Engagement creates community: NWSL star Alana Cook is championing women’s soccer through social media

Engagement creates community: NWSL star Alana Cook is championing women's soccer through social media

From her position as a central defender for the Kansas City Current, Alana Cook has the whole field in front of her. It's a prime vantage point for seeing the sublime skill and captivating creativity of the NWSL, the top women's professional soccer league in the world.

"I have a front row seat to watch everyone else do the creative things - I just give the ball to the real creators and let them go wild," Cook says with a laugh.

Cook's job as a center back is to be steady, smart, and strong - to shut down the opponent's attack rather than be an overly creative player herself. So while she can appreciate the creativity of her teammates, and the game as a whole, the American defender likes to express her own creativity in different ways - on and off the pitch.

Cook has always had a variety of interests outside of soccer, such as cooking, crochet, and fashion, which help maintain her mental wellbeing and give her a competitive edge. Now, as a 2024 Adobe Creative Ambassador, Cook is sharing her creative endeavors on social media, connecting with fans, building her personal brand, and helping to grow women's soccer.

Social media and the growth of women's soccer

Globally, women's soccer is growing unlike any other sport in the world, and its popularity in America is skyrocketing. That growth recently has been driven by the success of the NWSL, which has shattered league records for attendance, sponsorship, and broadcast contracts, and the US women's national soccer team that earned its fifth gold medal - four more than any other nation - at the Paris Summer Olympics.

Social media is a potent force for increasing visibility and raising the profile of women's sports, particularly given the traditional lack of mainstream media coverage. Visually compelling content shows athletes' extraordinary physical abilities and the excitement of the game, but Cook says it also allows for connection in other meaningful ways.

"It's important that we present ourselves as soccer players, to show how we train and play, but also to show the things we do off the field," Cook says. "I see that as a way to connect and bring in new fans. It can give them inspiration, something to root for, and a reason to tune back in every week - like, 'I have this common interest with Alana Cook off the field, and that makes it even more fun to support her on the field.'"

Cook hopes that sharing her creative content - whether it's a soccer trick or crochet pattern, favorite foods or game-day fits - inspires people, entertains them, or just makes them think, "that's cool." Then, she says, "we can continue building the fan base and support."

For Cook, the appeal of using an all-in-one content editor that has generative AI capabilities natively built in like Adobe Express, isn't just that it makes creating and sharing high-quality social media content easier and faster (though she loves that it does). It's that the app enables her to express herself through her passions, to engage with people and explore new communities, and to tell a story - one that, she hopes, grows the game, especially among those that haven't always been included.

"As a Black woman in sports, I think I'm in a unique position to reach out to a demographic that has been underrepresented," Cook says. "It's the common saying, when you see it, you can believe it - and you can aspire to be it. The more I'm on social media, the more I'm public and visible, it just helps people who look like me to see that this game is for everyone."

Finding creativity, community, and crochet influencers

In the past, Cook viewed posting as more of an obligation, or something her agent would remind her to do.

"But now it's become such a fun way to connect with people, both through my own content and others'," Cook says. "I've found myself inspired by things on social media, whether that's seeing another athlete achieve something or finding a new recipe to try."

"The more I've been able to express my individual passions and creativity, the more I've made my content actually look better. What I didn't realize was the engagement I would get back. And that's been the really exciting part - it's that community. It's being able to express who you are, and also finding out who your communities are. You have people reaching out based on your interests."

For example, Cook is vegan. When she's in a new city, she'll ask her followers for recommendations on good vegan restaurants, and she's always amazed at the level of response. "That's the really cool part - we get to remove some of the barriers between us and fans, and you can actually engage with people all over the world.

It benefits me so greatly to have those interactions, to connect more organically, rather than just, 'Hey, here's a picture of me playing. Like this picture.' It's genuinely so much deeper than that. I'm really interested in the community engagement. Getting to read someone's page like a book of who they are - it just tells their story so well, and that's what Adobe Express is helping me do."

Through social media, Cook has been able to share her own creativity but also learn more from the experts. "That's the fun part when you find a new hobby," she says. "It honestly opens up this whole other world where I'm like, Oh my gosh, there are crochet influencers, I've been missing out on this my whole life!"

Anyone can create beautiful content

Cook sees a valuable connection between how Adobe Express enables anyone to produce high-quality content, and how that content can continue to fuel the growth and momentum of women's sports and the NWSL.

Previously, there might've been a picture Cook wanted to share but wasn't able to because it had something in the background she didn't like or a logo she couldn't post - or she just couldn't think of a good caption. "Now it's like, OK here's this awesome photo. I'll use the AI Generative Fill feature to get rid of this unsightly thing in the background or take out this logo, and I can use generative AI to help me create a caption."

The effortlessness of the AI functionality was immediately impressive to Cook. "Literally, you just put your idea in and it comes back with this fully fleshed out piece of content, and you don't have to understand what happened behind the scenes," she says.

"It's such an easy but comprehensive tool. I don't need a graphic designer. I don't need a lot of money to pay a content team. On my own I can produce quality content and feel really good about what I'm putting out, and hopefully people can feel really good about what they're seeing."

Bespoke templates to reflect your personality

As an Adobe Creative Ambassador, Cook developed her own customized templates to elevate her personal brand and showcase her creativity.

"On and off the field, I'm pretty laid back and relaxed, so I wanted that to be reflected in the color choices," Cook says of her design. "We ended up going with cooler colors, more muted, and pretty minimalist. That's who I am generally in life. I wanted something that was more laid back, a little bit more minimalist, but would still kind of pop and give my timeline some color."

Cook is excited to use the templates to standardize her Instagram grid and tell a consistent story from start to finish - "to give it a cohesive look and feel and make it more professional," she says. "When you think about marketing, you want a finished product, and that's what Adobe Express gives you with the templates. It allows you to put something out that looks like a finished product."

Check out Alana's custom Adobe Express templates and remix them.

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