Change is never seen as a good thing, especially in the motorsports industry, but the pushback on the Facebook Timeline for businesses is perplexing. Never before have tracks, series and drivers on Facebook had such a great way to connect to their fans. Deeper engagement possibilities, better Insights (stats) and tools to reach new fans each and every week. Here are a few things you should be embracing in the new Facebook for your brand.

Facebook Cover Photo. Highlighting your sponsors, track and fans has never been this easy on your page. Heck, you could even go a step further and use it as another revenue stream for yourself. Next Events, upcoming specials, fan contests. The possibilities of what you can do with that space is endless. Don’t be bound by just throwing up a photo of racing action. (The ideal dimension for a cover photo is 850 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall.)

Insights. Facebook has steadily improved their stats resource with each feature rollout. There are amazing details about your visitors and who they are connected to. The most important stat you have at your disposal is the “Friends of Fans” Many will see this number in the millions. These are people that you can reach by getting your fans to share with their friends. Look at them as potential customers. Hold sharing and “liking” contests. Growing organically (Virally) is a great way to reach someone that might just become a paying fan for life. (1% of 1M is still 10K Fans)

Fresh Content. With the new Timeline you can no longer use “landing pages.” It is actually a good change that takes away the crutch of not posting often and providing your fans with new items everyday. Fresh content is the most effective way to drive new traffic to the your page. Ask questions, create polls, and post fresh content designed to provoke responses and make your stream an active discussion.

Don’t be Afraid. We as a group in short track racing need to stop worrying about every change social media brings. It is an evolving platform that even the most savvy users are still experimenting with. Post fresh, post often and engage the fans that using your page. Sites like Facebook are not going away. It is a free platform that can help you if you take a little time to engage with it.

When is the last time you have updated your information on Google Maps for your track?

There are some easy steps to makes sure what you want is posted.

1. Search your name on Google Maps or Bing

2. Click your Track Name.

3. Make sure your business is verified using the “Business Owner” Feature.

4. Upload Current Photos of the track.

5. Check reviews, ask fans to write new ones!

The process is easy to make sure you have the correct info in the directory.

Spreading the word about your track is so very important. Tracks are spending thousands of dollars in old media (radio/paper) to try and hook a handful of fans each week to check out what they have to offer. Reaching new fans might be easier than you think, with little to no work on your part.

Almost every mobile photo/social app is tied to either Facebook, foursquare, or twitter location based service networks. Many users share info on their location each time they take a photo, write a status or make a comment. Often without even knowing they are doing it.

With the average user having over 300 friends in their network, you can literally reach thousands by simply getting a few current fans to post each week about the track.

Foursquare is a growing check-in service used by more than 10 Million people currently. An untapped market in the short track world, you should consider forming contests, prizes and discounts to those fans willing to share their location each week to their non-racing friends across their social networks.

Some examples…

Have a contest for “Mayor” of your track on Foursquare. Give a prize to the fan that checks in most during the season and gets the top spot.

Give out prizes to the best shared photo of a fan and their friends at the track.

Give a discount to the most creative check-in status each week.

Draw a random prize from all of the people that tagged your track on race day.

The possibilities are endless. The point is making sure your track is repeatedly put on display in front of thousands of networked friends across all of the social networks in 2012. For the cost of a couple radio spots, you really can reach people you know are listening.

According to this Mashable Article Generation-Y (Millennials) will be 75% of the work force by 2025. Now is the time to court the next generation of race fan.

They are not easily impressed, nor do they fall for gimmicks in social media. They have seen every meme and live their life through a mobile app, everyday. They share EVERYTHING. They average 696 Facebook “Friends.” One connection (new fan) might just mean a huge return on investment.

Our short track focus needs to be fresh, new and original. Just as large corporations will need to court this group to be workers, we will need to make them fans.

No time like the present.



#NewMedia is not simply covering short track racing LIVE. Social/Viral is #newmedia. They are not the same and definitely NOT equal, especially if you aren’t pushing the envelope.

Stop with the false hope that short track racing is going to be rescued by LIVE (or even delayed) coverage, whether it be audio, video or text. It is simply a way to pat ourselves on the back by giving people that are already fans of a track, series or division a way to see an event by NOT being there. If you are dedicated enough to sit and stare or listen to your computer, you are already spending your money at a race track weekly, somewhere.

There is definitely a place for LIVE coverage, but do not believe it is building a new fan base. It most certainly is not. I know plenty of “non-fans” and they are not sitting on their couch thinking to themselves, “If only I had something to watch or listen to on my computer.” It doesn’t happen and never will. It is a butt in the seat business, not a butt on the couch business.

#NewMedia is about being in the face of non-fans where they are. The millennial generation is over stimulated, over caffeinated (i.e. Jenna Marbles) and isn’t impressed by a video/stream they could have made while they were in grade school. It’s about being original (i.e. Coca-Cola Happiness/Old Spice Viral Marketing). Like it or not, these are your future fans.

Tie your brand (track/series/event) to a story. Heck, even Budweiser® learned from someone else how to do it. (http://www.unmarketing.com/2012/02/02/how-budweiser-just-won-the-superbowl-and-the-internet/)

You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to get hits from new fans. Get them hooked by making them love your your originality.
 Sadly, the sound of motors is no longer enough.

The social blogging site Tumblr is seeing it’s use skyrocket after the first month of 2012. The site has reached 15 billion (yes, billion) monthly page views, and over 120 million unique IPs. A 200% year to year increase that shows the popularity of the new social site.

As we have mentioned before, to reach new markets for your motor sports operation, now is the time to experiment with these new media sites. Tumblr is free to use and promote your track, drivers and sponsors. It is a great way to get video, audio, photos and small snippets of news spread among your social media sites. Plus, you never know who will spread your content to their friends and “reblog” you.

Full Mashable Article on the Numbers

Starving for new ideas to keep your fans engaged in the off-season? Market to them and get them involved by rewarding them with a “Fan of the Week.” Not only will they appreciate the acknowledgment, but they just might share it and spread the network through all of their family and friends.

We really love the relationship that we have with our fans and potential customers, so we like to show the world. Every week on our Facebook page, we highlight one of our fans as “Fan of the Week.” This is fun because their love for our company is displayed to our fans, and that person will then share it with their own network. – Andrew Saladino, Just Bath Vanities.

More Examples from Mashable

Where are your Facebook fans looking? It might not be where you think. In a new Mashable research article they tracked how brand pages were “looked” at. Content, as always, is key.

Mashable Article on the Full Break Down

As always, the one with the most pictures wins!

Social Media isn’t confined to Facebook. If your track/series or a driver and not using Twitter, now is a good time to start. Today Twitter launched a redesign to it’s pages, along with new Mobile Apps and the popular TweetDeck they purchased some months ago.

New Features
Page Redesign
Embeddable Tweets
Brand Pages

It’s starting to look a lot like, dare we say… Facebook.

Keeping news going in the off-season is usually the hardest part of a track/series media person’s job. The ASA Midwest Tour has found a unique way to keep fans engaged on their social media during the downtime. Promoting Series and Driver Sponsors through their Facebook page has not only helped market their teams, but they have kept their fans clicking.

ASA Midwest Tour Facebook Page