Elizabeth Pehota is spinning around in a circle. Behind her is the Gillette Stadium pitch.With her mobile phone, the 32-year-old former cheerleader is capturing content for social media.Just before the end of Scotland’s World Cup opener against Haiti, Pehota, who has worked as a host and reporter for MLS side New England Revolution, runs around the stadium’s concourse filming her latest ‘World Cupdates’ instalment. The concept is simple: Every day during the World Cup, she will run and talk about some of the tournament’s biggest talking points.“What I am trying to do with my series is merge my love for running and my love for soccer,” said Pehota, who has completed 17 marathons, including all seven world majors, and once held the Guinness world record for the fastest female marathon runner with multiple sclerosis, a condition that affects the brain and spinal cord.Pehota, originally from Connecticut, has a background in sports journalism and is now creating content as a full-time job. On her Instagram running and lifestyle account, she has built a community of almost 50,000 followers and gained a new audience. One video running with a Scotland fan gathered 177,000 views and another, which showed Scotland fans simply partying, brought in 513,000 views.The American is not alone in her pursuit of community, connection, views and followers at this World Cup.The Athletic spoke to five content creators who are using the World Cup to bolster their brand and found their experiences to be wide-ranging as they navigate an ever-changing, competitive sphere. They have increased their followers, some have also felt pressure in having to constantly create, but all used the same word to describe why they were at the World Cup: opportunity.Elizabeth Pehota at the Boston Stadium (Caoimhe O’Neill/The Athletic)At this tournament, football, fashion, food, fans and various cultures have collided and been played out on smartphones. We watched Scotland fans drink Boston dry, Norway fans brought their Viking Row to Times Square and captured the imagination, while Merlin the duck waddled around Mexico City in his Mexico jersey.Ahead of the World Cup, Rollo Goldstaub, head of global sport at TikTok, predicted the tournament could be “the largest content moment across all categories, not just sports”, partly because of the expanded 48-team format, he said, and that it is being hosted in three countries and the excitement among fans.TikTok are already seeing instant results. As of June 30, the hashtag “FIFAWorldCup” had been used 9.4million times; total posts using “WorldCup” as a hashtag increased almost 65 per cent and searches in the U.S. using the words World Cup had risen by 320 per cent.But while some moments are predictably — and easily — going to strike a chord on social media, other viral moments are unexpected.With the tournament looming, broadcaster Nimi Mehta, who had a screen test in Los Angeles with Fox Sports, didn’t have her dream role locked down. With 38 days to go, in a last-ditch attempt to work at the World Cup, she posted a video on social media telling people she was looking for work. “My goal is to become one of the top female sports broadcasters in the world, but that isn’t what it used to be anymore,” the 35-year-old Londoner, who has nearly 140,000 Instagram followers, told The Athletic. “There are almost more eyes on social media content than you would get on broadcast nowadays.”Mehta’s video was viewed over one million times on Instagram and landed her a number of roles at the tournament, working as a presenter and content creator for FIFA, Adidas, UK publisher Mirror Sport and more.