Short Tracks vs. Social Media7/19/2016 Is there a war between some short track promoters and social media or is it more about finding the best way for each side to work with each other?
This discussion is also open to any kind of use of anything that could be labeled as a live broadcast or updates, the “As it happens” moments. Recently, some members of the media shared their frustrations on social media about how short tracks are putting up a wall regarding the use of social media as an event is going on. They have fair arguments from that it help provides exposure and creates more interest when a local event is shared through their followers, which can be looked at as a national audience. They will also make a good argument that how they provide live coverage of an event doesn’t provide the same feeling and excitement if you were there to see it live in person. Many times, these discussions come up when it is a big, well known short track event, and most of the time it involves a NASCAR driver competing in the event. Those who cover Sprint Cup races on a weekly basis will make a trek to a short track because it is always a fascinating story when a top driver goes back to their roots and competes. Let’s be honest, not many other sports see this kind of participation. A minor league baseball team may get a top player if they need a game or two to complete their injury rehabilitation. Sadly, for many tracks, this is about the only time local and national media visit their track during the year. Once in a while, some will come of a weekly show for a feature story on a local talent. These big events, believe it or not, can make or break a season for the track promoter. With that in mind, they want to sell every seat, every can of beer, every hamburger, etc. they can that night. God forbid if the local weatherman even says the “R” word remotely in their broadcast the night before the event. For many promoters, they are taking a huge risk with a big event. With this huge risk, they get very protective about their event and most of the time, tighten the leash on who gets in for free, and this includes the media. In the past, media was not a big concern when it came to covering an event. Articles wouldn’t appear until the next edition of a newspaper or magazine, news stories wouldn’t appear until later that night or the next day. But now, social media is here. Social media is changing the landscape just like how CNN changed how news is reported when it came out in the early 1980’s with the 24/7 news cycle. Social media is bringing that up to the minute, 24/7 cycle to all of our lives whether it is on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. You get news with seconds of something happening. In 2014, I visited 35 different tracks in 16 states and one Canadian province. I met a great variety of promoters who each have their thoughts of how to run their tracks/series. Believe it or not, promoters don’t all share the same opinion of when it comes to social media. Some feel that it is a great form of advertising at a really low to next to nothing cost. Some like the interaction opportunity, they can get a good pulse on what their audience wants and enjoys about their events. Some see it as a way to provide lineups, lap times, etc. to the race teams. There are some promoters who do not see social media eating into their profits. They see it more as a benefit then a headache. They look at live updates and coverages as a promotional tool for the future of their track/series. On the flip side, there are some who see it as a headache and each of us needs to respect their feelings on it. Like I just said, some do see it as a promotional tool for the future. Yet, some see a different vision. Gregg McKarns, who owns Madison International Speedway in Wisconsin and the ARCA Midwest Tour, recently gave a perspective about social media and live updates that is worth thinking about. In a recent Facebook post, McKarns shared this thought… “Look at NASCAR, they have created a situation where you no longer have to attend or even tune-in to know what is happening. We are on the verge of creating this in short track racing. I do not fault those doing it, as they are all passionate about our sport and I don't believe are being malicious. They do need to understand that they are helping create a culture where you no longer have to go to an event to be part of it, that's dangerous for our industry and other industries like ours. I do feel we can use this technology to broadcast snippets of the excitement as there is still something very cool about short track auto racing.” We need to understand both sides of this situation and respect it. We don’t need to blast someone on social media for having an opposite view of what we have when it comes to the use of social media. Like I said, there are some promoters who like the idea of live updates and there are some who feel that it allows the opportunity for someone to stay home. Those who rely on those live updates are all not the ones that feel it is less expensive to stay home then give their hard earned money to the tracks to see it for themselves. Promoters understand that people do work or live too far away and they do appreciate their continued interest in their tracks/series. But