By Hans Ebert
Chairman and CEO – Fast Track Global and WE-Enhance Inc
(Source: Paulick Report)
If you parrot it long enough, you start to believe it and the horse racing industry and racing clubs are finally embracing social media and a new wave of bloggers, tweeterers, Instagramers and Facebookers have, for better or for worse, surfaced like zits on the faces of a horny teenager.
(Source: Rebekah Radice)
Here’s the problem: All this need, this craving to be part of social media has meant the rise of self-styled social media experts and social media agencies- and seeing dollar signs in an industry that been so slow off the blocks to understand how all this works, they are dazzled by bullshit.
(Source: Merlinuward)
A few work well, but most- those who wouldn’t know Glen Boss from Hugo Boss or silks from sinners- are as useful as the ponzie schemes many in Hong Kong and Oz have been sucker-punched into investing in.
It reminds me of the days when in music and us suing Napster and thinking that the big bad bogey man had gone until consumers were given all
the technological power to create their DIY World and which resulted in music companies hiring New Media armies- tekkies- who actually lectured us on how to create banner ads for this new online place called Facebook. Wow! And to think that before this, we were only living in Second Life.
(Source: Twitter)
At the end of the day and what needs to be understood now is that without being creative and understanding marketing 101, all this use of social media in racing is pissing in the wind.
Like blogging for free, if not creating a brand for yourself and with the end game being to sell a product to some investors, all that blogging to just jump on the bandwagon can only give you piles.
(Source:Idioms 4 You)
Writing your thoughts and only appreciated by a few or writing that cannot even be found on the net is just plain stoopid unless, of course, one is writing for the pure joy of writing or as a form of therapy like Anger Managment.
(Source: Get It Free)
Also, where a music blogger like Bob Lefsetz goes wrong is when coming up dry for content and still trying to be relevant. A recent example: Hyper-ventilating that David Bowie had not any “certified hits” like PSY! Little wonder why one-time paid invitations to fly around the world and give speeches at music conferences are no longer coming in. There is nothing sadder than a has-been blogger.
(Source: Cult of Mac)
Most horse racing bloggers writing only about the usual subjects are not getting it at all. That is a tiny universe.
I’ve glossed over a few blogs and thought, what was the fucking point? Did it make a difference? Did it make some big bucks for your time? Is it all going to be part of your next book? What’s the end game? Where’s the beef?
(Source: Voices from Russia)
Or was it just to plonk in a low blow and then take it to the off-line world and name names through a silly slip of the tongue?
Funny thing about social media: Despite all the technology, nothing is secure as Wikileaks and Facebook have proven with the worst culprit being when loose lips sink ships.
(Source: Watch Us Play Games)
Having sat down with social media experts on how to introduce horse racing to that next level- meaning the casual and younger race-goer- you very quickly realize that they know technology but don’t have the marketing ideas- and are outta touch and still think a disco is a club.
(Source: Social Media Explorer)
One thing my mentor in advertising hammered into us young creative directors was this: The Technique Is Not The Idea. Neither is technology.
Right now, despite the blogging, the tweets and Instagrams, it’s all a very basic sharing of horse racing information- often the same information.
Just follow @andrewbensley if you want all racing info. Hoss is the big daddy of breaking news in racing and he has a lock on what he does. Good on him. #respect
(Source: Herald Sun)
In horse racing, all this embracing of social media is as exciting and cutting edge as racing programs hosted by the same ancient racing pundits communicating with the same old captive market simply because most of these people who travel in packs have no idea how to be relevant to the new generation of race-goers.
(Source: Bathing Beauties Festival)
Like those in music companies, they can drop as many buzz words as they can, but if there is no idea there, it’s just verbaige and more clutter and an inability to connect with an audience.
(Source: Photobucket)
Why? Way too often, bloggers, tweeterers etc forge ahead without even knowing who their audience is which is all a daft exercise in pissing in the wind and being a big fish in a small pond and paddling around without an oar. And the pack of lemmings.
(Source: Play It Loud Music)
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