4 Key Stats on Social Media & Content Creation - Pinkbike State of the Sport Survey
Welcome to the 2021 Pinkbike State of the Sport Survey. This anonymous survey is designed to help shed light on key issues affecting the professional field and elite competition. We surveyed the best riders in the world to hear their thoughts, ideas, concerns, and criticisms on mountain biking in 2021. We invited any rider who had finished in the Top 40 overall of their chosen discipline in either of the previous two seasons in either XC, enduro, downhill, or slopestyle & freeride, as well as notable non-competition riders and highly ranked juniors. We then published them in full and publicly. To read the introduction to the survey click here, and to see all the other currently published SOTS articles click here.
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Riders use a variety of social media platforms, but primarily Instagram
The obvious stuff: Riders mostly use Instagram (100% of riders surveyed), followed by Facebook (73%), then Youtube with a surprising-to-me 35% of riders. The others worth mentioning are Strava (25%), TikTok (12%), and Twitter (10%).
In terms of other media projects, short edits are by far the most common form of content creation with 87% of riders surveyed, followed by podcasts (26%) and a tie at 19% for both vlogging and parts in feature-length films.
Riders don't just use social media because they are contracted to
86% of riders said they use social media to make themselves more valuable to sponsors. It is important to note, however, that since riders could submit multiple answers, this being the most common answer does not necessarily mean it is the primary motivation for all the riders surveyed.
Following value to sponsors, the next most popular answer was ‘to make content with and for my fans’ with 69% of respondents, followed by ‘to use my influence in the mountain biking community' (43%), ‘I’m contracted to do so (36%), and ‘I like to be able to speak directly to my fans’ (29%). A handful of one-off responses were along the lines of ‘I genuinely enjoy it.’ A bit more than half of the riders surveyed responded either ‘agree’ (42%) or ‘strongly agree’ (11%) with the statement ‘I enjoy making content for social media.’ An additional 36% answered neutrally, leaving 11% on the negative side.
These responses speak to a type of win-win situation for many riders and sponsors – social media is, of course, a valuable marketing tool for companies who sponsor athletes, but it’s also a useful tool for athletes to build their own brands and intentionally affect how they present themselves to the bike world. Still, the broad utility of social media for riders and companies alike puts pressure on riders to compete in the ever-engaged attention economy in ways that just didn’t happen before social media emerged as a marketing tool.
Riders had to produce more content due to COVID-19
It is pretty well-established now that content creation has become increasingly important during COVID-19, with 70% of riders responding positively to the statement ‘I have had to create more content because of the effects of COVID-19 on the mountain bike industry’ and only 11% of riders responding negatively.
Social media has a negative impact on nearly 50% of riders' mental health
The most interesting statistic in the survey, for me, is that 48% of riders surveyed responded either ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ to the statement ‘social media has a negative impact on my mental health.’ And yet, 100% use social media and are more or less obligated to do so.
Voices from all over the industry have both lamented and applauded social media for its impacts on our sport. Instagram does a great job of turning bike rides into photoshoots, but also joy into anxiety. Either way, it's clearly one of the most effective marketing tools that exists in the mountain biking world. There's a clear gender distinction in the responses too with 58.44% of women acknowledging that negative impact to some extent vs 40.83% men, perhaps reflective of the additional pressures women face when posting on social media. We'll dig into the women's specific survey section in some upcoming articles.
Professional racing has always included trade-offs and this may become an increasingly significant one as companies rely more and more on online marketing.
Riders use a variety of social media platforms, but primarily Instagram
The obvious stuff: Riders mostly use Instagram (100% of riders surveyed), followed by Facebook (73%), then Youtube with a surprising-to-me 35% of riders. The others worth mentioning are Strava (25%), TikTok (12%), and Twitter (10%).
In terms of other media projects, short edits are by far the most common form of content creation with 87% of riders surveyed, followed by podcasts (26%) and a tie at 19% for both vlogging and parts in feature-length films.
Riders don't just use social media because they are contracted to
86% of riders said they use social media to make themselves more valuable to sponsors. It is important to note, however, that since riders could submit multiple answers, this being the most common answer does not necessarily mean it is the primary motivation for all the riders surveyed.
Following value to sponsors, the next most popular answer was ‘to make content with and for my fans’ with 69% of respondents, followed by ‘to use my influence in the mountain biking community' (43%), ‘I’m contracted to do so (36%), and ‘I like to be able to speak directly to my fans’ (29%). A handful of one-off responses were along the lines of ‘I genuinely enjoy it.’ A bit more than half of the riders surveyed responded either ‘agree’ (42%) or ‘strongly agree’ (11%) with the statement ‘I enjoy making content for social media.’ An additional 36% answered neutrally, leaving 11% on the negative side.
