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Growing Gripsport through social media.


Jared Goguen

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8 hours ago, Jared Goguen said:

With all the latest talk of different ways to grow I thought I would add to the discussion some with this.

Unless you have no cellphone, and only access the internet and Gripboard from a library you have no excuse to not be sharing your training, and world of grip on different social media outlets.

So before I get started into this I think I would like to share some background on how I feel that I'm qualified to speak on this and then some numbers.

It feels like ages ago but at one time my soul income was google adsence and I made a fair amount from my travel vlogging Youtube channel, so I guess I could say that Youtube, talking, and social media was my career.

For those of you that don't know what a hashtag is, anytime your on Instagram or Twitter and you put a # before a work like #grip or #gripsport that will then make that a searchable term.

Lets start by looking at the world of grip outside of the Gripboard.

Instagram hashtag stats:

#grip - 293,732 posts

#gripsport - 1,319 posts

#gripstrength - 25,818 posts

#gripper - 6,421 posts

#grippers - 2,867 posts

#ironmind - 10,225 posts

Now obviously no where near 100% of those post are grip related how we think of it but even if 50% of them are that's still 170,191 grip related posts that are not on the gripboard.

https://www.reddit.com/r/GripTraining

We have a very active user base with 19,593 readers, a high percentage of which are not here on the gripboard. We run monthly contests and have a great turn out with them.

Here is our lasted traffic data by month.

traffic by month
date uniques pageviews  
May 8,007 31,217
 
 
April 9,821 35,004
 
 
March 11,226 40,074
 
 
February 12,564 42,221
 
 
January 10,525 37,677
 
 
December 9,487 31,555
 
 
November 11,802 37,137
 
 
October 28,444 63,454
 
 
September 9,654 36,393
 
 
August 12,670 43,613
 
 
July 10,848 41,668
 
 
June 12,725 44,973
 

 

So I think I have made my point now that there is a huge untapped world of grip outside of the gripboard so I won't go into some of the other statistical data on things like twitter.

I would like to see every single active user here posting on Reddit, Instagram and Youtube.

How to make a good Youtube video:

Its pretty simple. You need good lighting, behind the camera aimed at you, you need to provide context for what your showing or doing, that 300lb axle deadlift, or closing a 170lb gripper means nothing to someone outside of the world of grip and even to someone on the edges of it, so you could talk about how other people in your weight class and how they stack up against that...etc. Making a video is telling a story and you need a beginning middle and end for it to make sense to anyone. Here is a short list of ideas for Youtube videos that everyone here could make as way to help promote the world of grip.

  1. Gym Tour video.
  2. New grip item unboxing.
  3. Video training logs with weekly updates.
  4. Contest prep videos to show people that have never gone to a comp what it would be like.
  5. PR's with some contest as to what you had to do to get there.
  6. Share your own personal journey which led you into gripsport.
  7. Answer people questions on video when they get left in your comments section.
  8. Promote other peoples channels that are fellow gripsters.
  9. Those of you who have been around along time could share some of the history of this sport that new folks wouldn't know about.
  10. Review some of the products you already own.
  11. Make 'how to' videos.
  12. Feel like your an expert at a certain lift? Make a video about it.

I could keep going.

My overall point here is that there's a lot that could be done every single day by each one of us along with the big idea stuff for future of the sport.

I personally put up a grip related video a week on Youtube and post at least three grip related things on Instagram.

     Just like Jared stated, I also look at Reddit Grip Training every day just like Gripboard.   Also noticed many members from Gripboard also posting on Reddit.  Everything helps spread the word. 

     As a personal note,really enjoy Jared's postings and Videos.  His recent 40# Hex lift was inspiring.  (I am now lifting 35# Hex - only 5 more lb. to go to tie him) 

 

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17 minutes ago, Gary Gray said:

     Just like Jared stated, I also look at Reddit Grip Training every day just like Gripboard.   Also noticed many members from Gripboard also posting on Reddit.  Everything helps spread the word. 

     As a personal note,really enjoy Jared's postings and Videos.  His recent 40# Hex lift was inspiring.  (I am now lifting 35# Hex - only 5 more lb. to go to tie him) 

 

I'm glad your over here as well now buddy.

Before you know it 40lb blocks will be a warm up.

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2 hours ago, KapMan said:

Sure, let me just post a pic of me holding a dumbbell on instagram, and then snapchat about said pic. Then message my gym rat friends on kik, post inspirational quotes on twitter, periscope a workout , I'll yik yak in between sets too. Lemme pinterest my pre workout meal, then we can all congregate on the whatsapp! For my Chinese followers I'll get on Wechat, and link my latest PR on vine. I'll blog about how hot it is my gym on tumblr with a picture of a steamy sauna, then sign up for linkedin for no reason. Maybe I'll hop on tinder and find the perfect bicep buddy. 

