This summer, NASCAR made a comeback.
That comeback is very much attributed to its recent focus on social media. Not just its presence on social media—its recent emphasis on understanding its customers is important, too. Their goal? To be “customer-obsessed.”
NASCAR recognized an opportunity in social media, seeing it as a place to better reach their customers, and then take it a step further and interact with them. Using Twitter, they created a “racetrack on television,” so fans can live stream races as well as participate.
Then, NASCAR took it a step further, partnering with the innovative tech powerhouse Hewlett-Packard, to create a “social media command center.” The command center allows NASCAR to stay in tune with their fans and customers in real time.
Taking a lesson from NASCAR, a company not generally associated with tech innovation, it’s clear to see that social media is an excellent way to keep any company relevant in the digital age.
Traditional advertising methods may still be able to reach some markets, but it seems that they are at a dead end when it comes to expanding a market. Social media channels are the viable resource for growth nowadays.
While you may not be able to afford your very own command center, or a partnership with HP for that matter, you most likely can afford to outsource your social media. Your social media contractor is your social media command center. Although we may be located in a different building, we offer the same resources, people and time.
NASCAR’s CMO, Steve Phelps, discusses the new command center stating, “(t)he system tracks social media, but also allows us to ingest and understand what is happening in traditional media…we can have an understanding of what is happening from tone to the specifics of what is being talked about.”
At SMC, we have the same objectives for our clients—we spend the time to keep up with the world, what is happening, and what is being talked about. It’s not just a matter of knowing and curating news, but rather of carefully analyzing it. We need to gain an understanding of the tone and specifics of current news and information so that we can use it effectively. Each social media platform speaks to a different segment of your target market, and your customers use each platform for different reasons.
Thus, as NASCAR expresses, the goal of their new social media command center is to connect with the media and fans more effectively and efficiently. We also want to achieve the same goal for each of our clients, so we hold the same core objectives as a command center dedicated to social media.
We want to be the portion of your marketing that helps you stay in tune with your target segment, in real time. We want to help you stay relevant with your market, engaging with them in current discussions via the space in which they’re nearly always present: social media.
Image Credit: CC by medically_irrelevant via photopin
