NASCAR tweetups are the latest way for sponsors, teams and drivers to promote their brand to fans (also known as tweeps). Many of the organizations that have embraced Twitter and Facebook, have learned that tweetups are the latest trend to create awareness of their product at the track.
A tweetup is a defined as a real-life meeting organized on Twitter. Other social networking sites like Facebook can also be used to help promote these events.
Besides the track, bars and restaurants commonly are used as sites to hold a NASCAR related tweetup. Tweeps will gather at these locations to share in some NASCAR fellowship together.
The holy grail of a NASCAR tweetup, is the appearance of a NASCAR driver. It is an extra special event if that driver races in the Sprint Cup series.
Cup drivers that have appeared at, or held tweetups at the track are Greg Biffle, Michael McDowell, David Ragan, Elliott Sadler and Scott Speed. Some other NASCAR drivers that have attended a race day tweetup are Nationwide drivers Trevor Bayne, Landon Cassill, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., and NASCAR K&N Pro Series West driver Moses Smith.
Other well known personalities in the NASCAR media such as Doug Rice, David Newton and Bob Dillner have also attended. Writers in addition to me, such as Jeff Gluck, Bob Pockrass, Dustin Long, Toby Christie and Farrah Kaye have all been known to attend.
Other notable attendees have been Brian France, Mike Helton, Miss Sprint Cup, Amanda Speed, Jordan Fish and Mary Lou Hamlin.
Free gifts and prizes are given at most NASCAR tweetups. Rice has been arriving at the Charlotte Motor Speedway tweetups that Gluck has put together, with free tickets for upcoming events for all tweeps in attendance. Public Relations representatives from teams such as Hendrick Motorsports and Red Bull Racing gave out souvenirs as well. Track representatives have also arrived with prizes.
Businesses have taken advantage of the added traffic that tweetups bring to them by hosting the events. Sprint has capitalized off of The Sprint Experience. 3M has used their sponsorship of Biffle’s No. 16 car to bring the driver and tweeps together. ExtenZe used social media to announce a store grand opening party for ExtenZe Racing insiders, Facebook fans and Twitter followers only. GM Texas gave away race tickets at the Social Media Club of Dallas tweetup, which they tied in with Chevrolet at the track on race day.
My research tells me that in 2009, IZOD IndyCar's Vision Racing is likely the first to bring race day tweetups to a NASCAR Sprint Cup track. It seems that later in the year, Gluck became the first to host NASCAR tweetups at an actual NASCAR race day event. Since Gluck started, every cup race has held a tweetup just prior to the scheduled race.
When Gluck was unable to attend the race himself on April 10, 2010, Pockrass assumed the hosting duties at Phoenix International Raceway. Gluck didn't let his passion for tweetups go to waste. He still held one at The Speedway Club at Charlotte Motor Speedway, for tweeps to watch the race on television with him.
In terms of what tweetups do for business, Tabby Bowden, Club Communications at The Speedway Club said, “We had a great turnout, and more tweetups are currently being discussed for future events.”
In a discussion I had with Gluck at The Speedway Club, about being at the forefront of Twitter, he told me he appreciates me saying that. But Gluck also expressed how he struggles with becoming part of the news.
Gluck laments that Twitter makes anybody famous. He even stated that someone like Amanda Speed (wife of Scott Speed) can get famous because of it. That, in addition to “being so outrageous.”
Without a doubt, the tweetups held by Gluck are the most popular of all race day tweetups at the track. Along with his great behind the scene articles for SB Nation, his monthly NASCAR Twitter rankings and race day tweetups have helped Gluck network himself to the head of the NASCAR media community on Twitter.
Mike Calinoff, arguably NASCAR’s most famous spotter, has even referred to Gluck as the "Prince of Twitter."
A lot of businesses have NASCAR’s Prince of Twitter to thank, for helping them ride the latest social networking wave. Reluctant as Gluck may be, it is because of him that these companies have a new way to reach out to fans.
NOTES: Apr. 20, Stu Hothem, Senior Manager, Public Relations Services at NASCAR wanted to point out that NASCAR itself hosts the tweetups with Sprint at the Sprint Experience. Last year, NASCAR’s first tweetup took place at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July before the Brickyard 400. These tweetups are held before every NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at the Sprint Experience, where fans have raced against Sadler, Brian Vickers, and Miss Sprint Cup in the Sprint Experience racing simulators.
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Comments
May I suggest that you tweeters make an attempt to get a real life? This one article says so much about a sport and its fanatics.
Thanks for the insults Hal.
Jeff Gluck just held a trivia contest on Twitter, asking when his first tweetup was. The answer is Atlanta, Labor Day weekend 2009.
Jeff Gluck just tweeted from AMS Labor Day race weekend, "Atlanta marks one year since the first tweetup I organized. Three people showed up. Two people came the next week. We get a few more now."
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