 

 

That fact that you knew all that kinda proves Gil's point. Just sayin.

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6 minutes ago, JHenze646 said:

That fact that you knew all that kinda proves Gil's point. Just sayin.

I googled it. Proves nothing :D

I already knew about FB, Instagram, Periscope and twitter. Everything else was just to make a point.

Edited by KapMan
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6 hours ago, floyd43 said:

Have to get through to coaches, I coach university football, we stress it in our strength programs.  It is a huge part of football and rugby, yet not emphasized in programming.

This is the example I use the most when stressing grip strength to ball players, all the texas player had to do was pull crabtree out of bounds and Texas wins the Big 12

 

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15 hours ago, KapMan said:
15 hours ago, KapMan said:

I googled it. Proves nothing :D

I already knew about FB, Instagram, Periscope and twitter. Everything else was just to make a point.

You're on Instagram now, so I'm happy. Lol.

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As far as time it takes to do these things, I usually do my Facebook and Instagram posts while I'm in the toilet.  Almost nothing is during a workout, so I haven't seen much of a disruption at all.

The exception is answering customer and client questions, like @JHenze646 mentioned.

If you don't want to be part of what @Jared Goguen is suggesting, fine.  You're probably not a great rep for the sport anyway, as @KapMan mentioned, regarding his abrasive personality.

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12 hours ago, Squeezus said:

 

Not as bad as I thought would be. Trying new things.

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11 hours ago, Jedd Johnson said:

As far as time it takes to do these things, I usually do my Facebook and Instagram posts while I'm in the toilet.  Almost nothing is during a workout, so I haven't seen much of a disruption at all.

The exception is answering customer and client questions, like @JHenze646 mentioned.

If you don't want to be part of what @Jared Goguen is suggesting, fine.  You're probably not a great rep for the sport anyway, as @KapMan mentioned, regarding his abrasive personality.

Too late, now you have to deal with my abrasive no rep for the sport anyway ass on instagram, perisope, twitter, kik, snapchat and googly moogly plus. I'm like aids.You'll never get rid of me.

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Trust me when I say this. The novelty of posting everything will wear off soon. Eventually it will be posting just PRs. Then it will be to just ask and answer questions. 

 

IMO posting what seems to be the impossible gets more attention than posting everything. Guys need to pick and choose what you post And you what you post should be big.  Otherwise things get boring and stale. 

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@Jared Goguen 

My personal opinions are these for your video ideas:  please keep in mind these are my opinions.  i speak for me.  I feel like the idea is to capture the audience's attention.  and make them say, thats easy i can do that, then when they try they cant.  and thats what sparks the interest, it did for me.

  1. Gym Tour video- boring to me i wanna see you make equipment or homemade stuff
  2. New grip item unboxing. nah still boring, lets see reviews
  3. Video training logs with weekly updates. not for me, if you get requests, cool but i wouldnt request it
  4. Contest prep videos to show people that have never gone to a comp what it would be like.- Perfect
  5. PR's with some contest as to what you had to do to get there.- just show PR, otherwise the video gets too long
  6. Share your own personal journey which led you into gripsport.- nah we are a weird bunch of people and we all have our demons/struggles.  thats something you tell a best friend not the entire world
  7. Answer people questions on video when they get left in your comments section- perfect
  8. Promote other peoples channels that are fellow gripsters-that could work as long as they have a good rep with the community
  9. Those of you who have been around along time could share some of the history of this sport that new folks wouldn't know about- thats a grey area since there is so much bad blood and varied opinions with lack of video evidence.
  10. Review some of the products you already own- Perfect
  11. Make 'how to' videos-perfect if it pertains to equipment (you are very handy and make some neat stuff)
  12. Feel like your an expert at a certain lift? Make a video about it.  the word expert is very subjective. lift videos should be made by those certified and are world class.
Edited by EJ Livesey
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@EJ Livesey

You make some good points here, I was just trying to brainstorm some stuff with that list and think of things that I have seen that have been well received.

I'm glad you liked some of the ideas. I think doing some of these at least will extend the sports outreach some.

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Just now, Jared Goguen said:

@EJ Livesey

You make some good points here, I was just trying to brainstorm some stuff with that list and think of things that I have seen that have been well received.

I'm glad you liked some of the ideas. I think doing some of these at least will extend the sports outreach some.

