If you are a student at the University of Tennessee with an Instagram account, odds are you’re one of the 175K people following @barstooltenn or one of the 39.5K people following @sixpackvols.

As you’re getting sports news or campus updates from these accounts, have you ever paused to wonder who’s behind it all? Who are the ones doing the research and creating graphics so you get to see visually appealing, easily digestible, relevant content on your feeds every day?

The answer is fellow UT students. But how did they come to be the ones in charge of these massive accounts, each an offshoot of an even larger brand?

Collin Tornstrom, a senior marketing major with a collateral in entrepreneurship, runs the SixPackVols account. It’s essentially a one-man show, with Tornstrom taking charge of finding story leads, booking partnerships, and creating and posting graphics for the Instagram page. He’s run the account for three years as its social media manager.

Tornstrom got his start posting to social media in high school, where he gained a large following.

“Coming into college freshman year, I had 2.7 million followers on TikTok and just under 160,000 on Instagram, so I felt pretty set coming into college,” Tornstrom said.

In 2023, Andrew Grayson, the founder of Six Pack Coverage, reached out to Tornstrom. At the time, another student ran the SixPackVols account. Grayson wanted another influencer on deck, and the two struck a deal where Tornstrom would take over the account on the promise of doubling its following.

“I picked it up at about 14,000 followers. … A couple months later we were at about 30,000 followers, and then it took off from there,” Tornstrom said.

In addition to gaining new followers, Tornstrom took on other responsibilities to grow the account.

“(Grayson) hooked me up with SixPackVols, and I do everything from creating the posts, to reaching out, doing research, finding information and then on the back end of it I’m reaching out to bars, restaurants, events, looking for people that want to advertise using our following,” Tornstrom said.

Tornstrom recognized that there are multiple college pages with various niches like sports news or memes. He wanted to grow SixPackVols into something that more closely resembles a business.

“We’re able to post stories and give entertainment where it’s also subtly advertising,” Tornstrom said. “It’s a win-win-win — it’s fun for me to do, companies can advertise through it, and I feel like the student body gets its information and news from us. It’s kind of a one-stop hub for all things UT.”

While Tornstrom is the only social media manager for SixPackVols, there are opportunities for other students to get involved when there are shows or events on campus. Tornstrom said the best way to get involved is to direct message the account expressing interest.

As Tornstrom’s upcoming graduation in May comes closer, he and Grayson are preparing for the future of SixPackVols. They already have a younger student in mind to potentially pass the torch onto, though Tornstrom expressed interest in a continued involvement with SixPackVols post-grad, perhaps in a managerial role.

While SixPackVols is facing an upcoming transitional period, the Barstool Tennessee team likely has another few years before they need to start training the next generation of social media managers.

Eli Baker is a sophomore advertising major. Not only is he a graphic design intern at Tennessee Athletics, but he’s a social media viceroy for Barstool Tennessee. Baker is one of three students running the Barstool Tennessee account alongside fellow sophomores Lucas Hollifield and Silas Bryant.

“We do everything from content calendars to planning out social posts. We go to basically every sporting event to try to cover it. A lot of our content is sports-focused. We do final scores, which are graphics,” Baker said.

Baker got the role a year ago. He saw a post on the account searching for people who knew how to edit and who could take on the position from the then-graduating social media viceroy. Though they aren’t looking to expand their numbers, the team occasionally seeks outside help to record a sporting event if none of them can attend.

“We like to keep it smaller,” Baker said. “It’s just going to be us three, and then our senior year, we’re going to do the same thing and pick out three more guys to do it.”

While Barstool’s main focus is sports news, Baker says they are looking to post more student content in the future.

“We get tons of submissions of people sending in funny videos and stuff like that. … We want to be better at posting student life and pushing that, as well as pushing the sports side,” he said.

As a part of Barstool’s viceroy program, Barstool Tennessee is required to make certain posts. Most of the content is up to the social media team’s discretion.

“It’s just us making our own content, posting our own content, just under the Barstool umbrella,” said Baker.

Baker has enjoyed his role as social media viceroy, saying it has led to many cool opportunities, including talking with UT athletes like Cade Phillips.

“We try our best to put out the best stuff that we can, always. We don’t always post as much as maybe we should, but when we do post, we make sure it’s good stuff. We’re very confident in our ability to put out quality content,” Baker said.

Followers of the account can look forward to many more Good Boy Friday posts featuring their orange-clad furry friends, and should stay tuned for more sports updates and student life content.