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It’s hard to compete in the social media game. Influencing is not as easy as it seems and being able to sell yourself as a brand is difficult to achieve for most people.
Professional wrestling figures like Richard Holliday and Ben Bishop have masterfully created a marketing game that has made them two of the most recognized artists on the independent scene. The two fighters have thousands of followers on multiple social media platforms.
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Professional wrestler Dono Hefner is looking to make a name for himself on the indies. (Provided to Pak Gazette Digital)
Dono Henfer is taking a page out of his playbook.
Fans may not know the name yet, but he is working hard to use social media to his advantage. Inspired by Holliday, Bishop and Tommy Invincible, Hefner told Pak Gazette Digital that social media is a key tool for anyone approaching independent films.
“Richard Holliday is a person I admire right now on the independent scene. I feel like he’s very smart. He’s putting himself and his brand out there,” he told Pak Gazette Digital in a recent interview. “A lot of people don’t use social media to their advantage. I feel like if that’s a tool that you need in the world of professional wrestling, I feel like a lot of people like that.
“Not many people use social media to their advantage like him, Ben Bishop, Tommy Invincible, all those guys. They’re all smart. And that’s what I’m doing now. I post every day.”
Most importantly, Hefner emphasized, you never know who might be watching on the other end of the line.
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“No matter what it is, I always think of new ideas. I always come up with a new way to expose myself, to expose my brand, because you never know who’s watching,” he said. “Whether it’s 100 views, 500, 1,000, you never know who’s behind that screen watching. People have their opinions on what you post, they have their opinions on what you do, it doesn’t matter. It could be someone in WWE watching your stuff and you don’t know because Instagram doesn’t tell you who’s watching your stuff.”
Professional wrestler Dono Hefner walks through the curtain. (Provided to Pak Gazette Digital)
Hefner said he got into professional wrestling by watching it as a child and wanted to take a different path after high school.
He told Pak Gazette Digital that he took a risk by stepping into the ring.
“Of course, I always loved wrestling since I was a little kid and as time went on, when I got older and got into high school, I thought, ‘What do I want to do with my life?’ “No type of career, no type of job, none of that interested me,” he said. “Wrestling has been with me since I was 5 or 6. So I thought, you know what? Let me be that different kind of bubble.
“Not everyone can say they’re a fighter. People are doctors and nurses and all that. So I said, you know, let’s try it. You only live once.”
Right now, as he looks to get booked as much as possible, Hefner said he will continue to ride the wave of professional wrestling for as long as possible.
“It’s good to have an end goal, right? But I think about where, as time goes by, where it will take me. I’m here for the journey, whether it’s 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, people have their own stories, people carve their own paths,” he said. “Wherever I end up, wherever I am, that’s where I’ll be. I don’t really set a goal for myself.”
Dono Hefner performs a moonsault. (Provided to Pak Gazette Digital)
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Hefner said he’s “all over the place” in terms of where he’ll fight next. He said he will be in Puerto Rico on June 13.
