Don’t Just Rely on Social Media

As we near the halfway point of the racing season, I thought I would share a thought of what I am seeing from the public relations side of short track racing.

Now, I should preface that I am a 55-year-old and in my 25 years of working in auto racing public relations, I have seen many changes.

And yes, prior to my PR work, I did cook burgers in a track concession stand, worked on a pit crew that won a track championship, and hand scored at two different tracks. So my thoughts and opinions come from being around many facets of short track racing.

Some of my thoughts may not trend well with some of today’s Generation Z and Generation Alpha’s thinking of an old, experienced person.

Social media has taken over all of our lives today. If our smartphones stop working, we will feel a loss in a world, and God forbid we have to converse face to face with someone.

With many thinking of social media as the big trend, we as public relations and track promoters need to remember that the track/series website should be the trunk of a tree, and social media are the branches of that trunk. This means that social media should be the link to the website.

Why am I saying this? While social media is dominating our lives, it has a big issue: who is following you, and who are you following?

The website doesn’t require someone to follow it; it is open to everyone who just visits the site.

Think of it this way. A story, race result, updated standings, photos, and more should be placed on the website because it is an open source for anyone using a search engine will find it. Not many search engines will first direct someone to a Facebook, Instagram, or X account; it directs to the website.

While social media is a great communication tool, you have the risk of your posts not hitting your entire audience. Certain algorithms may not show your post to someone scrolling down the page right away. It may take a lot of scrolling to see it.

Whereas if you go to the website, you control what is the first thing they see on it. They will open the site and boom, there is the top story, updates, and more right there.

Only using social media and not utilizing the website runs a big risk, that is, the way how things are trending now with using just social media, an algorithm may prevent someone from seeing your post right away because of other things they follow or share.

There is a risk for getting the reward on the social media side, where there is more of a sure thing that if someone visited your site, they will see what you feel is the most important thing that your fans need to know at that time.

By the way, your website should be the vehicle to promote upcoming events, advance ticket sales, and more.

While live streaming of racing events is becoming more popular, let’s remember what really pays the bills at the track. It’s not just admission, it’s also concessions, souvenirs, and more. Plus, you get to choose what part of the race you want to watch, not what a director will think you will want to see happening on the track.

So please, save the complaining on social media that a tv stream was bad because you didn’t show your favorite driver that much as you would like; you could have gone to the track and watched it yourself.

Finally, don’t get me wrong, my view on streaming has changed in the last ten years. It is my hope that the interest of what they are showing encourages the viewer to still see events close to their home live and in person versus on the monitor/television.