Social Networking In Motorsport - Yay Or Nay

Social Networking is ace. No two ways about it. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more Facebook accounts than people on earth.Consequently, this presented an opportunity for companies to promote their products and also sports personalities to interact with fans (and gain followers to promote themselves, to then show to potential sponsors and so on and so forth). When done correctly, Social Media can be a massive win, but there are many many pitfalls and missed opportunities.

This was ever meant to be a British Touring Car Championship BTCC focussed blog and it still isn't. But this series has adopted sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube so heavily of late, it would be churlish to look elsewhere as the teams, drivers and PR assistants all jump on the bandwagon to try and impress potential sponsors and increase fan following.

"Why Didn't You Reply To My Tweet?!"

There are any number of driver twitter accounts you can follow. Matt Jackson, Jason Plato, Dave Newsham, Gordon Shedden, Matt Neal etc etc. Not only that but teams, sponsors and staff have various account all related to the BTCC. In addition, there is an increasing number of BTCC related websites that have twitter accounts and also the writers and commentators can also be followed. If you follow them all (or at least most of them anyway) you can end up with a constant twitter feed, all some way relating to your favourite motorsport series. This is only a good thing for the championship as a whole. NASCAR being the prime example how how to do Twitter (even so far as having a #NASCAR Twitter TV advert. Article here).

And yet, there is still so much to learn. For instance, I simply couldn't fathom by Daniel Welch had not one, but two twitter accounts. I'm sure there must have been a reason behind it. I thought maybe one account was a personal day to day one, while the other was for racing only news. Yet I've seen both tweet about the racing and retweet each other. Confused, much? Thankfully, only one exists as I write this. Perhaps in the future one could be used by a team member to provide live race tweet updates, while the other is Dan himself.

Dave Tries To Tweet & Drive - Fails

One driver that has to be commended with his twitter use is Dave Newsham. He retweets positive messages from fans as a Quote, adding his own "thanks" or comment to the end. It shows he reads what the fans are saying and not only that, but takes time out of his day to do it. Social media is primarily used to build relationships and make things more personal. This is how to do it. I can just picture Dave with his feet up in his Scottish castle by a lake, with a roaring fire, a glass of whiskey and a vending machine, replying to tweets. (Probably not true, but you never know)

As for the other Team ES racing driver. Well, the number of tweets produced, the time taken to tweet and the personal touch are all commendable. But the danger with "out there" comments is that the community can take a slight turn against you. This is one of the many pitfalls. Recently a "Not Chris James" parody twitter account was set up, already amassing 200 followers

Aside from the obvious advantages and disadvantages (never tweet after drinks, no matter how tempting) there is still so much un-tapped potential for the BTCC online. A quick look at YouTube reveals many videos that receive thousands of views, ranging from classic John Cleland & Steve Soper crashes, all the way through to incidents from the latest round at Oulton Park. It is a great way to promote the sport, a fact that has only recently been picked up by the official BTCC.Net YouTube account. It now uploads an "official" highlights real of the previous rounds action. However, the potential is squandered by the time delay. Within hours of a race ending, loyal YouTube-ers have already uploaded the latest videos, so why would you watch it again 3 weeks later? Of course, there may be some agreement with ITV preventing such a thing from happening.

The only team that regularly posts videos is Honda Yuasa Racing. They are up to the minute (uploaded during race day with quick clips and interviews straight after a race) and show Honda PR activities during non-race weekends. This is great. However, while the quick clips that are clearly uploaded straight from a phone are speedy, it would be nice to see a proper feature video round up of the weekends action in addition. Tony Gilham has been leading the way in the respect, by first making a very professional looking video at Brands, followed by a hilarious "Go Hard" music video, which was not only funny but went hand in hand with one of his sponsors.

In fact, to get a lesson in the best YouTube accounts, you have to look to other touring car series. Tom Coronel in the WTCC has built up a large and loyal following by uploading 2 well produced YouTube videos per race weekend. A preview clip to give you a tour of the track with a qualifying report and then race highlights. The main draw is of course on-board race footage, which is shot using GoPro cameras. This is something that I would love to see in the BTCC. Once again, there may be TV rights issues to overcome, but anyone can see Coronel's videos as promotion for the series and a compliment to watching the live race coverage. It adds to the experience as opposed to loosing TV viewing figures. The BTCC live coverage does not use on-board shots and at times, action happening further down the pack can be missed. What better way to relieve a big Plato or Neal fightback through the field than an on-board video uploaded the following week? If there is an agreement that prevents teams from filming then it is short-sightedness on behalf of whoever made that decision.

Jan Flash - Watch My Videos, Now! (Or I'll start my own series..)

Another series that knew a trick of two was the STCC. Was being the operative word, as "Mr STCC" himself, Jan 'Flash' Nilsson has gone with some other teams and formed their own entire series, TTA. But, the point is, long before Mr Coronel made it popular, Flash and his team we doing videos for years (1.5million total views and counting). Be it race highlights, testing clips or interviews. What this enables is an audience outside of Sweden. I'd never heard of the Swedish Touring Car Championship until I stumbled across one of Flash's videos. The beauty is, people worldwide can watch even if there isn't TV coverage in their region. A series' popularity outside of the target nation may seem a little pointless, but an outside audience bolsters the championship's reputation.

Lastly, Facebook. This is something that the BTCC needs to look at and perhaps change the way it goes about things. Dunlop for instance have a great page, with regular BTCC ticket competitions. Mac Tools (a sponsor of Frank Wrathall) have set-up a page which is still in it's infancy, but provides race updates, pictures, general Mac Tools news and competitions. In this respect the Honda BTCC and eBay Motors BTCC pages are similarly well run. But, if you look at the individual driver pages, it's all wrong. First of all, the golden rule on Facebook is that your personal page should remain that way. I've added several BTCC drivers on Facebook, who use their personal profile for fans to "Friend". But it should be that they have a Facebook account for their own real-life friends and then a Facebook page for BTCC fans to then Like. For instance, do I really need to know Adam Morgan's relationship status? No, of course not, that's too personal for a fan to know. Also, Redstone Racing's page is still entitled "Airwaves Racing (Redstone)". This can and should be changed.

So, to summarise. Facebook Twitter and YouTube. Absolutely brilliant to raise the profile of the series, the teams, the sponsors and the drivers. But, please, sort it out BTCC


UPDATE: Prior to writing this post, I got word from Rob Austin on Twitter that filming is indeed prohibited on race weekends (with regards to in camera shots during races). Thus no on board footage allowed from the teams. (See here & here).

So I decided to ask the big man himself, Alan Gow, on the appropriately named "Questions For Alan Gow" forum thread on BTCC.net. My question and his response can be seen here (you may have to log in). Bit of a bullet dodging answer, perhaps I should have been more precise with the wording of my question as we all already know that "behind the scenes" items can be filmed. I was aiming for race action, and I did at least mention that. Sigh. Still, nice to get a response I guess. "BTCC teams are allowed (after first obtaining clearance) to film in the paddock, their garage, their awnings, their hospitality or suchlike at an event - in fact anywhere apart from, obviously, the on-track action" No kidding! And no, the forum won't allow me to respond any further.