Has the social media influencer trend ran its course?

FWIW the answers to the question in the title are the opposite of the answers to the poll which may mess w/ votes.

I don't remember specifically. I'd be willing to bet that Seth influenced me a little though, if only to reinforce what I was already thinking. I don't think I'd base an opinion or make a buying decision based solely off a media influencer's opinion. 

Social media influencers, not at all.

Watching Phil Atwill shredding on his Rage at World Cup races had everything to do with me buying a Propain though!

It'll stick around as a way to keep reminding customers that your brand/product exists. It was (grossly) overdone for a while and is settling into a more stable pattern. Athletes will have to work for it more and brands will be more selective. 

Some of what we're seeing right now is just brands cutting spending as they're getting their asses handed to them by the slowdown that inevitably followed the bike boom. Everyone saw this coming, or at least should have. Some brands prepared early, others are reacting now.

I think the days of mid level YouTubers and instagram stars is trending down.  Both got heavily diluted by the pros and the programs like dialed within the industry fully embracing the social platforms.  There is literally too much too watch whether you are the crustiest free rider, bike tech nerd, racer, or an entry level kid or adult getting introduced to the sport.

id imagine for a brand like specialized. Selling  20 at cost full bikes is more impactful, cheaper, and a better return on investment than a meager salary for the best of YouTube stars.

100% agree. 

When i went to the opening day ceremony for Berm Peak I saw more Diamondbacks in one place than i’ve seen since the days of Gunnar and Cadel and Susan on DBR.  I talked to people who had driven hours just to meet and ride with Youtubers.   It was eye opening!  We arr talking about people who(apparently) make content, which is certainly different than getting paid to be good looking and take selfies on dirt roads(or whatever it is influencers do)

I have never heard of or seen any content from the “Specialized Gravel Influencers”, but I actively unfollow and downvote any accounts with gravel/lifestyle crap in them to try to maintain even the smallest sliver of sanity.

When was it, 1998, the last time Specialized supported a full mtb team with majority American athletes racing majority American races?

The lack of support for any type of grassroots american mtb racing(except for NICA de-evolution) from the Quadrumvirate Brands is so very, very noticeable if you have been into American MTB racing over the last 30 years.

Our sport grew up with the notion of Local, Regional, National and International level professional racers- the Post-Atlanta downturn followed so quickly by -7’s triumphant fraud and subsequent takeover of the USAC BOD(and their calculated decision to eliminate the National Competition director for NORBA and defund the National Series) further eroded “normal” mtb racing, where we got to the point in 2022 where there are no Cat 1’s or Pros at many “regional championship series” in XC, but pretty people get paid real money to pretend to have adventures.

Unsure how(if) the bike industry plans to support XC racing outside of the World Cup level any more- but the Quadumvirate must be held accountable and start putting money into grassroots racing again, otherwise I will just have to continue ranting about it for another 20 years.

(get off my lawn!)

I have actively NOT purchased products from companies because they support influencers. It might be a small number, but I'm sure that I am not the only one.

They're the title sponsor of the BME and had their North American race team competing in all the races last year. Not trying to defend them, but just offering a data point.

Pretty sure they were also the title sponsor for the Team Trail Party Gravity Stage Race series in 2022 as well.

I think it depends on what you mean by being a social media influencer. All of the racers, freeriders, park riders, etc.. are now ALSO social media influencers. Someone like Brage, Olly Wilkins, 50:01, the Shire crew, etc... I mean, they're all riders first, but their social media and film parts are what they're getting paid for... not doing events.

Now if you mean someone like Seth, BKXC, Syd and Macky, etc... I can see where you're going. But those people have HUGE youtube followings, and I don't think that brands are going to pulling the plug on them anytime soon either.

To me, there's a delineation between people who predominantly are famous for their riding skill and content creation (the first group) and other people who are predominantly famous for their presenting skills and content creation (second group). I think both of these groups have value to brands, though, and both groups are "social media influencers" whether we want to admit it or not. I think what might be on the downward trajectory are lower/mid levels in both groups. If you have <X number of subscribers to your channel/account then brands aren't going to be that interested in you.

Sure, Enduro is part of mtb racing, and Cannondale also sends their north american farm team camper to BME races(thanks for the tacos!),  Ibis/Stans has a BME-focused team, Fezzari shows up en masse etc, but BME is kinda the only thing going for a larger enduro series out West(apparently some people live west of Windrock, poor folks), so really, it’s the least a brand can do to support it.  

