If you track platform metrics, digital analytics, or web traffic distributions, you already know that social media is one of the primary discovery engines on the internet. For promoters and wrestlers alike, social channels offer quicker visibility and real-time interaction than other digital platforms. However, relying on social platforms as a main home for your audience would be a big mistake.
I always advise pro-wrestling promoters to leverage the power of social media, but also caution them that it's rented land and that search authority is real estate. But in addition to that, there is a fundamental structural flaw in how these platforms operate: because of how social feeds are architected, they highlight content that creates friction over informative, high-value content.
To build a sustainable digital presence, promotions and wrestlers must understand the fundamentals of the toxic trap, and promotions need to use their platform or a platform that ranks higher globally to avoid being added to the list of promotions that are shutting down.
Spotlighting Toxicity
At their core, social media platforms are ad-delivery mechanisms. The longer a user stays on the platform reading, commenting/replying, scrolling, or watching, the more ad money the platform makes.
It's human nature to react quicker to negativity than positivity- in order for us to react differently, we have to put a lot of work into that changing in any way. We naturally pause, pay attention to, and react to threats, insults, hot takes, blatant lies, and attempts to start conflicts. On social media, this is expressed with likes, shares, and comments/replies. These reactions show social media algorithms that the content captures attention, so the system places these posts into your feed so that you can engage with it as well- even just spending time reading a debate that was triggered by a post is enough to signal to the system that the post held your attention.
The Cost to Informative and Analytical Content
This algorithmic structure of a social media platform puts informative content at a disadvantage. Reading informative content requires the user to digest and think about it, whether it's a link to an informative article, news/information about a promotion, information about an upcoming show, a promotion's DVDs, etc.; All of this content is designed to inform the reader, not trigger an immediate negative reaction.
Because calm, informative content doesn't create friction on a social media platform, it suffers within an engagement-first distribution model. Since it doesn't trigger a wave of instant emotional engagement, the algorithm ranks it lower than something negative and non-productive that was posted at the same time. So by comparison, the informative content receives crickets in terms of engagement.
Over time, many promotions and wrestlers that rely entirely on social media begin altering their voice in order to increase their visibility, becoming triggering or controversial. When negativity on a platform is beneficial, the overall environment becomes non-productive, as informative content gets buried, lowering the perceived value of the platform for career purposes.
How This Proves That Social Media Is Rented Land
When you only build your audience on social channels, you're building on a foundation you do not control. If the platform spotlights toxic engagement, publishers of quality content have to either change or they will see their reach decrease.
Furthermore, social media content usually has a visibility lifespan of only hours before the social media platform's algorithm moves on to new content. This is one of the reasons why I advise promotions to post 3-5 times a day- it's the only way to retain a consistent level of visibility on a social media platform.
Owned Media and Search Authority
Social media platforms' feeds should never be your planned final stop. They should be treated strictly as tools to draw readers to your own platform or a platform that belongs to someone who is working with you. And remember, social media can be one of the best or worst things to happen to your promotion, so use it wisely, or hire someone who can.
Using myself as an example, although my platform receives significant engagement via organic social, the majority of my traffic is direct, and my direct, organic search, and AI assistant traffic is growing at a faster rate than my organic social traffic. And blog posts have a longer visible lifespan than social media posts- one of my most viewed blog posts of the past 12 months is The Role of Tech in Connecting Wrestling With Other Media, which was published in 2024.
My platform generates over 300,000 monthly impressions across the digital ecosystem and reaches an active base of over 200,000 unique monthly readers globally. Leveraging a high search ranking, it acts as a direct search bridge between fans and promotions. I've used my platform to drive measurable brand engagement for properties like WOW - Women Of Wrestling and several promotions in Japan, including Michinoku Pro and World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana. Essentially, by working with me for search authority, a wrestling promotion gains access to an established marketing engine that is already indexed and active across all major search and social channels.
As for pro-wrestlers- you should educate yourself on tech tools and streaming strategies to build a personal brand, connect directly with fans, and showcase your skills globally, but you should also have your own website for independent bookings. Your website could feature an introduction of yourself and your character, information regarding what promotion(s) you have wrestled in, pictures of yourself, and video(s) of you, which could be shown when you contact a promotion. If you need help using a website to promote yourself, contact me at info@harold-williams.com
Social media platforms are great at generating rapid awareness, but their algorithms are not aligned with informative content, as they spotlight unproductive content that users' actions generally give the impression that they prefer to engage with. Recognize these platforms for what they are: useful, temporary megaphones on rented land. Use them to introduce you or your product to new readers, but consistently direct them to your own platform or one that you are affiliated with- where depth, clarity, and genuine authority matter.
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