I agree a 100%.  It needs to grow for sure.  But why is arm wrestling, power lifting, mma and worlds strongest man so popular?  It goes back to our primal instincts to be the strongest, toughest and biggest alpha male.  Hell we start to mimic these guys as kids.  Grip sport doesnt do that, so we need to appeal to the masses.  how do we do that?  by doing what society deems impossible.  we look at other alpha male sports and say "damn that guy is tough or that guy strong", has anyone ever said that for grip?  Nope, but why not?  Society doesnt understand how hard this really is.  

 

 

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5 hours ago, EJ Livesey said:

 we look at other alpha male sports and say "damn that guy is tough or that guy strong", has anyone ever said that for grip?  Nope, but why not?  Society doesnt understand how hard this really is.  

I think events could be made to look as hard as they actually are.

How about a Hercules Hold with 2.5" Crushers perhaps? That would be fun to watch.

A setup like this would be easy to build.

 

 

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Haha nice to see a video of a dutch atlete here. I have trained once at the location of raw power baarn, they have lots of strongman stuff. 
 

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2 hours ago, Jared Goguen said:

I think events could be made to look as hard as they actually are.

How about a Hercules Hold with 2.5" Crushers perhaps? That would be fun to watch.

A setup like this would be easy to build.

 

 

That's a very nice setup! You could if you had it use two adjustable yokes and a longer chain to achieve this as well. I think this would be a fun away to train or contest grip. It used to be in the WSM and they used to have holds using hammers, or big swords as well.

Edited by KapMan
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8 hours ago, EJ Livesey said:

Trust me when I say this. The novelty of posting everything will wear off soon. Eventually it will be posting just PRs. Then it will be to just ask and answer questions. 

 

IMO posting what seems to be the impossible gets more attention than posting everything. Guys need to pick and choose what you post And you what you post should be big.  Otherwise things get boring and stale. 

Exactly!

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On 30/05/2016 at 6:30 AM, EJ Livesey said:

Grip sport doesnt do that, so we need to appeal to the masses.  how do we do that?  by doing what society deems impossible.  we look at other alpha male sports and say "damn that guy is tough or that guy strong", has anyone ever said that for grip?  Nope, but why not?  Society doesn't understand how hard this really is.  

^ I agree with this!!

When I was scrolling through facebook a while back,  I saw a post that got my attention ... now to me watching bending video's are great (seeing someone mangle metal is awesome) but without either attempting or understanding what is required makes it much more difficult for it to come across. The image sums up what it takes to move the red nail 20 degrees. IMO this helps understand the requirements much better as people can compare with what it takes to perform the feat.

Like many have said, it's appealing to the masses to make them understand what it takes to do this.

RN.jpg

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The masses want to see a spectacle. The feat that LOOKS harder will get a ton more interests than another feat that is twice as hard but not visibly as incredible to watch. 

I've posted a lot of content on YouTube. Most of it related Indian Clubs. It becomes telling when you start looking at video stats which ones do better than others. 

Pick and choose which videos you post where. if you're going for a certain amount of impact with a larger more general audience then it needs to be over the top. 

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On 5/31/2016 at 11:08 AM, Sam Radford said:

^ I agree with this!!

When I was scrolling through facebook a while back,  I saw a post that got my attention ... now to me watching bending video's are great (seeing someone mangle metal is awesome) but without either attempting or understanding what is required makes it much more difficult for it to come across. The image sums up what it takes to move the red nail 20 degrees. IMO this helps understand the requirements much better as people can compare with what it takes to perform the feat.

Like many have said, it's appealing to the masses to make them understand what it takes to do this.

RN.jpg

Eric has done this for years! So someone should post it too how much pressure will it take to bend metal

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I just made my 1st grip vid (actually my 1st ever youtube vid) and plan to do more. Good points by Jared. I'd add that you can also do a lot in post-production to help video quality, from cleaning up the audio to adding a decent youtube thumbnail. I can see how this could become addicting and fun. Of course how much you put out there and the effort you put in is up to you but IMO every bit helps.

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1 hour ago, KapMan said:

@Jared Goguen What program do you use for your videos? I'm thinking of upping my quality. Maybe even add a intro with graphics.

I use Openshot, its free and easy.

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I created a website that attempts to bring all the grip social media posts and info on comps/certs together.

 

On the home page is a social media program that gathers the latest "grip" posts from Facebook, YouTube and Instagram and puts it into one place.

When Posting on Facebook/Instagram, just hashtag it with #GripSport or #GripMania and the app will find your post and update itself. 

 

I Also put up links for leaderboards/comps.

Still a work in progress, plan on adding things to it over time.

 

Website is http://www.gripmania.com

 

oh.. and my instagram is https://www.instagram.com/brooklynsilverback/?hl=en

 

Edited by silverbackgrip
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Welcome back Silverback!!

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