Hunting has evolved drastically since your grandpa was tromping around the woods with his 30.06, red flannel shirt, and denim jeans. His story board was made of polaroid pictures pasted in a binder. The only traps he was worried about was his beaver trap line being pilfered by a bobcat. Nowadays, hunters have to worry about Thirst Traps, trolls commenting on their grip and grins, and influencers pushing a piece of gear that they don’t even like. Businesses now have to navigate the troubled waters of social media along with the rest of us. On the other hand for the first time in history, small businesses are able to reach large swaths of people through clever content creation and partnering with influencers, field staff, and pro staff contributors. I had the opportunity to ask a few questions with a couple of business owners, Zach from Duck Dens and Tyler from T and K Hunting Gear, conservationist and non-for-profit head, Ryan Off the Grid with High Point Adventures, and Influencer/Field Staffer, Chris from High Range Hunting.
Heads up before going any further; There will be cussing in this article because I will be directly quoting veterans, and we don’t sensor ourselves very well.
Honesty time, when I first jumped back into hunting, social media played no part in my hunting experience. I didn’t realize that there was a massive hunting community sneaking around social media. Hunting has and will always be for me a shared experience with friends and family. I started using Instagram after a conversation with a good friend while hunting for turkey. He was wearing a hat from 1 v 1 Hunting. It was slick. I asked where he got it from. He said a buddy of his who ran 1v1 Hunting Outfitter in Kansas, had hooked him up. I hit him up on IG, and he sent one my way. I thought this was the coolest thing ever, and I wanted to collect more (I am a hat whore). The only way I was going to do that was to grow my IG following. I started using, posting, and tagging posts on Instagram for free gear. I didn’t hunt for IG, but I IG’d for hunting swag. That initial perspective changed over time. As I began sifting through IG I saw Thirst Traps and posers posting pictures in skimpy attire and pushing products. Looking through their pictures, it became evident that they didn’t kill critters in quantity, and they jumped from brand to brand with no sense of loyalty to the brands. I made a commitment to myself, that I wouldn’t post with a product unless I believed in it.
As you stare at more posts, it is easy to see that there is a lot of hunter-on-hunter bashing. I don’t know how many times I see first kills, and trolls make fun of them for shooting a dink. Everyone has a beginning, and we should commit ourselves as hunters to bring each other up. This was my next commitment I made to myself as I used the gram. I originally looked at businesses on IG as potential sponsors for freebies that I liked, without thinking about the size of the company and their available budget for marketing (I have a MBA and have owned businesses). It wasn’t until I started following T&K Hunting did I connect the dots that there are thousands of small businesses scraping by utilizing social media as their only means to market their products. I am sorry, and I should know better. Take a couple minutes to look through T&K’s posts, you will quickly see how small their profit margins are to provide quality, Made in America gear. This being said, I still work on growing my following, because I would love to one day be able to build a career in the outdoors full time and share memories and lessons with others. I like to promote products that I love using, such as Kryptek camo and PSE archery equipment. I use it to immortalize sweet pictures of Grip n Grins. Come see me, Matt Rinella!
Social media is where I keep my polaroids. If you can’t show the successes and trials that come with hunting, we will never grow the hunting community and preserve our rights. I am not the only hunter who feels this way.
Tyler is a master of marketing for his company, T&K Hunting, on social media. I am beyond grateful for Tyler taking the time from his growing business to relay to me his opinions on his social media. He wages war daily with pricks who degrade his prices and spends time teaching trolls why American Made is pricier but worth the cost. While he handles freebie begging “Influencers” with contempt, this business owner treats his customers and his workers with care far better than any other company that I have seen. I posed the below questions to him, and these are his unadulterated responses.
How has Social Media played a part in your growing business? “It has allowed us to target our specific customer demographic, which tends to be the working-class outdoorsman. Our customer base demands high quality products that are Made in the USA, so being able to educate large amounts of people is imperative to our success. Social pages have allowed us to increase brand awareness, customer acquisition, and helps us connect with our customer base to determine product demand.”
If you could magically change any aspect of Social Media, what would it be and why? “Stop glorifying bad behavior within the hunting community. We have many young people entering the hunting world based on who and what they follow on social media. It seems the more stupid and outrageous your photo or video is…the more exposure it gets. Nobody should be putting dead animals in their mouths. Period.”
