What do we actually want from social media content? And what makes it good or bad?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.
I take to social media and entertainment by applying the theory of “you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with”, if I don’t like it, it doesn’t speak to me or it somehow gives me the ick, I throw it in the metaphorical bin. I don’t want it seeping into the “average”.
Yes I am that person who half way through a movie or TV show will say, “nope not for me” and just stop watching it. I’m perfectly ok with not knowing how it ends or not completing it. My time is more valuable than the satisfaction of completion (not good for an ultramarathon runner!)
I’m much harsher with long form media like podcasts and YouTube videos. Admittedly sometimes I just don’t have the energy to get past the intro of the Some Work, All Play podcast (I mean, they are a lot) and if the audio of any podcast is terrible, it doesn’t matter how much I want to listen to the content or guest, I’m not doing it.
The cliche of pillars of social media content are annoyingly true. I want content that is inspirational, relatable, educational or entertainment. If your ad, paid promotion or partnership does this, then great I’m on board with that too!
Exhibit A: A Hoka ad with Jim explaining the difference between “a sit” and “a lie down”
I started this newsletter because I wanted to share some of the absolute gems that were created in the trail and ultra running space.
But like all gems and shiny things, finding the gems requires digging through a lot of shit, in this case influencers and advertising.
This has been the challenge this week, post UTMB.
Last week there wasn’t much to highlight, it all felt like a flash mob of brands screaming “pick me, choose me, love me”.
The race recaps slowly dripped out over the course of the week, mostly filled with thank you’s and gratitude’s and photos I’d already seen elsewhere.
Ruth Croft’s stuck out, especially as it is so far away for her friends and family to travel to a race in Europe.
As someone who has felt gaslit by so many experts and medical professionals in the past, Sabrina Stanley’s one hit home especially in driving home the important of advocating for yourself and shopping around if it doesn’t feel right.
Like many of us watching from home on the livestream, I found myself in the very privileged position of sitting on the couch shuffling my proverbial stones.
Which of course was extremely triggering and confusing for someone like me sitting of the very uncomfortable love me/hate me UTMB fence.
So it was nice to see some content coming out highlighting what the race is like for “normal” runners, or as UTMB would put it “amateur” or “regular” runners. How good is google translate?
I loved this piece from Outside. As good as a piece of writing it is, I could have loved to have seen a movie instead.
Aussie runner Sion Cousins made his way into the big dance with stones collected from UTA and UTK here in Australia. His video sent shockwaves through my little introverted “I hate people” body when I saw the start line but I was reassured by parts later in the video when the crowd seemed to disperse a little. And my god, his wife needs a medal! No wonder the elites complain about not getting car passes and having their crew catch the “normal people” buses. What an ordeal!
His video (plus the follow up below) really hit home the main reason I don’t want to run UTMB, it’s not because of the corporate corruption, it’s the volume of people.
I hadn’t heard of Jason Pooley before but the YouTube algorithm did me a massive solid when it served this one up. I did a bit of internet sloughing and it turns out he is an incredibly talented digital artist and graphic designer. Maybe that’s where he gets his incredible video editing and story telling skills from.
The focus on adaptive athletes at UTMB this year was also really cool. They posted some great reels. I would love to see some longer form content. These people are legends.
Outside of UTMB, the Leadville of it all is still popping up in my feed. Admittedly I’ve never paid much attention to Leadville but now I feel like I can’t get away from it, or David Roche. (if you listen to SWAP podcast at the moment you could use it as a drinking game, take a shot every time David says Leadville!). But it would be remiss of me to not mention this little video by Allie Ostrander.
She’s a solid runner and a really successful content creator. David is her coach and his is quite a well thought out and beautiful little video put together by her.
And since we are now replaying Hoka x Jim’s greatest hits in the spirit of good content, here is this.
Enjoy your week folks. If you have found any other cool non elite UTMB content, send it over.
What’s up for me? Well I have Taupo 100k in about 4 weeks time. Gotta get my Western States qualifier.