyzed metrics, with small and cautiously interpreted associations, shifting the emphasis to patterns, plausible mechanisms, and robustness conditions, rather than isolated effects. The discussion engages with the literature, emphasizing that static signals of the profile tend to operate indirectly and are mediated by dynamic practices.

5.1. Main Findings: Standardization, Rarity, and Exploratory Signs

In the descriptive dimension, the ecology of bios is marked by strong standardization (almost universal emojis; highly prevalent mentions) and by a set of strategic signals with greater variation (external links, contact, advertising, mentions of other networks, and different types of information). In the associative dimension, the Spearman coefficients are weak (|r_s| ≈ 0.15–0.19) and should be interpreted as bivariate signals. Personal information is negatively associated with followers; hashtags in the bio appear to be associated with likes and comments, but with extremely low prevalence; and mentions of other networks are negatively associated with engagement rate, suggesting a hypothesis of attention dispersion. These associations reinforce the exploratory nature of the evidence.

5.2. Positioning Within Virality and Influence: Bios as Gateway Infrastructure

While research on virality and influence often focuses on content formats and narrative strategies, the present study highlights a complementary layer: the profile bio as a high-salience gateway that structures first impressions, signals credibility and orientation, and routes attention via links, mentions, and hashtags. The weak associations observed here are therefore informative and suggest that in a virality and influence ecosystem, many profile cues become normalized and lose discriminatory power and that the bio’s contribution may operate primarily through unobserved intermediate steps (e.g., profile visits, profile-to-follow conversion, and link clicks) and through coupling with dynamic content and algorithmic exposure.

5.3. Ceiling Effects and Normalization of Platform Vernacular

The near universality of emojis (96.69%) is a typical case of a ceiling effect. With minimal variance, the statistical capacity to detect an association with any outcome becomes limited. Therefore, the absence of an association between emojis and performance should not be interpreted as communicational irrelevance; it is more plausible that emojis have become part of the normalized vernacular of Instagram in the analyzed segment, ceasing to differentiate profiles (Gibbs et al., 2015; Highfield, 2018). In sociotechnical terms, this result is consistent with cultural convergence and platform practice mimetism, where when a feature becomes the norm in the field, its marginal contribution to variation in metrics decreases (Petre, 2024). This argument also applies to mentions, which are very prevalent. When a signal becomes a condition for profile legibility, it tends to operate as a baseline rather than as a competitive differentiator.

5.4. Authority Through Professionalization: A Necessary but Not Sufficient Signal

The high incidence of professional information (82.78%) and operational elements (contact at 59.60%; external URL at 62.25%) indicates that sports journalists use the bio as a “business card” and circulation infrastructure, consistent with approaches that emphasize the necessity of credentialing and identity consistency in platform journalism (Mellado & Hermida, 2022; Bossio, 2023). However, the absence of robust associations between these signals and followers and engagement suggests that the professional bio functions as an entry condition (reducing uncertainty: “who is this profile?”) more than as a direct performance lever.

This result also engages with the debate about metrics as proxies. Followers, likes, and comments capture aspects of visibility and interaction, but they do not directly measure mechanisms closely related to the role of the bio (e.g., profile visits and conversion to follow). Thus, it is plausible that the bio contributes to intermediate decisions, such as “following” after visiting the profile, without producing strong and immediate variation in the analyzed metrics (Cocco et al., 2023).

5.5. Personal Information: Ambiguous Authenticity and Plausible Endogeneity

The negative bivariate signal between personal information and followers is interpretively sensitive because it touches on the authority-authenticity tension. One interpretation is that greater personalness may dilute niche clarity or trigger a reading of lower technicality among part of the audience. Another interpretation, equally plausible, is endogeneity. Smaller profiles may resort to personal touch as a strategy for closeness and differentiation, making the personal more a consequence of audience size than a cause (Djafarova & Trofimenko, 2019).

