racing against the algorithm: How Emīls Grintāls turns motorsport moments into social media gold
In the high-octane world of motorsport, speed isn’t just reserved for the track. Behind the scenes, social media managers like Emīls Grintāls are racing against time to capture the attention of fans in a digital arena where algorithms can shift faster than a pit stop.
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Grintāls, who has worked with drivers and teams in prestigious competitions like the World Rallycross Championship, is no stranger to the challenges of navigating the unpredictable nature of social media. “Sometimes you create a good post, or you know, you think that’s going to be a hit... and it goes absolutely nowhere because the algorithm has changed,” he explained during on the Sector 1 Motorsport Podcast in partnership with Formula Careers.
In a world where strategies can be upended overnight by a tweak in platform code, Grintāls admits it’s an ongoing battle to stay on top of trends. “We live in that era right now... it’s important to be different, but at the same time, you have to kind of be on the same wave as the others to reach something.” It’s this balancing act between standing out and blending in that makes his job both exhilarating and challenging.
Despite meticulous planning, social media’s unpredictability can often throw a wrench into even the best-laid plans. Grintāls knows this all too well, having experienced both the highs of viral success and the lows of posts that land with a thud. “It has definitely happened... the thing you spent a week making just flops,” he confessed. Hours of back-and-forth with designers, painstaking revisions, and countless approvals can amount to little more than a few clicks.
Yet, the true magic of social media lies in its spontaneity—something Grintāls learned firsthand during the Rally Chile. A Latvian driver lost the rear wing of his car during the rally, and with the event still unfolding, Grintāls seized the moment. In just minutes, he whipped up a lighthearted “missing poster” for the wing and posted it on Twitter. “It was like a minute, two-minutes, to get it out there... and it went well on Twitter,” he recalled, smiling at the memory. In contrast, posts that required days of preparation and editing sometimes fell flat.
His story highlights a truth well-known in the social media industry: success can be as much about timing and intuition as it is about careful curation. “Sometimes you just get into the right time... you have an idea, it’s still relevant, and people are talking about it,” he explained. It’s the immediacy of the medium that allows Grintāls to turn fleeting moments into viral sensations.
Listen to the full interview with Emīls Grintāls here:
