During the summer my husband and I work for the local speedway. Every week we write up a report of the night’s racing action. We are trying to figure out what stories our customers want to hear. A race report is a simple recap, but there are so many interesting characters we want to share and we need to figure out the best way to do so. We have started spreading our reach to social media. We have created a Facebook page and have started posting updates on race day. However, we really need to pursue listening. We need to take a look at our current customers and find out the ways they best like to get information. I thought to start it might be easiest to have our customers complete a survey so we can gather a baseline of interest to work from. I know the goal is continual conversations but this will help us determine where those conversations are taking place. Our next issue arises with listening to the members of our target audience that do not show up on Saturday nights. We need to learn what is the best way to bring those people in.
Our main issue arises with the promotor of the speedway. He feels like putting too much information on social media will cause a decrease in people coming through the gate. He does not like the idea of us putting more information on social media because he wants to use it for another place to list track sponsors instead of marketing the racing itself. He needs to learn that social media creates buzz and that buzz will bring people in. Once race season starts, I might be able to bring some ideas from this class into the speedway, but no real change will occur unless I can educate the promotor properly on social media.
