V8Supercar & Social Media

[GTRMagic]

Social media is here to stay... in the form of twitter, facebook, instagram, google+ as well as forums like this one.

For the most part, V8Supercar drivers, teams, team officials, team grunts, grid girls, and anyone else involved in the series seems to have a facebook page, or a twitter account in active use.

So.. what do they share with the world? Their solution for world peace, or announcing after the event that they have spent their day at a charity event, or a hospital visit or other similarly positive activities?



Well, if you believe Mr Ingall most drivers talk about their ability to ride their bicycles the equivalent of a lap of the sun, or sharing pictures of the coffee art atop their latest latte... or that they are off to the gym on a tram... or recommendation requests for movies or restaurants... of perhaps to line up their latest conquests when travelling interstate..



The medium itself allows close contact with the people who make it happen... and the direct access allows for the sharing of information with the great unwashed (i.e. us..) in a far more timely manner than had happened previously.

Also, not every name on the account actually controls it, often a media gumbie is employed to be the information disseminater, with the brand name not absolutely aware sometimes of the output of things in their name.

Indeed some teams have employed full time social media managers, HRT for one has a dedicated resource contracted to coordinate the web presence, the end of day vimeo videos, the picture taking, the loading of same, with commentaries and media releases to most of the forms mentioned above. They are clearly serious about such things, investing in these new channels to keep Gen Y and friends updated on whats going on.

But the discussions arent always positive. Indeed there is one current V8Supercar driver who is so far from politically correct it is a wonder his factory supported team doesnt ban him from the keys. That you delete something from Twitter doesnt actually mean it goes away.



Anyhow... a few weeks ago there was apparently a dustup between a number of drivers on the social media channels... primarily talking effluent, mostly centering around the equivalent of a genitalia measuring competition... but at what point does it go too far..

may be an example of going too far...

There was an ongoing discussion on twitter last night apparently that led to this one...



Every single activity, every single speech, every single email, every single tweet/facebook/google+/photo etc etc is an indictment on the brands that the driver is paid to represent...

... yet there is a lot of stuff that goes beyond what is reasonable.

In Mr Moffat's example above, regardless of the sentiment expressed by the other person, the response is out in the world for all to see... and does not represent anyone concerned in a particularly good light.

As always, everyone is watching. If we can see your account, what you see and do is out in the world for us to see. For us to share with our peers, share with our friends, share during discussions about various racing incidents and events.

The world is watching, and sometimes the people who watch are not excited by what they see...