Do influencers add any benefit to your business? “It depends on what type of influencer you are talking about. There are two kinds. One, which happens to be the majority, are people that have no business influencing anybody. They have little to no experience, lack valuable knowledge, and are only getting recognition because of their looks or who they know. The second type of influencer is someone who has substantial experience in their trade, vast knowledge, and influences people to make them better. The first one doesn’t do a damn thing for us. The second does.”
What is one thing that influencers do that really turns business owners off? “Again, there are two kinds. The ones that have no business influencing typically ask for free product, or believe the business owes them something. The business doesn’t owe people like this anything. The second type of influencer will pay for product because they like it and want to wear it. When they talk about it to their followers, it is not a sales pitch for money. It is genuine and not total BS. Many businesses don’t care about being genuine though, so that’s why you see more of the crap influencers in the spot light. I personally won’t bother to work with someone if they are not in the order list. How can I support you if you don’t support me?”
What is the worst thing you have seen an influencer do? “Poaching. Breaking the law in order to stroke your ego on social media seems to be a trend. No amount of likes or follows is worth an animal being taken illegally. If you don’t agree, you don’t hunt for the same reasons I do.”
Do Hunting Influencers provide a net good for the hunting community or a net bad? How so? “A majority of influencers contribute little to the hunting community. In fact, a good majority are in it for themselves. It’s all about ego and money. I pose this question. If social media didn’t exist, would they still be in the hunting community? Again, there are some folks with large followings that are good for hunting. But until companies stop supporting the BS, there will always be the ones that have no business being a “influencer”.”
Is there a message that you want to convey to your customers and others in the hunting community? “Educate yourself on who you support and do business with. Your hard-earned money directly supports whatever and whomever that business or organization works with and supports financially.”
Tyler makes a lot of excellent points and his point on posting bad behavior really resonates with me. I am sick and tired of people demonstrating hunters in a bad light. I get that we as hunters are stoked about killing an animal but to disrespect that kill only makes hunters look like uncaring dolts.
After a superb Sand Hill Crane hunt, I was able to sit with Zach and Miles from Duck Dens and Stump Blinds. We had a great conversation about their perspective on the relationship between business and social media. They conveyed a multitude of poignant points about their frustrations with influencers. I have had the pleasure of hanging out with Zach, his family, Miles, and Nick. When I think of solid caring folk who love to hunt, their names pop up immediately. They know how to have a great time, support veterans, and they care deeply about producing quality duck dens and blinds.
I followed up with Zach for further clarification of his points. This is what he had to say, “Social media has been huge in growing our business and (building) awareness of our products. In my opinion the key to social media is using it as a means to connect with people from all over. If you are showing a product and not the people behind the company, it’s hard for people to want to be part of your growth.” His intent is not only to show his products, but people behind the production of these products. Although social media has played a part in their success, it hasn’t been all sunshine and daisies.
I asked Zach if there was anything he would change. He said, “Authenticity. So much of social media and influencer marketing isn’t Authentic. People desire a real connection and seeing other real people. We’ve had minimal success with “influencers”, but we’ve had a lot of success from “Non-Influencers”, customers, and friends. When a happy customer shares a success or use of our product, that actually makes a huge impact. It validates the product and the business with Authenticity.” He believes Influencers push too hard on quantity of views and not quality of engagements. He thinks that influencers need to find products and companies that they align with and then “Support the crap out of them. When it’s time for me to big game hunt out west, T&K will have 100% of my business. For 2 reasons, we think similarly about business, and they only build rugged bad ass products.” I concur with Zach. Any time he wants to come out West with me, we can try our best to destroy my T&K gaiters.
Zach finished with saying, “Through social media, I have met some awesome people and gotten to experience friendships and hunts that would have been impossible without it. I believe the key to social media is to be social and create real relationships through it.” Amen Brother! Through social media, I have met some fantastic people, one of them being Ryan from the NPO High Point Adventures.
I met Ryan Off the Grid for the first time in person on a turkey hunt. We had a bunch of laughs, and he retaught me the rule of never judging a book by its cover. He is a sweetheart! One night around a campfire he recounted a story where he was able to take a severely wounded veteran on a deer hunt.
The vet had received massive injuries in combat and wasn’t able to walk or see very clear. This veteran believed his hunting days were over and most would have agreed. Ryan, on the other hand, told the universe to hold his beer. He and his team got the veteran deep into the snowy woods. As Ryan and the veteran’s dad hid in a blind behind the vet, a Booner whitetail showed up. Through an app connected to the scope, they talked the vet though putting the crosshairs on the deer.