I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the “factory” riders at BME are paying the majority of their own expenses to be at the events, which is about right for a grassroots domestic pro.

What i am whinging about is mostly our anemic adult xc scene.   The Southeast is propping up Pro Dh in this country, heck if you are a lady, the last few weeks you got to race Jolanda Neff 3 times(just not in xc, because there aren’t any xc races worth her time, kinda like how she won the penultimate UCI CX race of the US season by a minute and a half).

How do kids go from Nica to the worldcup with literally NO local pros to race against or decent fields in regional races?  Be born in Durango, and then make sure you go to one of the 20ish colleges with “well funded” collegiate varsity teams?  Collegiate mtb season is 10 weeks and 8 races for most conferences (including nationals).   

Do we need a go-fundme to send kids to the Czech Republic for the summer, like the successful Mexican xc programs?  

I mean... I think that the route for US up and comers goes through Durango Devo and Bear National, unfortunately. Riley, Caden, Bjorn, ... they're all coming through that program. But yeah, it requires an insane amount of privilege and a dedicated family willing to make some serious sacrifices to make that happen.

I just want to point out a small difference that seems to be lost in the conversation about internet folks. instagram ≠ youtube.

When it comes to people like Seth, he appears to have a much stronger connection to his audience than anyone else dropped by Specialized. In regards to his deal with Diamond Back, I think it's pretty clear that the issue was with the company and not the person. As someone who knows folks that were on the specialized roster, I was amazed that half of them even got picked up to begin with. No offense to anyone looking for a new source of income, but they simply do not have the same reach or content as creators on other platforms.

I think social media is still a very useful tool for the bike industry; they just need to learn where the dollars work best.

Side note: if this means gravel/bikepacking stops being highly inflated, that's also good. (think fat bikes four years ago).

It's been a while since I took a psychology class, but there was some interesting research about the true impact of advertising on people's buying decisions and how those people perceived the impact. Most people (if I recall, something like >80%) say that a particular advertisement does not influence their purchasing decisions, when in fact it does affect 80% of those people. 

There has been a lot of recent research on influencers and how they impact consumer behaviour as well. It was interesting to me to note that the impact an influencer has on a person is tied to how closely that person feels like they align to the influencer (in terms of values in whatever niche they occupy, in our case MT but also how 'close' the person feels to the influencer which goes to the concept of illusory friendship (i.e. the influenced feel like they are friends with the influencer, but the influencer doesn't know you at all). With that, the ability for them to market something to you is positive and long lasting (e.g. Seth + DB as stated above) unless the advertisement or influencer starts to drift outside of your perceived values or alignment at which point the marketing impact actually turns negative. 

I think that probably describes why most people on here would answer 'no' to the above question. The majority of at least the commenters here appear to be actively or historically involved in racing or cycling at a high level, which is not in line with something like the Spesh influencer campaign. It also explains why some people are very negative about the whole concept of influencers, since its close enough to be 'of interest' but then does not align with your perceived values and turns the impact into a negative one for them. 

It may seem like the influencers don't work for you, but something like 5-15 million people 'mountain bike' in the USA each year but only a few thousand will ever go to or participate in a race. VitalMTB readers are probably not the target audience for cycling influencers. 

Influencer-ing was a side job these people had, and some of them had contracts that were broken. It sucks to lose an income, regardless of what you were doing. It seems like the days of easy money for big tech companies is at least winding down and lots of companies are undergoing big layoffs (even with record profits?), I'm sure it's the same in the bike industry. If companies are trying to run leaner on advertisements, ditching a single-purpose 'influencer' is probably first on the list since your sponsored athletes can also 'influence' and their are still regular advertisements to do. Has the 'influencer' trend run it's course? No, but it looks like it's going down.  

As someone who has been riding for 25 years and owned probably 50+ bikes, I can safely say an influencer has never influenced my decision to buy a particular bike.  I know what I like, what geometry I'm looking for, and what parts I like.  That being said, the influencer content I most enjoy is related to trail building, features, shop setup, projects, etc.  As corny as some of Seth's content can be, I've seen almost every one of his videos, and his videos about building features I've probably seen at least 2 times.  I'm in the process of building a "mini bike park" on my property and setting up the ultimate home shop so seeing how Seth and other Youtubers build features and set up their shops is worthwhile content to me.  At this point in my life, I probably watch more videos about building trails than of people or Pro's actually riding. 

