IMPBA Social Media- We need you!

Hey everyone!
Should probably start with an introduction for those who might not know me. I’m Brandon Atwell, currently a Senior at the University of Florida and most recently have been heavily involved in developing and posting content on the IMPBA Facebook page.

When I set out to start working on building a digital footprint for the organization, I would say I had a bit of an easier slate the first couple weeks as we had the World Tunnel Champs and IMPBA Gas Nationals the same weekend. This meant content was being curated daily with race photos, storylines and results.

I started things like distributor spotlights that helped the page grow and garner much more attention. The IMPBA Facebook currently has about 1600 followers, but the distributor spotlights have drawn in additional viewership of roughly 2500 and nearly 5000. So what does that mean?

In a nutshell, we can draw in roughly 5 times as many viewers versus current membership. If even 1% of those viewers decide to join or check out a local race that is now 50 new/ prospective members to the organization, or a 5% increase just from properly showing the hobby on a modern platform. The end goal for building a stronger social media presence is new, young and excited members!

So I'm making this post because we all need each other to make this happen! I race predominantly across the Southeast (Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, occasionally Alabama), meaning I am getting but just a percentage of races on my schedule. I am asking anyone who is attending a race to take pictures, videos, log results, anything that would be interesting to explore or post!

I have setup an email, [email protected] , for all of you to send in content. Whether it be race weekends, test and tune days or just great times with boating friends. I think we can all agree that we love racing boats, but enjoy the friendships and time spent together just as much or more. In the last month, the IMPBA Facebook has seen a follow increase of 63 people (215%), post reach of 8,404 new people (356%) and engagement of 4,596 (221%). With more, exciting things to post these numbers can grow more.

For distributors, I have a goal of showing people this hobby has a strong support network and providing them an easy place to find info. Please shoot me over an email to that address as well if you would like to be featured. I only ask for a short story of yourself/ company, some photos or videos of equipment/parts/ shop and that you share the IMPBA page to help grow the follower base.

Thanks everyone!
Brandon
[email protected]

Thank You Brandon!

#impba

This is very good. Thank you Brandon

This is exactly what IMPBA and nitro racing desperately needs, young fresh minds.
Thank you Brandon!

Awesome job

Awsome!

Nice work Brandon , a breath of fresh air !!

When will you release the pinecrack podcast? Great job young Atwell!

Mario Johnston has been doing this type work for over 2 years for the Cincy club. Due to his work, our club has doubled in size. He and I spent a day last year at a RC Swap meet that was mainly for crawlers. If you want your club to increase it's membership, might want to inquire with him on actions he takes.

Keep up the good work Brandon.

Thanks for all the kind words guys!

Currently have the premier nitro event going on and we need content!
All racer please shoot me over photos from the event to the email provided or on here!

Thanks!

Unfortunately, need to revisit this.
New page likes are down 32%, and lost engagements are down 20%. Why?

From the week long event, I received photos from Brian Schymik and Phil Thomas (thanks guys!), in addition to Brad Maglinger going live for races I was able to share back (you the (Mer)Man!)

Unfortunately, that was it.

I don’t expect a quick turn around for a hobby that has remained relatively uninterested in shifting to a much larger digital footprint, but I know how these events go and I know many memories were made.

WE NEED YOU!
If we want a hobby to grow and sustain for much longer periods we need to hop on this train and get more people in it!
That starts with racers coming together and supporting these growth efforts. Without content to post I can’t make that happen.
So I will again ask, send me ANYTHING! Weekends testing, hanging with boat buddies, whatever it is to make an impact!

Not doing Facebook...any other ways to access the site for viewing ?

As of now, no. I frankly haven’t received enough of anything to expand on different platforms.

I understand the hesitation some may have to Facebook due to other events in the world that do not need to be hashed out on this thread, but it has the largest reach of any social platform and it is fairly easy to link other existing platforms with it, such as Instagram and twitter.

We want to be younger, we need to reach there first. I believe a seasoned racer is adequately supplied with forums like this.

Brandon Atwell said:

Unfortunately, need to revisit this.
New page likes are down 32%, and lost engagements are down 20%. Why?

From the week long event, I received photos from Brian Schymik and Phil Thomas (thanks guys!), in addition to Brad Maglinger going live for races I was able to share back (you the (Mer)Man!)

Unfortunately, that was it.

I don’t expect a quick turn around for a hobby that has remained relatively uninterested in shifting to a much larger digital footprint, but I know how these events go and I know many memories were made.

WE NEED YOU!
If we want a hobby to grow and sustain for much longer periods we need to hop on this train and get more people in it!
That starts with racers coming together and supporting these growth efforts. Without content to post I can’t make that happen.
So I will again ask, send me ANYTHING! Weekends testing, hanging with boat buddies, whatever it is to make an impact!

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My bad Brandon! i have pics i took from the Internats that i will gladly send you if you still want them, but i dont know how or where to send them.........and i may have some videos of twins racing.......i have no idea about the level of quality of my pics and videos but you are welcome to what i have!
I will try to record in pictures and videos anything i do with model boating.......if its bad just toss it! I would love to see this hobby gain some people again!

Will Facebook, Twitter or Instagram allow accounts with pseudo names that one could use for things like this ?
I would love to get involved with something like this, pictures, live feeds, uploading videos etc. But I do not wish to have a private account at all.

Wasted wages said:

Will Facebook, Twitter or Instagram allow accounts with pseudo names that one could use for things like this ?
I would love to get involved with something like this, pictures, live feeds, uploading videos etc. But I do not wish to have a private account at all.

Click to expand...

As long as you don’t tell them it’s fake haha!
You can also create a highly private page. My dad has his setup to not have any friends or let people send him friend requests. He can still join groups and post as he pleases

Hey Bill,
Got your email! I appreciate the effort!
Maybe look into Google photos? You should be able to create a public library and you can share the link.

Heck, try on here if you can! I’m sure everyone on here would enjoy them too!

Hey Brandon,

What I’ve learned from my social media insights is, people are attracted to weird stuff. Top views: Crashes, Fast/SAW speed runs, RTR boats, and gas boats.

I can post beautiful scratch built boats / great racing still shots, but it tanks in interactions / views. My most viewed video, majority of the comments are people who hate the music I chose. So that might even be a good social media strategy for me, put bad music in videos, so they comment and boost views. Lol

Start with your goal (attract new racers) and go from there. Easiest group to attract to racing is, people who are sport boaters with rtr boats. Maybe do an article like “How to enter your Proboat UL-19 in an IMPBA race”. Start with how to find race sites, single event insurance if they want to try it, what class to enter, where you enter (rcracing events), race format: starts/number of laps, etc.

Good ideas ^^^

There are a few on facebook with fake names