'Social Media' gets a bit of a bad press. Maligned by most people who claim either not to be bothered, to not understand it, or just pleading a mixture of ambivalence and mirth. Yet whatever most of us say publicly, privately at least it would seem the case that a lot of us do actually like using it, and not just as voyeurs. User numbers are still growing rapidly and it's hard to have any climbing related conversation with peers before someone mentions something they've recently seen on Instagram.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by TOP Climbing Clips & Community (@climbers.crag)

Over the years I've heard countless climbers complain that 'climber X' seems to be getting free shoes & gear, contracts, respect or adulation, via a process the American's like to call 'spraying'. As much as I do see that happening, and can understand the consternation, I would normally reply: 'well, maybe instead of just being critical, you could always do a better job? Why not post on your own account with credence, without the spray, talk about pertinent community issues like access, inclusivity, or ethics? Or sending your own project but with less hyperbole or cliche, and more humility?'' Instead of identifying practices you don't like in others, try to do things better on your own account. But apart from messaging and tone, many Instagram users simply aren't sure how to use the platform to it's best effect.

If, like me, you've been climbing long enough to remember a time when almost no climbers would admit to training, when it was shunned, or derided even; whereas nowadays almost everyone trains, some climbers almost exclusively 'train' rarely doing any 'normal' climbing, and even amateur climbers have coaches, training plans, and home based training apparatus. If you can remember that cultural shift, then I think we might be about to see a similar change in attitudes [towards social media].

For pro climbers, and I use that term loosely to constitute climbers that are trying to make a career out of their sport, there's pretty much a bottom line fiscal value attached to a social media presence. A return on investment that sponsors want to see. How many followers a climber has might attract brands to sponsor them. Free gear, maybe funding for trips, or travel to comps, can all be generated by having a powerful social media presence (obviously) allied to climbing ability. But Follower count alone is a bit of a flawed, and lazy metric. Or on the other hand, how does the lesser known climber, perhaps with bags of ability but without the exposure of say, an Oscar winning movie, ever hope to bridge the gap? Or to spin that around further, how should brands decide who to work with given a choice between climber A and climber B?

Here to help answer those questions are Climbers Crag. Climbers Crag are a social media agency specialising in climbing and outdoor accounts. They built their own presence via a fastidious approach to analytics, A/B testing, pattern data analysis and developing a proven methodology. Treating the account like a scientific experiment in order to learn what works, and then helping other brands by applying those proven systems. They've recently compiled a comprehensive rankings list of Climbing's Top 50 Instagrammers (the full database covers well over 100 of the best climbers you can name, and some you might not have heard of). But before you think it's just a matter of seeing who has the most followers, let's explain how their ranking system works…

Without giving away the magic recipe, which, incidentally, is only as temporary as the algorithm's whims, Climbers Crag have looked at several key factors, and then combined these into a formula to create a score to compare each account by. The reason a pure Follower count isn't a good gauge is that in part it can be manipulated by outside factors (like when your new film launches on Netflix!), so although you might be [Instagram] famous, are you actually active on Instagram? Are you growing? Are you engaging? And also, when accounts get larger, there tends to be a significantly higher percentage of Bot accounts or ghost followers, which negatively affects your engagement rate (which in turn impacts your post Reach, Impressions and overall performance).

So for the purposes of this list, Growth Rate (averaged) over a period, and Engagement Rate, have been factored into an equation alongside account size to give a score that reflects essentially how well that account is using Instagram. What these rankings show therefore, is who is playing the game best. Even if these accounts are relatively small, they're the ones that are growing fastest, and getting the best engagement from their followers, and therefore you could say their 'influence' (for want of a better word) is shown. 

To create a round numbers example: A well known account with 100,000 followers but posting infrequently and ineffectively, can easily be outperformed by an account with 10,000 followers. That is because the smaller account can generate more Impressions, Reach, more comments, likes, and shares, simply by virtue of having better frequency, better post type, and being more engaging. So those bottom line metrics can easily be better/higher than an account which at first glance is 10 times the 'size'. 

So in this example, if you're a brand giving out sponsorship, you would be better advised to invest in the climber with the smaller account, because your products could easily be getting more eyeballs on them, than if you were sponsoring the much more 'famous' climber. The smaller account is also going to grow exponentially faster than the larger one, so that Follower gap will be closing in the near future.

Here's the Top 50:

Here are some key findings:

Joseph Diaz topped The Climbers Crag Top 50 Instagrammers list. Joe certainly isn't a household name, and a lot of climbers will not have heard of him. There are many relatively small accounts at the higher end of the list, so here's how Joe came top:

1. He published with a 'Reels-only' focus. Reels are the best post type currently (Reels, then Carousels, then Stills, then IGTV long form is the least effective way to post content). At the moment Instagram effectively 'promotes' Reels, pushing them into more feeds.

2. He posted consistently and frequently. Daily posting, ideally even twice a day, is optimum for both growth and engagement.

3. His content was highly shareable, and 'valuable' to followers (they gain something from it beyond mere 'entertainment' that a nice photo gives a viewer), and was an innovative style.

His climbing level was also relatable to a majority of climbers.

4. He used Collaborator functionality with other key climbing accounts to leverage extended Reach.

All these factors caused him to go from 0 to 23,000 followers in less than 3 months.

The Top 10 was quite surprising, and really showed the value of 'mid-sized' accounts. The average follower count of the Top 10 was 76,000; whereas the average account size of the Top 100 was 202,000. This shows that the most followed accounts in the world aren't the fastest growing or the most engaged, but rather the climbers spending time to grow an audience and community and operating closest to the optimum system of frequency and post type are the accounts to perform best. They might be technically smaller currently, but they're the 'ones to watch', and their growth rate shows you directly, this is where the audience are turning their heads.

Another eye opening finding was that there was a marked difference between overall Instagram averages, and those in the climbing world:

Average Growth Rate of Top 100 = 0.74%
(The 2021 Instagram Average was 2.95% - (Social Status))

Average Engagement Rate of Top 100 = 3.99%
(The 2021 average across Instagram was 1.22% - (RivalIQ))
 

This shows that [pro] climbers (especially the really big accounts) are growing significantly slower than the average for Instagram. But, when they do post, they do have a very engaged audience.

Most of the best known accounts are performing way below industry averages and could easily yield far better results from their social media by making some simple changes to their strategy and outputs. At the moment the platform rewards Reels posts more than it's other post types; but in time that will change. Reels were launched partly as an antidote to TikTok's success, but perhaps the next post type that Instagram pushes will be long form IGTV (to combat YouTube's popularity) or it could be something new again. 

NB: Reels also need to be optimised for replayability and cut to eliminate 'exit points', but that's getting into the darker realms of virality…

Remaining reflective about analytics and post performance is what will give users the best chance to keep their fingers firmly crimped on the pulse of the algorithm, being able to change output type as Instagram changes it's own priorities. That agility to evolve should also favour the best performing accounts in the Climbers Crag rankings - because these are the ones paying the best attention to what works, and therefore the best prepared to adapt to the next trend.