In today’s social media landscape where likes, comments, and views are widely seen as the metrics for content success, Jamaican sports content creator and entrepreneur, 24-year-old Cydon Bowen, believes authenticity counts for much more. His increasingly popular social media activity, which spans Twitter, YouTube and Instagram, delivers coverage, commentary and interviews offering insights into Jamaican track and field as well as men’s and women’s football.

“I try to not look at likes and views and comments as the only measure anymore,” Bowen said despite significant engagement with audiences.

The content creator explained that various factors such as social media algorithms and even the timing of posts can positively or negatively affect engagement with audiences. In the long term, he believes that it is his connection and rapport with the athletes who are at the centre of his content that will determine his long-term success with audiences through the delivery of genuine, informative and insightful information.

Both famous and emerging athletes have not just communicated to him their enthusiasm for the work he is doing, but they have done so to his audiences as well, which he believes gives him more credibility than the number of likes he receives.

“Jamaican 400 metre hurdler Jaheel Hyde made a post on Instagram,” he related. “He is in Texas and he posted, ‘people, go watch this man, this is what we need’. It’s simple things like that which let me know I am doing good. Andrenette Knight is going to the World Champs. She was at the trials and she was telling me, ‘I always watch your videos and I am glad to see someone is doing this.’ At the national trials there were athletes who are based in the US and I did not know they were watching my track videos and they would see me with my camera and say ,’I love your YouTube videos, by the way’.”

Bowen was pursuing a banking and finance degree with The University of the West Indies in 2020 when the COVID pandemic arrived, locking down the island. It was while social-distancing at home that the realisation set in that he was not enjoying his educational direction and would rather follow his passion for sports by doing content creation.

“Honestly, I saw a need for more organic content locally,” he disclosed. “We have hard journalism and data analysis in traditional media but we need more of the emotional side that connects us to the athlete. You want to be able to go on your phone and feel up close and personal with the athletes, so that was my motivation. This is why I use the tagline ‘sports beyond statistics’.”

But the young entrepreneur did not abandon a formal education while he set up his new business. He switched to a human resource management degree which, again, was in keeping with his desire for authentic and genuine content creation.

He explained the logic behind this.

“A human resource management degree will help me to have better people management skills and relate with people better,” Bowen said. “So even when doing work with athletes, I think every athlete has a different persona. I think the knowledge from a human resource management degree will actually help me in that aspect because you can be doing some work with an athlete and the person is just not connecting. But the knowledge from a human resource management degree can help.”

In the meantime, the content creator took a self-taught approach to his new craft by teaching himself the video editing skills he would need.

“Some people shy away and get afraid of the technical aspect of things,” he said. “But you know when you’re starting something that you aren’t earning from initially, I couldn’t get up and say, OK, let me go hire somebody to edit for me. I had to learn how to do it myself. And I think that works better for me now because it makes all my content have a personal feel to it.”

Bowen’s coverage of track meets and football; behind-the-scenes training sessions in both sports; insightful and revealing discussions with athletes; sprinkled with his own commentary on unfolding events and developments in sports, have attracted corporate interest and sponsorship.

When asked about the monetisation of his content, Bowen mentioned that his YouTube channel is currently not monetised due to the complexities of the process. It is through his corporate sponsors that he makes a living from his work.

“Some of the brands I have worked with include Wata, KFC, Lynk & Jamaica National, to name a few,” he disclosed. “The knowledge I have gathered from my banking and finance studies helped me to properly assess business wise. On the management side of things I also work with Tanya Lee Perkins at LEEP Marketing.”

The entrepreneur insists, however, that the foundation of his content creation journey is passion rather than a purely business motive. His focus remains on a genuine interest in sports and connecting with the people who are the subject matter of his content and those who view his work.

He related a touching experience to make his point.

“I was covering a game in which Central High’s football team was playing and I had covered them before in the Champions Cup,” he said. “A random lady came up to me and said, ‘thank you very much’. I was very confused. But she told me that Central High made it to the final of the DaCosta Cup but they weren’t getting televised matches and she said that I am the only person who interviewed her son during that DaCosta Cup season.”

“I was just standing there frozen,” Bowen recalled. “And she said she really appreciated it because her son did not get any TV interviews and the young man showed her the interview I did with him that was posted on Instagram. She said athletes from the country do not get the same exposure as the ones from Jamaica College and Kingston College and it really hit me. Remember, I go back to what I said earlier, I judge my work based on impact. Somebody saw that video and felt appreciation for it.”

When asked where he would like to be in terms of his business five years from now, Bowen responded: “I hope to be at the various championships covering each event. World Championships, Olympics, World Cups, you name it. I’d like to provide unique content for our national teams and athletes on the global stage.”

Looking even beyond that at his future in sports, Bowen can see himself continuing on this content-focused entrepreneurial trajectory but does not discount exploring other media roles in sports-related fields. He believes that integrating traditional media work could complement his content creation efforts without conflict.

Based on his experience so far, he offered some advice to other young people who may want to create sports content.

“If you want to be a sports content creator, sports is a very wide field,” Bowen said. “Focus on what you actually love. So if you know you love cricket and love West Indies but West Indies is not actually trending, don’t shift away from West Indies. Do what you love because you have the power to get West Indies trending.”