Building the digital campfire through creative social
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When I joined the social team at MeatEater, there was a clear opportunity to evolve the brand’s presence. Platforms were stagnant, content strategy lacked cohesion, and tone was inconsistent across channels. The work required sharpening core frameworks, aligning creative with audience behavior, and building systems that could sustain growth year over year.
The efforts we took to establish a better content & social strategy carried us past 935-million combined impressions in 2025 across all platforms.
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MeatEater’s audience spans hunters, anglers, cooks, and conservation advocates. Each group interacts differently with social platforms. Organic reach was fragmented and engagement inconsistent. The work needed:
A clearer strategic anchor for creative
Tactical content that could be shared, not just viewed
Iterative systems that connected long-form narrative with short-form execution
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I anchored our social strategy around one guiding principle:
Content must be not just seen — but shared.
This meant:
Prioritizing culturally relevant hooks that feel native to platform behaviors
Leaning into moments that encourage conversation, not just impressions
Testing formats aggressively to surface what earns attention rather than what looks polished
Our work wasn’t about chasing virality. It was about consistency with intent, so every piece served both audience and brand.
2025 social year in review
Creative Moment: April Fools Campaign
On April Fools’ Day, a playful ad concept based on behind-the-scenes assets of a key brand figure translated into viral-level reach. This content didn’t just get seen — it drove genuine engagement, proving that purposeful humor built around brand context works harder than polished posts without intent.
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400,000+ reach
20,000+ engagements
300+ comments
These numbers reflect not noise, but relevant activity from the right audience.
Smoke it slow this 4/20
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According to Forbes, nearly 40% of U.S. cannabis consumers treat April 20th like a holiday. Even more surprising, the CDC reports that 52 million people use cannabis.
One of the reasons I joined the MeatEater team was to bring fresh ideas—some that challenge the norm. I wrote this skit to authentically tap into the social holiday, staying true to the MeatEater brand while adding our unique spin.
The result? It resonated with audiences across all platforms, earning over 3K shares on Instagram alone.
The summer of 2025
The threat to public lands reached a new high in May 2025 when Senator Mike Lee of Utah proposed selling off up to 3 million acres of USFS and BLM land across the western U.S.—Montana being the sole state spared. His proposal would have privatized vast swaths of public ground under the banner of affordable housing, effectively cutting off access to the places we hunt, fish, and roam freely.
In response, a coalition of outdoor brands sprang into action to push back against the proposal.
MeatEater was on the frontlines of the fight—raising awareness, rallying our audience, and keeping the hunting community informed every step of the way.
Thanks to relentless effort and a groundswell of support, the issue caught fire. Voices like the Shawn Ryan Show and Joe Rogan joined in, amplifying the message and putting public pressure where it mattered most.
May 9, 2025: The Starting Point
Over half a million acres of public ground—BLM and Forest Service land—is being eyed for the auction block.
The kind of country where we hunt, fish, and lose ourselves in something wild.
This land doesn’t belong to politicians or profiteers. It belongs to the American people.
May 21, 2025: New discoveries
Turns out it’s not just 500,000 acres on the chopping block—it’s nearly 1.5 million. That’s what the latest report from OnX shows. Triple what had previously been reported.
And it doesn’t end there. The bill also opens the door to high-risk development in places like the Brooks Range and the Boundary Waters.
The House of Representatives is likely to vote on passage of this bill soon and if the public land sale is included, the fight will move to the Senate.
Call (202) 224 3121 and tell your rep and senators to stand up and push back. This isn’t just about paperwork—it’s about losing the wild ground that’s shaped who we are.
June 12, 2025: Senator Mike Lee
The latest addition to the Senate budget bill, pushed by Sen. Mike Lee, would force the sale of 2-3 million acres of BLM and Forest Service land across 12 Western states.
They’re calling it a solution for housing and development. But let’s not kid ourselves—this is about losing access. Losing the ground that generations of hunters, anglers, and outdoor folks have relied on. It’s about selling off the wild places that feed our freezers, teach our kids, and remind us what it means to be connected to the land.
For months now, hunters, anglers, conservationists—and anyone who gives a damn—have been pushing back. But the fight isn’t over.
Call (202) 224 3121 and tell your senators to stand up for our public lands. Support groups like the The TRCP and Backcountry Hunters & Anglers. They’re in the trenches every day, fighting to keep these places wild and in public hands—where they belong.
June 18, 2025: Up to 250m acres
Another update in this fast-changing rat race towards selling off public lands. A new Senate bill could open the door to selling off as much as 250 million acres of public land across 11 Western states. That’s more land than the size of Texas.
While not all of it will be sold, the bill mandates that at least 2 to 3 million acres must be sold over the next five years. Most of it is far from cities and nowhere near what you’d call “housing-friendly.” But it is the land we hunt, fish, hike, and pass down.
June 20, 2025: Continued awareness
If the game belongs to the people, then it belongs to the quiet kid who’ll one day cast their first fly or notch their first tag. Not to the folks auctioning off the view.
The number is (202) 224 3121. Tell your senators to protect our public lands.
June 25, 2025: Flood the lines
Public lands don’t stay public by accident. They stay public because people fight for them.
Today’s that fight.
Lawmakers are lining up to sell off millions of acres of wild ground. We need 25,000 calls to the Senate today to shut it down.
Pick up the phone. Call (202) 224-3121. Tell your senators: not one acre. Not now. Not ever.
This is the line. Stand on it.
June 25, 2025: Sustainment
These wild places don’t just hold our footsteps—they hold our story.
Pick up the phone. Call (202) 224 3121. Tell your senators: not one acre.
Timeline of events…
June 28, 2025: The public wins
Every now and then, the good guys win.
Because of thousands of voices—yours included—millions of acres of public land were struck from the chopping block. The threat’s been erased from the bill. Not walked back. Not delayed. Erased.
It’s the kind of victory that doesn’t make headlines, but it ought to. Because this wasn’t just about keeping some remote corner of the West intact. It was about defending an idea. That this land belongs to all of us. That access to wild places isn’t a luxury—it’s a right earned and protected by citizens willing to speak up.
Teddy Roosevelt once said, “A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.” And this week, the American people proved their character.
But let’s not mistake this for the end. This was one battle. There’ll be more.
So take a moment. Step outside. Breathe it in. The land’s still ours—for now.
Let’s keep it that way.
Public lands under threat
In the second quarter, MeatEater faced a moment where sitting quietly was not an option.
As lawmakers advanced a proposal that could have resulted in the sale of millions of acres of public land, we made a deliberate decision to use the platform for direct action. The goal was not awareness for awareness’s sake. It was to inform, mobilize, and apply pressure while the outcome was still undecided.
From April through June, we published more than 60 conservation focused posts across Facebook, including educational articles, photo carousels, video, and urgent text based calls to action.
More importantly, the content reached well beyond MeatEater’s core audience. Hunters, anglers, and outdoor advocates who had never engaged with the brand before were activated by the clarity and urgency of the message.
Working in coordination with partner organizations, our content drove tens of thousands of calls to Congress and the Senate. This was not passive engagement. It was action.
The proposal was ultimately defeated.
We did not sit on the sidelines. We used the platform to educate, the reach to mobilize, and the credibility of the brand to unify a fragmented audience behind a single position.
Public lands are not for sale.
This work reinforced a core belief. When purpose and platform are aligned, social media stops being content and starts being leverage.
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12 million impressions
752,000 engagements
50,000 link clicks