Race Directors, Follow These Rules
We’ve covered some basic aspects of how race directors can better manage their social media in the past. (Our original Race Directors Guide to Social Media can be downloaded here). With a new year comes a new (advanced) guide, chock full of more advanced tactics on paid advertising, ambassador programs, and the importance of Instagram and Periscope. It’s always good to take a step back and make sure your foundation is sound before you start diving into new territory. Here’s some advice on a 2016 gut check. Once you’re confident you’ve got the below tasks nailed, download our Race Director’s Advanced Guide to Social Media.
Create a Voice & Social Brand Guidelines
One of the most important aspects of growing your race’s online community is defining and emulating a consistent voice across your social media channels. We recommend hosting a branding session with your team to define the overall tone of your race brand.
Generate a one-page document that explains the core values, target demographic, how you want to speak to your audience, and goals of your race. Distribute this document to your team, particularly anyone who will be posting to your social media accounts. Consistency of your message and tone, regardless of who is posting on your behalf, is essential for people to get to know you and connect with your event. It’s also important to keep the branding consistent across your social networks. Make sure you use similar creative & branding on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
Organize Your Content
Once you’ve established your social media branding, it’s time to plan out your content. Posting frequency is key. You don’t want to overload your fans with content, but you also need to keep them engaged and interested in your race. The best way to stay on track and ensure you’re delivering content in a timely fashion is by creating a Content Calendar that you can share with your internal team. Dedicate a “theme” or goal to each month and develop content/promotions around those goals. You don’t have to write out each status update verbatim. Just map out a general idea of what you’d like to post each day. After you’ve planned out your content, pick 3-5 posts each month to promote (ie. put dollars behind).
These posts should either:
- Provide value to your fans
- Drive registrations
- Increase engagement on that social channel
Learn more about the types of promoted posts, and which ones have proven most effective, in the Paid Advertising section of our Race Directors Advanced Guide to Social Media.
Determine Content Type: the 80/20 Rule
An important reminder about posting frequency is the type and quality of content you’re promoting. We’ll defer to the 80/20 Rule: 20% of your content should promote your event and drive registrations, and 80% of your content should provide value to your audience and engage them in conversations. Repeatedly asking fans to register for your event is not an ideal use of your social media networks. People will be much more likely to visit your pages if you’re providing them with interesting, relevant and beneficial content. Your direct race promotions should be peppered into your general content calendar of industry news, training tips, course info, and other relevant, useful information.
Feel like you’re ready to move forward with more advanced social media tactics?
