There are times when some wonder if a race track is behind the times when it comes to marketing and promotions. To be honest, many are right on track or even ahead of the curve.
At the recent Racing Promotors Monthly Workshops in Reno, NV I sat in a workshop that discussed social media which includes using websites like Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, etc. Seth Sands of Skagit Speedway, an ASA Member Track, in Burlington, WA moderated the workshop where he provided a lot of information and suggestions for the promoters.
Sands called social media a “word of mouth on steroids” because most of these sites do not charge for you to get your message out to a mass of people.
One thing he pointed out was how Facebook is designed for friends to stay connected and for old friends to get re-connected. He also stated that 78% of people trust their peers and friends, meaning that if friends help promote your track or series, a lot of people are going to believe what you say about how entertaining going to a local track every week really is.
The funny thing with social media sites like Facebook, many think that its only attracting a younger demographic. Back in July, iStrategyLabs released a report that showed the number of U.S. high school and college-age users declined while its popularity among the 55-and-older crowd had an increase of 513.7%. It also shows a 190.2% growth in the 35-to-54-year-olds as well.
It’s not just on Facebook but on Twitter as well as ComScore Inc. report back in April showed that people aged 45 to 54 are 36% more likely to use Twitter than any other age group.
Overall Facebook had an increase of users of 70.8% with 54.6% being females.
When the group of promoters were polled in the session of how many already had a personal Facebook page, over 3/4 of them raised their hands. And this should not be a surprise, but of those who raised their hands, also had a fan page set up for their track or series.
Some track promoters are already catching on to the Facebook and Twitter bandwagon. Joe Doellefeld, current RPM Promoter of the Year, talked about how one night at his State Line Stadium Speedway in Post Falls, WA, he put a “Tweet” offering heavily discounted priced beer for the next five minutes during his racing program. As soon as he sent the tweet, people started heading to the beer stand. He then realized that Twitter news does go fast and had to run to tell his beerstand employees about the quick promotion.
A few months ago, I used Twitter as a way of communicating to the thousands of fans in attendence at the Oktoberfest Race Weekend at the La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway in West Salem, WI. The fans who were staying in the campground or nearby were kept informed to on track activities, weather updates and 50/50 raffle numbers. It is simply another way of communicating information.
Social media can be a successful tool for the local tracks and series if they use it to their advantage and has someone that has the time to do this for them. This is probably something for their public relations director.
There are ways to work around this tough economy and be successful. It simply comes down to thinking out of the box and taking advantage of what is out there.
