by Kristin Swartzlander | Jun 19, 2014 | Media and Public Relations, Mindset, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses
How many times have you had a version of this conversation: Person: Where do you start tonight? You: Seventh Person: Well, who starts on the pole? You: Little Jimmy. Person: Oh, of course. [Throws hands up in the air.] Little Jimmy always starts on the pole. Now, in reality? Little Jimmy has just as much of a chance of pulling a one pill as every other driver. Maybe he does start there more than other people. Or, maybe it just seems that way because you’re focused on what Little Jimmy gets that you don’t. In reality, Little Jimmy getting the pole so often probably can be chalked up to a combination of luck and showing up. Often. But, we see what we’re looking for. Have you ever bought a new-to-you car? I did pretty recently. I decided ahead of time that I wanted a certain car – all wheel drive, low profile in black (the only color vehicles come in, right?) – and started shopping around for it. Pretty soon, I was seeing them everywhere. My car at the stoplight. My car in the television ad. Oh look at the ice cream cone the guy driving my car has! (Sometimes I’m looking for ice cream and cars, what can I say.) I was seeing what I was looking for. Expectations are a heck of a thing. If we think we’re going to get screwed, in one way or another we probably will. Not necessarily more than usual, but we’ll find an instance to plug right into that expectation. We love to be right. What’s my point? If we see what...
by Kristin Swartzlander | May 30, 2014 | Media and Public Relations, Mindset, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses
Last weekend, I traveled out to Fremont Speedway for the All Star Circuit of Champions double header. I was pleasantly surprised by a lot of what I experienced in my first visit to the place they’ve dubbed “The Track Where Action Was Built.” If you read my recent article on DirtClassic.com, you know that I subscribe to the belief that showing up is essential for success. And, going beyond expectations even when you don’t have to is what creates a tribe for your team or event. I saw a lot of that at Fremont this weekend, and so I called Promoter Rich Farmer to talk to him about their philosophy on delivering a great experience to fans, drivers and marketing partners. I’m sharing a little bit of that conversation today in hopes that we can apply some of these philosophies to our interactions with our customers, whether they’re re-tweeting your updates, buying your t-shirts or sitting in your grandstands. For the most part, attitude has a trickle down effect. From the front gate to the food lines, I ran into positive attitudes and refreshing experiences. One of Farmer’s philosophies is that everyone who walks through the gate is a customer, and I could tell by the way I was treated by everyone I talked to. “Our staff understands that whether you’re in the pits or the grandstands, you bought a ticket to get in to Fremont Speedway and therefore, you are a customer,” Farmer said. “And you should be treated as such.” One of the first things that stood out to me was the price of pit passes – no...
by Kristin Swartzlander | May 23, 2014 | Media and Public Relations, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses
This week, I’m shaking things up a little bit with a special post. As you might know, the last few months I’ve been working on a passion project – The Dirt Classic Presented by Kasey Kahne. I’ve always been very lucky to be able to enjoy my work and the people that I get to collaborate with, and this race has taken that to a new level. One of the things that we’re really focusing on with this project is delivering a new experience for race fans and teams. We’re applying many of the concepts that we’ve learned about business outside of the racing industry to this race. Some of it will work and some may not, and I’m grateful to be working with a team of people who is willing to do things differently for the benefit of improving the sport. On that note, we’ve decided to complement the regular press release program that most races do with editorial pieces about the racing industry, regional racing, observations and interviews. This week, we debuted our first piece about the opportunities that we as racers and promoters have to deliver a fantastic experience even when we don’t have to. If you’d like to check it out, please click over to The Dirt Classic website to read: Chomping at the Bit – Opening the Season with Opportunities. xo....
by Kristin Swartzlander | Feb 28, 2014 | Media and Public Relations, Mindset, Racing Social Media
Welcome back to Doing Social Right, the never-ending series (just kidding – last post for now, I promise!) in which you learn how to be a happy, friendly Tweeter and Facebook poster. In parts one and two of this series, we talked about the types of reactions you can create with your social media strategy, what you should and shouldn’t share, and when and how to do it. If you haven’t read parts one and two, you can brush up now or after you’ve read this post. The final piece in the social media strategy puzzle is arguably the most crucial element to your success online – knowing your audience. Knowing your audience comes from listening without interrupting. Your audience, your fans and marketing partners, are already talking on social media. They’re posting pictures of their vacations, sharing the videos they’re watching, and talking about upcoming races. Taking the time to listen to what they’re saying is key to knowing which of your updates they’ll be interested in and what they’ll tune out. In the racing industry, we already have great cues into what your audience probably wants. They love updates on racing news, your racing plans, motivational and inspirational quotes and photos and videos of race cars. As a racer, it shouldn’t be hard to talk about what you’re most passionate about: racing. Alternatively, the majority of your fans probably aren’t into high-end fashion. So your ten updates about Paris Fashion Week are going to be ignored by the vast majority of your audience. But what’s worse? Not listening to them and looking at what they’re talking about...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Feb 21, 2014 | Media and Public Relations, Racing Social Media
In part one of doing social right, we talked about the three possible outcomes of your social media strategy and knowing what’s relevant to share. To summarize, with social media you can: turn people on (mostly good, sometimes bad), turn people off (mostly bad, but sometimes amazing), or create no reaction (terrible). There’s nothing worse than handing your current or potential fan base right over to a competitor by creating no reaction, but there are ups and downs to turning people on and off. If you haven’t read part one, I’d suggest you do that here. We also talked about what to share and what not to share. Other than avoiding polarizing topics like religion and politics (remember how heated the last election got? If you engage in topics like that, you’ll likely be ostracizing half of your fans) – you should share everything and anything that shows people who you are. As a general rule – following you should make someone’s life better. You do that by showing them that you are like them, or like the person they want to be. Your story is their story. Okay, so that covers an overview of what you should be sharing on social. Now let’s talk about knowing when, where and how you should be sharing. I see a lot of mistakes in this area, even more than people talking about things that I wouldn’t encourage. The book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook talks about sharing ‘native’ content, but that’s not a term that’s commonly used outside of people studying social media. So, what does ‘native’ content mean to us...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Feb 14, 2014 | Media and Public Relations, Mindset, Racing Social Media
Note: I didn’t intend to write a book here, but I realized after the first tip that we’re both probably already exhausted. So, I’m breaking this into a series. Enjoy Where is your phone right now? Is it in your pocket? On the table next to you? In front of your eyes as you read this on it? Chances are, you and your phone are in a serious, Facebook-status-worthy relationship. You take it to dinner, the movies and even places you wouldn’t shouldn’t take your dates (like the bathroom). You hardly ever leave it out of your reach. This isn’t news, though. Who cares? Well, the fact that your audience is also as committed to their phones and other screens as you are should be insanely exciting. The number of people you can reach and the ways that you can reach them is unprecedented. If you’re not telling your story on social media, you’re missing the boat. In fact, you’re missing the ocean. Not only is your audience on social (yes – the audience belongs to you as much as it does to your series or local track), but they are also looking for you there. They are deciding whose shirts to buy, who to cheer for in the stands, and whose story they will share with friends, family and potential sponsors based on what they see on social media networks. But as you know, there’s plenty of talk already happening. In fact, sometimes we make the mistakeof thinking we have to shout to be heard, which can make telling your story on social media really intimidating. Or go...
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