These responses speak to a type of win-win situation for many riders and sponsors – social media is, of course, a valuable marketing tool for companies who sponsor athletes, but it’s also a useful tool for athletes to build their own brands and intentionally affect how they present themselves to the bike world. Still, the broad utility of social media for riders and companies alike puts pressure on riders to compete in the ever-engaged attention economy in ways that just didn’t happen before social media emerged as a marketing tool.
Riders had to produce more content due to COVID-19
It is pretty well-established now that content creation has become increasingly important during COVID-19, with 70% of riders responding positively to the statement ‘I have had to create more content because of the effects of COVID-19 on the mountain bike industry’ and only 11% of riders responding negatively.
Social media has a negative impact on nearly 50% of riders' mental health
The most interesting statistic in the survey, for me, is that 48% of riders surveyed responded either ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ to the statement ‘social media has a negative impact on my mental health.’ And yet, 100% use social media and are more or less obligated to do so.
Voices from all over the industry have both lamented and applauded social media for its impacts on our sport. Instagram does a great job of turning bike rides into photoshoots, but also joy into anxiety. Either way, it's clearly one of the most effective marketing tools that exists in the mountain biking world. There's a clear gender distinction in the responses too with 58.44% of women acknowledging that negative impact to some extent vs 40.83% men, perhaps reflective of the additional pressures women face when posting on social media. We'll dig into the women's specific survey section in some upcoming articles.
Professional racing has always included trade-offs and this may become an increasingly significant one as companies rely more and more on online marketing.
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......and that’s the reason this hombre doesn’t use it. Nope.
DCA #youcantwin
Weak. You can't categorize me. Your narrow-minded SJW blinders don't allow you actually see me - I'm over here - FAR to your Left.
You mention me in another comment, but are afraid to go toe-to-toe. At least you can see that #youcantwin
My new tues is ariving soon, maybe you think that horseshoe theory means my politics have gone left enough to become right again?
Any way let's hear it for the red brown alliance of national bolshiviekism
BTW I hate how huge yt got with its deliberate "cool" marketing while other long standing German d2c brands are kind of forgotten, so I'm not trying to convince anyone to buy a yt. I don't like the brand, even though I love the looks of their bikes. Just so it's out there.
It’s an interesting dynamic of balancing what you love and the business that you’ve made of you’re own persona
Sponsorship has always been about promotion, its always about marketing, like anyone the employs someone, they invest in you and you bring a return on that investment, they aint paying you to hide in the woods on secret trails with ya mates all day!!
if you are a comp rider, just turning up to the race/event aint enough, you got to show yourself, meet people, interact with fans etc etc, social media or IRL, all the same, all part of the job
Forced (either by contract or by circumstance) to do something that you don't enjoy and that you would even say has a negative influence on your mental health for less than a basic wage. What a grim perspective. Social media hype culture needs to die - and right quick.
@BenTheSwabian you're not wrong, but it's relatively tame in that the "sport" is dangerous in many ways and one might argue that being able to have some sort of career on social media is WAY better than the previous staus quo even though there are strong downsides.
I mean, there are awesome athletes that never made it to the very top results and would have been chewed up and spit out by the sport that can now make a living ... not perfect but it's not black and white.
Mathieu van der poel needs an onlyfans lol
Those $$$/view estimates are for youtubers who work in big markets like technology, clothing, cosmetics, etc. The reach of those individual views is greater because a higher percentage of people who view those ads will have friends and family who also buy technology, clothing, cosmetics. That isn't true for the bike industry. Us MTB nerds hang out with other MTB nerds, and we all watch the same stuff. It doesn't seem likely that my coworkers who don't ride are gonna start buying Maxxis tires because I watched a youtube video.
A number of youtubers have posted breakdowns of their income and most that I have seen say that the ad revenue directly only accounts for around 1/4 to 1/2 of their total income.
Overall the total is likely in that region.
Sam Pilgrim just bought a massive house within commuting distance of London off the back of youtube.
I bet the riders that experienced mental issues for social media were obligated to post to social media. I'd like to see if there is a strong correlation in the responses.
The number of worthless wheelie and jump tutorials is hilarious.
"A brand ambassador (sometimes also called a corporate ambassador) is a person who is employed by an organization or company to represent a brand in a positive light, and by doing so, help to increase brand awareness and sales. The brand ambassador is meant to embody the corporate identity in appearance, demeanor, values and ethics.[1] The key element of brand ambassadors is their ability to use promotional strategies that will strengthen the customer-product-service relationship and influence a large audience to buy and consume more."
IMO the most effective route is social media interaction. I follow a photography ambassador on Instagram, and she ALWAYS will interact with her followers (and it's not even the camera brand I use lol).
This matters to me.
www.instagram.com/p/CN70_UFhYmQ
Your Gramed if you do
Or Gramed if you don’t