In any case, the appropriate conclusion is prudent. It is a weak indication, compatible with different mechanisms, that requires models with controls (e.g., verification, post volume, notoriety outside the platform), and ideally, intermediate metrics of profile-to-follower conversion. This design does not resolve the causal meaning of the personal touch, but it does show that its presence can have strategic implications.

5.6. Hashtags and Location: Low Prevalence and Low Base Inference

Hashtags in the bio were rare (n = 5), but associated with likes and comments in bivariate analyses. Theoretically, this is compatible with the logic of indexing and discoverability, where hashtags can signal thematic belonging and connect the profile to interest flows (Al-Rawi et al., 2022; Giannoulakis et al., 2023). Even so, the reading should be strictly exploratory, given that the association was based on only five cases, increasing sensitivity to outliers and the risk of false positives. In other words, the result suggests a plausible hypothesis rather than a generalizable conclusion.

The location follows the same reasoning. The low prevalence (n = 7) and small coefficients indicate that any association may be unstable. In substantive terms, it is possible that the location is irrelevant for profiles with national reach or that it only operates in subsegments (regional coverage, specific clubs). The current design does not allow for the discrimination of these conditions. In summary, rare signals are important for future hypotheses, but they need to be treated as fragile, contextualized signals, not effects.

5.7. Other Networks and Possible Costs of Attention Dispersion

The small and negative association between mentions of other networks and user engagement is theoretically consistent with a dispersion mechanism. Explicit calls for migration can distribute interactions across different environments, reducing the proportional intensity of engagement on Instagram. The interpretation remains non-causal, but it offers a useful contribution that profiles with a multi-platform strategy may not maximize in-platform metrics, even if they gain off-platform benefits (traffic, conversion, monetization).

Without click and profile visit metrics, it is not possible to directly test whether there is compensation, e.g., less engagement on Instagram but more conversion elsewhere. Even so, the finding supports an important conceptual distinction for influencer journalism: circulation and conversion-oriented signals can have different (or even opposite) relationships with in-platform engagement metrics (Bucher & Helmond, 2018; Bossio, 2023).

A further condition concerns prior visibility outside Instagram. Many high-reach sports journalists are not necessarily Instagram-native actors, i.e., their recognition may derive from television, radio, newspapers, podcasts, YouTube, or other social media platforms. In such cases, the bio consolidates, organizes, and routes attention to an already recognizable professional identity, which reinforces the interpretation of the bio as signaling infrastructure, not an independent source of engagement.

5.8. Theoretical, Methodological, and Practical Implications

In theoretical implications, the study reinforces the bio as an infrastructure for signaling and impression management but suggests that in sports journalism, many biographical signals operate as a normative baseline. This alters the theoretical focus from biological attributes as direct determinants to biology as a conduit, whose efficacy relies on mediations via content, exposure, and routines.

Methodologically, two points stand out. The combination of ceiling effects and low base shows that bivariate analyses need to be interpreted with an emphasis on magnitude and robustness, not just on p-values, and that the future agenda should include intermediate metrics (profile visits, follow conversion, clicks) closer to the theoretical mechanism of the bio.

In practical terms, the strictly derived practical implications indicate that for sports journalists, the results suggest that (i) following vernacular conventions (e.g., emojis) is standard but does not differentiate performance; (ii) rare signals (e.g., hashtags) may be associated with interaction but with insufficient evidence for prescriptive recommendation; and (iii) promoting other networks in the bio may be related to lower proportional engagement on Instagram, although this may reflect a conversion strategy outside the platform.

5.9. Limitations and Future Agenda

The limitations arise from the observational and cross-sectional design in which associations do not imply causality and from the editable nature of the bio, which can change over time. Moreover, the metrics used are public proxies and do not capture intermediate mechanisms closer to the theoretical function of the bio (e.g., profile visits, conversion to follow, and link clicks). Finally, the low prevalence of some attributes reduces inferential stability and requires a conservative reading of bivariate signals.