they feel that those who paid to see it in person should know the outcome a lot sooner than those who didn’t pay. As far as the argument that it is too expensive, there are two things to consider. First, realize that the cost to operate, pay the purse, employee salaries, etc. are mostly based on what comes through their gates, most of the time what comes through the gate that night. They don’t have a major corporation funding them. This is truly, in essence, a mom and pop business. Second, have you been to a movie theatre lately? Check out the admission and concession prices and compare, you won’t see much of a difference. If a movie can rake in $80 million in a weekend, then short tracks would be in real good shape. This is all about respect and helping the tracks. I recently made this suggestion on my Facebook page. “Alright auto racing friends...going to give you a new challenge. When does your favorite track/series race again? OK...for example if you say Friday...then I want you to start doing this. On Wednesday, post that your track/series is racing Friday night. Promote it, provide details of what time it starts, how much, what divisions are racing, etc. Key thing...make sure the track/series is tagged in your post. That way fans can click on the tag and visit their social media page and the track/series will see you posted that. Post at various times of the day because your friends may not look at their feed in the morning but in afternoon or vice versa. Spread the word through social media about a race event 48 hours before not 48 minutes before or 48 minutes into the race race event. Let's use social media as the most inexpensive form of advertising of what we love being a part of. #ShortTrack48Hours” Finally, one thing that I have found a consensus with all around is the use of Facebook Live and Periscope to broadcast live events from your smartphone. Remember this; you paid your way in, not your viewers. Enjoy the show you paid for and not focus on producing a product for them. Social Media is here to stay and it’s something all promoters need to find a way to embrace it to their advantage and profit from it.
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I was looking at the upcoming my local minor league’s baseball team schedule and saw an upcoming promotion called “Social Media Night.” I saw that and it caught my interest.
Why did it capture my attention? One big reason is that I have personally seen more creative marketing and promotions from these minor league teams that, for many years, have been screaming at promoters to attend their games on non-race nights and take notes. Oh I know, some of you (promoters, race teams and fans) are already screaming that a racetrack and ballpark are nothing close to being like each other. I would argue that both are providing a sports entertainment event. Both are trying to take a sport and provide an entertaining evening for fans that will create a need for them to come back to the next event, even bring more people with them. Some promoters see social media as more of an evil than a valuable marketing tool. Promoters tend to look at social media as a vehicle for negative comments to be shared, thus hurting their business. Some have even shut down their tracks because of this reason. Let’s be honest, no matter where you go today, you will see people on their smartphones. Many times they are using a form of social media. This is the time where promoters could take advantage of that usage. How? Let’s learn by example. Back in February, 2016 ballparkdigest.com put out a story about how some minor league teams are getting creative with their social media nights. The full article can be found here. http://ballparkdigest.com/2016/05/02/promotions-watch-social-media-nights/ Here are a few examples that promoters could easily do at their track/events. The Durham Bulls has one of the best trends where they celebrate the best Instagram posts of the season with “The Instagrammys.” An annual event where fans that have the best Instagram post using the hashtag #DurhamBulls are rewarded prizes as part of the promotion. The Buffalo Bison use several fan polls on their social networks. One example is the voters can select the walk-up music for opposing batters and will offer prizes to users. Just think if your track does an inversion for races. Instead of rolling the dice on the track, you take an instant Twitter or Facebook poll and let the fans decide. Some tracks have already started using Facebook on their race nights. They post the event on Facebook and when fans check-in that they are at the event, they are automatically put in a drawing for pace car rides, waving the green flag for a race, etc. Maybe during the week leading up to the race event, do polls and let fans decide how many laps a division feature should be or what special event they would like to see down the road. Social media is not an expensive form of marketing; it is today’s technological version of word of mouth. Friends are sharing with their friends who then share to their list of friends and more. Encourage your fans to share with their friends along with making sure that the people in attendance are pushing the “Like” button on your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. Make