Posts
On Monday afternoon, the NTRA held a conference call with several members of the Thoroughbred blogging community to discuss NTRA technological initiatives to promote the Triple Crown, as well as canvass for ideas to help foster further connection with racing fans. As a member of the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance, I was asked to participate in the call which included a healthy exchange of ideas and hopefully, if the ideas come to fruition, will develop more exposure for the racing game.
NTRA participants on the call included Alex Waldrop and Fritz Widaman along with representatives from SocialSphere who the NTRA have hired to assist with the latest technological leaps. According to the SocialSphere website, "SocialSphere is helping thoroughbred racing go from 0-to-60 in Web 2.0, by creating new platforms and tools to communicate with its fan base." Further, the NTRA has hired Caton Bredar to conduct taped interviews on the Churchill Downs backstretch with various racing personalities which will be posted regularly on the NTRA website.
If you're on Twitter, you will want to follow the NTRA tweets which, starting tomorrow, will include live Tweets from the backstretch. What is most exciting about this new initiative is that fans can submit any questions they might have of jockeys/trainers/owners directly to the NTRA Twitter account and receive an instant response! NTRA will also be sending Tweets throughout the day Saturday from Churchill. Joe Talamo will be thrilled!
For all of the flak Waldrop has taken over the past year(s), he does seem to have a sense of humour about his notoriety and invited feedback and criticism during the call. While there is no doubting the NTRA's commitment to technology - just check out their blogs, widgets, pod casts and Youtube page - I do hope they follow through on the ideas exchanged in the call. I'll leave the details of that for a future blog post that will hopefully include confirmation!
I believe that racing and technology go together like chocolate and peanut butter. With the proper ideas in place, there is no end to what can be accomplished via the web to connect to racing fans. We're already seeing a lot of positive uses:
*Observing a horse in the walking ring before a race is a perfect example of where a simple Tweet could alert your friends of an awesome pre-race appearance. I wish one of my friends had Tweeted me about General Quarters a few weeks back.
*How many of you have watched a race replay online?
*How many of you have spent a lunch hour flipping through racing photos on Flickr?
*Anyone part of a racing related Facebook user group?
The possibilities are endless and with a little vision from someone familiar with the technology, many new doors could open. Clearly, the NTRA has seen the light by hiring SocialSphere.
One of the oddities that came out of the call was the realization that in today's electronic world, a job description does exist that includes responsible Twittering and Facebooking. So, if anyone at Woodbine Entertainment Group is reading this post - I'm ready and waiting for your Email, Tweet or Facebook message!
Monday, April 27, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Instant response on Twitter-this is what bothers me. During Derby week, I want my trainers and Jockey working--not on instantley responding to me on Twitter?
or is it the "secret" that most celebreties, athletes, etc now hire people to ghost write there tweets.
so , in this zany world, the people tweeting to us are not even really them.
I think that technology like Twitter and Facebook takes up no more time than the traditional newspaper interview.
The benefit is that we get instant access to information and also a work around to the fact that newspapers rarely cover horse racing anymore.
As for ghost writers - yes, celebrities are defo using them. however, i think the names we see in racing are still the "real" thing.
Post a Comment