Story by Hunter Sales | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
Social media has changed almost every aspect of our lives, from the way we interact with others, to the way products are marketed, and even to the way we consume our news. To many anglers’ dismay, even professional bass fishing has not been able to avoid the social media revolution. Today, anglers rely on social media to gain information and showcase their brand. Today we will talk about the truth behind the curtains of industry conversations and how social media has impacted it.
It’s interesting for today’s youth anglers to imagine bass fishing without social media. Nearly every time that I can remember hearing about someone winning a major tournament, I have seen the news on social media first. This has been a major shift.
Before social media, unless you attended a weigh-in, the first place you might have gotten the tournament news was in a print magazine that reached your mailbox months later. Now, there is much more opportunity for anglers to share insight around their successful days on the water — even without getting stage or print coverage. This has spread out marketing dollars between anglers, making it harder for any individual to make the same level of income as before.
The bright side is that young anglers can quickly develop an audience. While the dollars are more spread out, it provides a degree of equity as those individuals who can provide valuable information will be paid for it, while those who cannot, will not.
Nearly every endemic sponsor within the industry will advise anglers to create social media accounts on every platform—Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. To me, the issue lies in the return you see from your efforts here. While content creators with approximately 5,000 followers in most industries receive around $100 per Instagram post and similar amounts across other platforms, endemic sponsors in the industry are slow to monetize anglers until they become a macro-scale creator. This is understandable though, as it is normal to have to spend time and energy to grow your business before reaping the rewards.
In the early stages of an angler’s career, I would advise looking for partnerships that provide compensation based on the sales you can generate. This can be one of the only ways to receive adequate compensation for the impressions you create. One of the reasons it can be so hard to receive compensation is the number of anglers willing to do the same creation for less money. It’s much cheaper for companies to provide free product to 10 anglers in exchange for 100,000 cumulative views versus paying one large-scale influencer to generate these views. No one is at fault for this. It’s just the nature of the beast.
My advice to aspiring anglers is to not be afraid to start developing your social media brand. You must figure out where you can provide value in a way that separates yourself from others. It takes time and lots of it to see your platforms grow to the point of receiving compensation. However, it is crucial to have these platforms established before you find yourself in need of sponsorships to support your fishing career. It is too late to start building these platforms once you’re already fishing professionally. Like it or not, social media is how anglers provide value in today’s world. Learn to enjoy teaching other people the sport that we love, and we’ll all grow together!
Hunter Sales – Angler Profile
