In my last blog, I talked about setting up a website to showcase your racing program and also demonstrate to potential sponsors how you can help showcase their products. Social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are also a great way to showcase your racing program and promote your sponsors. Let’s look at these three popular social media tools in greater detail.
Facebook:
Facebook appears to be the most popular social media tool among motorcycle racers. Many of us have our own personal Facebook pages and we’re connected to lots of other racers and “fans” interested in following our racing program.
In the past few years, Facebook has started allowing athletes to create their own community or business pages so their fans and supports can “Like” their page and read all about their latest racing efforts.
There are several advantages to creating an Athlete page on Facebook. These include:
Analytics/ Insights – the ability to track who is visiting your Facebook page, from what geographic location, from which demographic (age group and gender) and which posts were the most popular. This is all very valuable information to your sponsors!
Ability to “Tag” Business pages – with an Athlete or Business page, you can tag other business pages or sponsor pages in your posts. For example, if you want to describe what a great job your Arai helmet did during your last crash, you’ll be able to tag the Arai Facebook page in your post, thereby further helping to promote your sponsors. Your sponsors can also “Tag” photos or posts of you that they mention on their pages.
Facebook Ads – with an Athlete or Business page, you can create Facebook ads that show up in the sidebar of Facebook to help promote your page with a very specific target audience. The ads are relatively low-cost and are a great way to promote your page. Individuals cannot run Facebook ads for their own personal pages.
I know it can seem a bit vain to create an Athlete or “Fan Page” for people to “Like” but from a sponsorship or business perspective, creating a Facebook Athlete page can be very beneficial to both you and your sponsors. Not to mention, it allows you to keep your personal Facebook page as a personal site that is limited to your friends and allows you to post non-racing related materials as well. Let’s face it, as exciting as you think racing can be, not all of your friends care to hear about it each and every day.
Twitter:
Twitter is another great social media tool to help promote your racing efforts and sponsors. Twitter provides an excellent micro-blogging opportunity to get your message across in 140 characters or less. In a world where people are constantly scanning for information, Twitter is a useful tool to send out a quick teaser and a link to your latest video or blog post — yes, you can embed links into Twitter as part of your 140 characters, thereby driving traffic to your other sites, such as your website or YouTube channel.
Most of your sponsors or potential sponsors are also likely to be on Twitter and they appreciate any promotion you can give them. Sponsors also follow their athletes on Twitter and often promote or re-tweet what their athletes are saying.
YouTube:
With the advent of GoPro cameras, becoming a YouTube star is no longer a very difficult task for motorcycle racers. A $350 investment in a GoPro Hero camera gets you the camera and all of the mounting gear you need to strap onto your motorcycle and start filming!
There are so many angles where you can attach the camera to your motorcycle — the windshield, the tail section, fender, gas tank — just about anywhere you can think of, so get creative!
There are lots of free or relatively inexpensive video editing programs out there that will help you edit your video into a nice promotional package for your sponsors as well. Mac users can download iMovie relatively inexpensively, while PC users can use Windows Movie Maker. Sony Vegas is another popular editing option for PC users. Of course, you can also invest in more robust (and more pricey) editing software such as Final Cut and Adobe Premiere. These programs are slightly more complicated to use and can be quite expensive to buy.
Once you’ve started creating some video, set up a YouTube channel by following the easy steps online, and start promoting the videos on Facebook and Twitter! Your sponsors will appreciate the efforts and recognize your commitment to them.
Helpful Tips: Keep it Social!
When you’re writing for Facebook or Twitter, keep in mind the “social” element of “Social Media”. There is nothing worse than an athlete that only talks about how great they are all of the time, adding little value to the conversation.
Think in terms of a real world conversation — if you were at a party and someone asked about your racing, would you proceed to tell them all about how fast you are and how wicked your sponsors are? I hope not. Instead, talk about real world events. It’s okay to talk about how you did on race weekends, but don’t be afraid to admit when you’re having a bad day on the racetrack and things just aren’t going your way (don’t blame your sponsors for the bad day either!). Show people that you’re human and let them know what scares you. For example, “I’m really struggling with turn three on this racetrack,” or “I just don’t feel I’ve got it today.”
If your fans post a question on your page, be sure to answer those questions and engage in a two-way conversation. Your fans and sponsors will appreciate that you care about what they have to say, and that it’s not all about- YOU!
Finally, if you’re going to use social media tools to help promote your racing program, remember to be actively engaged on these sites. Whether you’re sharing links from your latest blog post, giving feedback on the latest race, or telling people what you’re up to on a Wednesday afternoon away from the racetrack, the key is to be consistent and be engaging on your social channels several times per week.
With a good website and social media tools in place you’ll be well on your way to showing sponsors that you’ve got what it takes to help promote and sell their product to your followers.
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