Students in Content Strategy Course Interview World Champion Mountain Biker-Turned-Coach

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Anneke Beerten, three-time world champion mountain biker and coach

On Monday of this week, students in Adam R. Pope's Content Strategy and Online Writing (ENGL 49003) interviewed three-time world champion mountain biker Anneke Beerten about her social media work and content strategy.

Beerten, now retired from racing on the professional mountain bike circuit, has lived in Northwest Arkansas since 2022, focusing on mountain bike coaching through her Crank It Up MTB coaching program. As part of her work as a coach, she also creates content for social media platforms Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

As Pope explained, "Coordinating with sponsors, sharing snippets from her own riding and coordinating with other creators, Beerten is stellar example of the modern content creator who uses social media to build an online community while also directing potential clients to her coaching program and maintaining relationships with sponsors and partner organizations."

Students were able to talk with Beerten on subjects ranging from her content creation strategies, her work with sponsors and the ways that she shapes and maintains her online persona while running her coaching business.

"The students are learning about how to plan and audit the content plans of an organization, but that only goes so far when you're working in a theoretical space," Pope said. "In order to help students apply what we are learning, we're working with a local client organization this semester in addition to interviewing creators and brand representatives to inquire how they create and maintain content that meets the grueling scheduling demands of modern social media."

Content Strategy and Online Writing (ENGL 49003) is an offering that is part of the concentration in rhetoric and writing studies in the English major, as well as part of the rhetoric and writing studies minor, available to all undergrads at the U of A.