BOOM! He pulled the trigger and the deer dropped dead. They ran up to congratulate the veteran, but there was a lot of dust in the air which caused watery eyes. Standing next to this massive deer, Ryan showed the universe and all its shitty circumstances that he would move heaven and earth to bring life to the veterans who thought life had left them behind. Ryan’s diligent work in the outdoors and his ability to stack bodies made him an easy choice to learn more about hunting and social media.
I asked Ryan about social media, and he answered from his rich and varied experience in the field. He relayed, “Social media is a vital part in the success of all of the NPO’s I work with to put on veteran hunting events. The content from these events help gets the word out to the other veterans as to what we are doing, to network with other outfitters to secure future outings, and reaches the general public to help with funding and awareness.”
He did say that he has a problem with censorship and the shadow manipulation of algorithms that hinders his ability to reach like-minded individuals in the hunting community. He is convinced that influencers do bring value to the businesses they represent. He has seen outfitter’s engagements go up by “600,000%”. Yes, you read that right. In his opinion, the same concept can be applied to companies who are endorsed by influencers who put product placement in their content of successful hunts, although product placement can be overdone. “If you are throwing things in people’s faces over and over, you’re coming off as a sellout and inauthentic. Posting yourself “Practicing” your Accubow on a fishing boat is as pathetic as Will Farrell’s mocking pitch of Big Red in Talladega Nights.”
Ryan thinks that a lot of people are putting out trash content, but he is seeing a change in focus towards traditions, camaraderie, ethics, and conservation. The one thing he wants people to hear is, “Tell people why we hunt and don’t make it a measuring contest. Less pile pics and more smile pics.” I loved Ryan’s perspective, and he has a walk that backs his talk. Not to let Ryan outdo him, Chris had relevant opinions on the matter.
Chris, like Ryan, has a strong resume of helping veterans get out into the woods. My experience with waterfowl was very limited before meeting Chris. He has gone out of his way to help me learn the ins and outs of waterfowl hunting, from working a call to setting up in right location. He has even dropped me pins on quality hunts. If you don’t know how incredible that is, you haven’t been hunting long enough.
He emphasized that social media does a great job of bringing people and companies together. In his opinion, “Social media has a few great positives when it comes to working with NPO’s. The ability to network and communicate allows for opportunities to be shared with others who would never have a chance to hunt. It allows for NPO’s to highlight companies that support the mission of helping veterans and provides a source for people to go back and relive their experiences through videos and photos.
Chris does wish that he could change the “Need for Attention” or the “Witness Me” mentality. Along with Zach, he is convinced that large scale influencers are not bringing value to companies. In his opinion the model has proven ineffective. He holds that a hunter with 400 bought in followers are more likely to sell products then large-scale influencer. He believes the hunters putting in work and reviewing products, have a greater influence on their audience. He says, “He is pissed off that (influencers) think people give a shit about them. Most people following them are paid for or bot accounts or some sad old dude who just follows because they are attractive. The women who pose in bikinis with hunting gear and utilize their enhanced body parts to try and “sell something” takes away from the badass women who actually get out and do it and don’t do it for the gram.”
Chris believes that a large part of “Hunting Influencers” offer nothing to hunting. He thinks they are there for themselves because when a conservation issue comes up, they are silent. He says the proof is in our current situation with all the hunting bands that are coming up. He hasn’t seen any of the “big influencers” say shit about it. “It’s the smaller pages of true hunters that are voicing the issues and spreading the word.”
His message to hunters on social media is, “Stop judging other hunter’s trophies. Not everyone is going to kill a 150’ deer or a 300’ bull. It’s about the experience and who are we to judge someone else’s kill. Get out there and enjoy your time and if the experience catches your fancy, they need to shoot and be happy. Don’t post ‘Not the biggest but…’ Don’t degrade the animal that was good enough in the moment for you to kill.” I agree Chris. Too many hunters criticize their own kill. I think hunters downplay their kills, because they are inundated with massive trophies across social media.
There were a lot of amazing points made by these guys, and I come away from this with a deeper conviction that hunters have a responsibility when we post in social media. With the advent of technology, our ability to reach and influence people demands that we represent hunting in light that will help us preserve our traditions, unite people and businesses, and teach new hunters about our ethical responsibilities.
By Travis Tweet
The American Bowman Chronicles 