Future research can advance in five directions: (i) adopting longitudinal designs to track how journalists adjust their bios over time in response to platform changes, algorithmic trends, career transitions, or major sporting events; (ii) incorporating funnel metrics, such as profile impressions, profile visits, profile-to-follow conversion, link clicks, and click-through rates, to test more directly whether bios operate as gateway mechanisms; (iii) employing multivariate models with contextual controls tailored to the scale and distribution of each outcome (e.g., verification, post volume, content type); (iv) expanding the scope to other journalistic segments and platforms, testing generality; and (v) refining the operationalization of informational and commercial signals (e.g., separating credentialing from monetization/cross-platform) to increase construct validity and reduce interpretive ambiguity. Future studies could also combine profile analysis with interviews to examine how sports journalists understand bio strategy, organizational constraints, and cross-platform personal branding.

6. Conclusions

This study investigated to what extent the observable architecture of Brazilian sports journalists’ Instagram biographies is associated with visibility and interaction performance. The research question was answered by showing that Instagram bio attributes are associated only weakly and selectively with public visibility and interaction metrics. Rather than functioning as direct performance drivers, bios appear to operate primarily as signaling infrastructure whose effects are likely indirect and mediated by content practices and platform exposure. Starting from the bio as a microdiscourse of self-presentation under platform constraints and as a signaling interface, the article articulated impression management, signaling theory, and platform vernacularity to interpret how short and highly salient signals can reduce uncertainty and organize audience predispositions to follow and interact.

The descriptive results show a biographical ecology characterized by standardization and strategic heterogeneity. On the one hand, vernacular resources like emojis are almost universal, and mentions are highly prevalent, suggesting that a significant part of the biographical repertoire functions as a field norm, and therefore has low discriminatory power. On the other hand, elements such as external links, contact/commercials, advertising, and mentions of other networks reveal that the bio is also an infrastructure for professional operability and cross-platform circulation, reflecting multiple objectives, such as credentialing, networking, monetization, and traffic routing, in a static layer of first contact.

In the inferential plane, the bivariate associations between bio attributes and performance metrics were small and non-confirmatory. Even so, exploratory signals with heuristic value emerged: (i) personal information in the bio showed a weak negative association with followers; (ii) hashtags in the bio were associated with likes and comments but with low prevalence (small sample size); and (iii) mentions of other networks were negatively associated with engagement rate, consistent with the hypothesis of attention dispersion across platforms. Taken together, these results reinforce the interpretation that the bio tends to operate less as a direct driver of engagement and more as an identity framing device, whose effects are likely indirect and mediated by content practices, network dynamics, and algorithmic exposure.

The contribution of the article is threefold. Theoretically, it consolidates the bio as a relevant analytical object for influencer journalism, showing that self-presentation signals can function as a normative baseline and therefore have limited direct effects on behavioral metrics. Methodologically, it demonstrates the usefulness of operationalizing biographical attributes into measurable variables and applying a rigorous reading based on magnitude, prevalence, and multiple testing control. Empirically, it offers systematic evidence on a context still under-represented in the international literature, Brazilian sports journalism, contributing to future comparisons between cultural and sociotechnical ecosystems.

The limitations of the study arise from the cross-sectional design and the mutable nature of the object, the absence of intermediate metrics (profile visits, conversion to follow, clicks), and the low prevalence of some attributes, which restricts inferential stability. These limitations point to a clear agenda: future studies should integrate funnel metrics such as visit/follow and click/conversion; employ multivariate models with context controls (e.g., post volume, verification, and content type); and refine the decomposition of informational and commercial signals to separate credentialing from monetization with greater construct validity.

Thus, it is concluded that in platform sports journalism, the Instagram bio functions as a necessary but not sufficient infrastructure for identity signaling. It supports professional coherence, legibility, uncertainty reduction, and first-contact credibility, but it does not operate as a primary determinant of engagement; when associations appear, they are small, contingent, and likely mediated by content practices, audience dynamics, and algorithmic exposure that exceed the static profile.