regular daily posts and don’t do it at the same time every day, because your fans look at their social media at different times of the day and night. Also, have fun and interact in a positive manner on there. If you see a fan post something from your track event, like and share it. It lets them know you saw it and appreciate their posting. Heck, it’s pretty cool when I tweeted something to Ricky Stenhouse Jr. the other night and he liked it. It only takes a few seconds to do and it means volumes to the person who posted it. If you don’t have the time yourself to look at social media, have someone who is into it help you and give them the access to make it work for you. Ask them to show you weekly analytics and constantly communicate with each other on what fans are saying. Interaction in all areas of social media is key to the success. Why in the World Am I Still Single?7/11/2016 It almost feels like every day that I either go to bed or wake up in the morning and ask a simple question, “Why am I still single?” I almost feel like countering all of the stuff in local news lately with this hashtag, #MyLoveLifeMatters. Forget what is happening in the Presidential race. Forget what is happening in Great Britain. Forget about horrible water for the Rio Olympics. We have something more serious to talk about…I AM STILL SINGLE!!!! Why haven’t there been hearings on Capitol Hill about this? Why isn’t this leading the nightly news? Why hasn’t CNN done a one hour documentary about it produced by Tom Hanks (Nice job on the 80’s documentary series btw)? Back in the 90’s I dated someone, they were of the opposite sex. Later, I realized that the opposite sex wasn’t the right one for me and that took some time to understand myself about all of that part of my life. I am on just about every single dating site and app that is available at a reasonable price. I mean c’mon match.com, I am not spending $35 a month to find that someone. If I was going to spend that per month, the government better let me use it as a tax write off. Are you thinking that I am picky about who I want to date? Uhh…duh…aren’t you as well? Did you marry someone because you said, oh I guess you will do, let’s go to Vegas? Could you really see me on a gay version of the Bachelor? Blake would you accept this cosmo? The drama would be me looking at someone and going “Yeah right.” Oh I have found some really nice guys, felt like we click and your gut is like…this could be the one. Sadly, he lives more than 200 miles away or another continent. But they think chatting on Skype is the same as a real date. How about those who say the right words to you and then ask if you can help them buy an airline ticket because they are stuck in Africa on a diamond buying trip and their mom is not doing well at their home in Boca Raton, Florida. But, as soon as things settle, he is your life partner. I know now many are you are reading this and going, you are single because your negative attitude towards dating. No, it’s not that. Sadly, many others can share the same stories. The dating scene has honestly been pretty much non-existent for me. My personal life has been a roller coaster on finding out that I really am and my pursuit of a dream career has come before settling down with someone. My priorities have put dating further down the list and I am trying to put that higher on the list. I still think back to what my dad said to me when I came out to him. He told me that he didn’t want me to be alone, and that I have a life worth sharing with someone. I totally agree with him. Many family and friends can give me great letter of references to any potential partners. They will tell you that I have a heart and I care way to damn much about things. My heart is in my job at the insurance agency and my passion continues writing in auto racing. Nothing gives me more pride knowing that stories I have written has helped drivers, teams, tracks and series become successful. Sadly, passion doesn’t pay the bills and that continues to be a struggle for me today. Wish it did, because I feel that I could be a real asset. (Maybe I should start a GoFundMe page..LOL) There is a love I want to share with someone. I have always felt that my gut will tell me who the right one is for me. Sadly, when my gut told me that, it wasn’t mutual on the other side. So my quest continues to this day. It’s almost like one of the top items on my bucket list. But, it won’t stop who I am or will be in the future. This quest is a journey with a big reward in the end. Hopefully, it will be a life fulfilling reward with someone. It would be nice to meet someone who knows the meaning of trust, honesty, communication and commitment to make a relationship successful for both of us…together. It would also be nice to get the hug every day that melts the stress away. It would be nice to find someone I am proud to introduce to my family and friends. And, someone with a better credit score than me. LOL I know I am not alone in this world when it comes to dating issues. But, it’s on my mind. Worse case…I can get a dog. :-) This website is privately owned and updated by me. Any donations would be greatly appreciated to help maintain and make improvements. Thank you.
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