I do follow some "lifestyle" adventure/gravel/endurance riders on Instagram but it's not for the actual bike or gear content, it's usually to see cool places and get ideas for riding trips and destinations.    

I think there may be a misunderstanding about who got dropped from Specialized and why. This forum obviously doesn't agree on exactly what an influencer is and does. 

Specialized cancelled contracts with Sarah Swallow, Ty Hathaway, and Steve "Doom" Fassbender. All three of these folks are RIDERS, first and foremost – not influencers, per se. They may not be household names for gravity-focused mountain bikers because they tend to focus on adventure cycling – long, multi-day trips in the backcountry (although Ty is pretty damn fast on an enduro course too). They also organize events in their respective regions and generally give back to mountain biking.  So they're not influencers so much as authenticators. They've given Specialized the sheen of authenticity within the adventure side of mountain biking. 

This kind of value is hard to quantify. When the marketing department is told to make cuts, the bean counters decide who gets the axe. Who gets the cut? The folks who contribute to the culture of mountain biking through authenticity, advocacy and inspiration. Their influence is cultural, less definable. In today's data-driven marketing world, that just doesn't cut it. 

A real influencer, on the other hand, has the metrics to measure their influence. They have click-through rates, highly targeted audience data, and hard numbers to show the bean counters. So they're safe for now. Unfortunately, most real influencers don't actually do much except influence. They sell product, but they don't actually contribute to the physical world of mountain biking*.

Make no mistake – the physical world of mountain biking IS MOUNTAIN BIKING. It's not shredits or what kind of bike you ride or how many followers you have. It's the act of riding a bicycle on trails, and falling in love with trails themselves and the natural environments in which we ride, constantly progressing as a rider, advocating for more trails, building better trails, riding, racing, and getting high on your own supply of brain chemicals out in the natural world.

This is something any one of us would love to get paid to do. And for eight years, these folks did. So good on them. I hope each one of them finds new arrangements and continues to live the dream.

And for the bitter "get a real job" commenters: go ride your bike. 

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*The only exception to this rule is Seth/Berm Peak, whose focus on trailbuilding is massively valuable to both his viewers and his physical community. He's honestly the only positive example of an influencer, in my opinion. 

"So they're not influencers so much as authenticators." .......Oh barf. I think I just threw up a little in my mouth. 

For me, I actively unfollow accounts I found interesting once they start posting adverts and clearly hawking things. "Authentic" opinions to me are ones you don't get paid to have. Those who have the highest level of integrity recognize that their opinion is diluted as soon as they take money to promote something. For the rest of us, of course getting some coin or free product while doing something we love sounds pretty appealing, but once the belts get tightened and the bean counters start chopping, don't cry me a river about that magic carpet being pulled out from under you. 

As a consumer, I don't differentiate between what you refer to as "real influencer's" vs "authenticators". It may be true from the back-end marketing budget side, but the intent on the target audience is the same....and they both feel gross to me. 

"For the rest of us, of course getting some coin or free product while doing something we love sounds pretty appealing, but once the belts get tightened and the bean counters start chopping, don't cry me a river about that magic carpet being pulled out from under you."

Um yeah dude, nobody in this situation is crying. Ty and Steve had pretty even-handed and grateful responses. Sarah was a little more salty about it due to the timing. All in all, I'd say they all handled it admirably. 

I think that my main point here is that there are two groups here:

Social Media Influencers: people who utilize social media to gain a following and leverage that following for sponsorship dollars. These people are generally not racers and they tend to be average or above-average riders. I'm thinking of every YouTube mountain biker: Seth, Singletrack Sampler, BKXC, Mo Awesome, Nrml Mtber, etc etc etc. 

Mountain Bikers of Influence, or who I used the unfortunate term Authenticators: skilled riders, route creators, trail builders, pro racers, retired racers, etc. This is every mountain biker who's made the transition to content creation. These folks may have popular social media platforms, but it's not their entire job. 

I would hope to see less $$$ being spent on SMI's and more $$$ being spent on MBI's. But Specialized firing Sarah, Ty, and Doom doesn't really bode well. Maybe if they hadn't spent so much of the marketing budget on fucking Roblox.

I'd never let seth or any other youtuber or IG hack inform me on my bike choices, they are just reading a script.

What influences me are results, world cup results. Elite riders. 

However, regardless of all this outside influence, if the bike doesn't fit me or me riding style i wouldn't buy it. 

Has to feel right.


If anything its the joeys who will be influenced by the social media influences, the same ones wearing full body armour on an XC ride