Exploring The Depths of Bodybuilding Bros and Its Hyper-Engaged Community

Continuing to build on initial successes courtesy of new initiatives across the board, has been a key theme at EssentiallySports, And ‘Bodybuilding Bros’ – a sub-brand that started some months back as a ‘process’ to aid EssentiallySports in enhancing community engagement – stands proudly today as a branch of its own. With a collective reach of over 130K followers across Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, Bodybuilding Bros has indeed come a long way – and its impactful albeit short journey till now, has been nothing less than exceptional. Countless hours of brainstorming, consistent effort, and the perpetual creative spirit have transformed this sub-brand into a haven for bodybuilding fans worldwide.  

Granted, chance and audience reception play an immense role in the field of digital media. But, it still begs the question – what is so different about Bodybuilding Bros after all?  

Building a community for bodybuilding, the EssentiallySports way

‘Failure is the pillar of success’, a quote that we would often hear from anyone who seem to have achieved a certain level of success, and it holds true for Bodybuilding Bros as well. So when the initial process started off, not only did the stakeholders face it – they were expecting and prepared for the same. 

“We had created a bunch of pages (on Facebook) to start off and experiment with. But we stopped working on most of them after a few months owing to a shift in strategy. Bodybuilding Bros, though, was the only page where we actually managed to go from scratch to 120K followers and counting today,” said Shekhar Anurag, our Social Media Lead.  

Behind the success of the sub-brand, multiple things came to alignment, from believing in it to hard-earned expertise and experience. Everything counted. However, ahead of turning it into a full-blown sub-brand, Bodybuilding Bros started off by just posting content that gained the most attraction. And, of course, it was posts around the enigmatic personality who popularized this sport- Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

But as the name suggests, Bodybuilding Bros had the vision of making it an all encompassing experience for fans of the discipline. A sub-brand aiming to provide visibility to all athletes within the community, capturing their inspiring lifestyle and bringing motivational content to a larger audience.

Among many people integral to its day-to-day operations, one among them is Sagnik Bagchi, who contributes as a social media associate. When asked what makes Bodybuilding Bros unique, he said, “So it started as a fan page, and it originally was ‘Pumping Iron With Arnold Schwarzenegger’. But after a point, we rebranded it as ‘Bodybuilding Bros’, because we wanted to take more of a holistic approach here. With more bodybuilders garnering popularity, creating defining moments via content other than just Arnold Schwarzenegger became our prime focus.” 

Although the 76-year-old bodybuilding legend brought some much-needed positive attention, it still remains a niche sport that is defined by its resistance going beyond the immediate community. While the uphill battle to break this barrier bit by bit continues daily, the team remains confident of scaling the mountain eventually.

At EssentiallySports, Arnold Schwarzenegger remains an inspiration for all of us. And rest assured, the ‘Austrian Oak’s’ words sure strikes a chord for Bodybuilding Bros, and the entire ES team. 

In his recently released book Be Useful: Seven Tools For Life, he wrote: “I was one of the youngest guys in the gym in those days, but I’d had enough experience doing sales-type jobs back in Europe to know that if you’re trying to get exposure for something and grow your business- even if that business is an unconventional sport- you have to tell people about it. You have to communicate and promote so that people know it exists. So they know what it’s all about and why they should care. In other words, you need to sell it.”

A decade has now passed since our co-founders came together and remained dedicated through challenges to extend a platform and voice to such niche sports. Therefore, it may not surprise many that the name of the sub-brand, Bodybuilding Bros, is also a brainchild of one of the co-founders.

“At one point, people couldn’t relate to what we were saying. Like, what exactly the page is all about… But the credit for the name certainly goes to Jaskirat (Jaskirat Arora), mainly. He came up with the name almost instantly, and the rest is history…” expressed Shekhar.  

EssentiallySports continues to help take the community forward

Now that Bodybuilding Bros had started to establish a place in the community’s hearts, it was time to bring the show to them. It is here that the Videos taskforce decided to step in and create original content, to cater to a steadily increasing audience. Vatsal Upadhyay, our Videos team head, explained, “Our team started gathering more information and doing more research, to develop the content we see today. We started increasing that duration to 5 minutes…and then now based on engagement, which we are currently doing, the 8 minute versions as well.” 

They say change always comes from within. And as the idea is to keep creating awareness around this niche sport for a much larger audience, the change rightly starts from the stakeholders involved in creating this community. 

Not long ago, social media strategist Harshita joined this team, taking up responsibility for the sub-brand’s growth. For someone who initially did not know anything about bodybuilding, she is filled with pride today – looking back on the massive development, of both her own journey as well as Bodybuilding Bros’. She said, “With me, my growth with the page is that is I was someone who never had big information around what exactly bodybuilding is. Venturing to know about bodybuilding and gym community is something I had not done previously.”

“However, when I read about Arnold, and I started learning more about the content and the page, I get a knack of ‘ok this is also something that interests me along with the Olympics.’ So, that’s why I see my growth. That is where I am learning. I am compounding my knowledge by working with the sub-brand day in and out.” reflected Harshita. 

With all the right ingredients in place, Bodybuilding Bros is now working to not only sustain but also increase engagement, by developing content for diverse sets of audiences. Be it through a myriad of content formats for web and social media, or posting revelations around classic bodybuilders. The team is doing its best to bring a bigger change and swing the tide of content consumers’ attention in its favor.

However, the challenge is not that easy, and the relatively new sub-brand has some distance to cover. Currently though, their ongoing resilience and effort is focused on turning the ‘1 million collective followers’ goal into a reality. Based on whatever we know by now – and akin to a bodybuilder’s mentality – we sure believe the team will not rest until they get there!