How Austria’s snowboard alpine athletes use social media

Auner doesn’t have a social media schedule but posts regularly. He does, however, restrict himself to a limit of 90 minutes on Instagram per day so he “does not spend hours” on the platform. 

“I don’t have a schedule for my social media,” he says. “I should have but in real life I am posting like crazy and it’s coming out of my feelings. If I feel that I have to share this, then I do it. It could be in the morning, at night, whatever, but the nice thing about it is, that I am standing up for my content and it’s my very own choice what I am posting.”

Two-time Olympian and fellow Austrian Alex Payer is similar. “I try to put away some time each day but mostly it happens instead cause you never know before what will happen next…. But content for and with partners I plan in front.”

The 33-year-old also agrees that posting can be an additional revenue stream. “It definitely takes a lot of time but on the other hand it opens a new chance for partners and sponsors, so without this opportunity, sport would not be easy to finance.”

Maintaining a balance between posting content and keeping up with the actual day job can be challenging, says Auner. “For sure it takes a lot more time to manage it. I want to stay in touch with so many people especially when they are interested in my life and in my sport.

“Sometimes I don’t reply for a long period. That’s not because I don’t want to but there is some other stuff to do, for example training to get better, making the content greater, keeping the ideas for social media up to date.”