Shark Bait Socials
Shark Bait Socials is run by British adventurer Barry Hayes.
Whilst undertaking his own extreme adventures and being an avid follower of others, he noticed a problem.
When adventure is so extreme that comms are either limited or perhaps not possible at all; the adventurers rely on either family and friends to tell their story to the world on social media, or worse, they employ a regular social media company.
Family and friends are passionate about you – but they probably don’t know much about extreme adventure, they probably don’t know much about social media, and they are probably short on time.
Social media companies are great at social media until the point at which they realise that you are going to be sending back two thirds of nothing. At this point they tend to panic and create little more than a 30+ day count down on your timeline, all the while shedding followers until you arrive at your destination. They don’t have the knowledge or experience of extreme adventure to be able to fill in the very large blanks, and they are unlikely to have the passion to learn.
What was really needed was someone that has a wealth of extreme adventure experience, someone that was passionate about other people’s success in the world of adventure, someone that takes no days off, someone that has advanced IT skills to create graphical content to illustrate the narrative when there is nothing coming back, and someone that can tell a great story to a social media audience.
Enter Shark Bait Socials, stage left.
A completely customisable service, telling your story on any social media platform, making you the hero of your own adventure.
What does SBS do?
Simply put, we tell your incredible story on social media platforms, as your story is happening. And we tell that story from a position of experience, empathy and excellence.
To tell the story of an adventure that may include significant risk, as it is happening, requires very fine balance. Whilst it’s important to keep it light and entertaining to increase engagement and enjoyment for your audience – it’s equally important to take the campaign to a more meaningful level to ensure your supporters get a glimpse of the kind of extremes you are facing, whilst at the same time ensuring the story is told sympathetically and in a way that will not cause undue stress to loved ones.
For some people, a social media campaign is not important, and that’s absolutely understandable. But for the rest of the adventurers out there that want their sponsors satiated, that want their story telling to the world, and that want their families fully informed…this is what we do best.
Aside from telling your story, we’ll work with you to help ensure that you have the right equipment and technology in order to communicate back to base as best as possible (or as much or as little as you want to) where ever you are in the world. Whether that be direct support from ourselves, or by connecting you with the leading experts.
We offer offline support to families and friends that may need a more detailed picture, and we will work with your sponsors and supporters to provide internal written communications for their businesses, as you see fit.
Our aim is quite simply to tell the best possible version of your amazing story.
Barry Hayes
In 2013 after his dad clumsily fell into a coma at a relatively young age, he realised the importance of filling life with amazing experiences – and with that he rowed across the Pacific Ocean.
Having never rowed a boat before making this decision, and with his ocean experience being confined to a drunken ferry trip to France, it was quite an extreme undertaking.
The crossing was life changing – he quickly realised the powerful space that lies outside of your comfort zone, and how that space is where all the magic happens.
He went on to row the Indian Ocean in 70 days as an independent and has spent the rest of his time supporting other adventurers in achieving their own extreme adventure goals.
Barry lives in North Wales with his family and his two dogs.
One day he’d like to add a solo ocean row to his CV.
