Over the last decade or so, lots has changed in the social media landscape. Facebook has gone from exciting upstart to the mature granddaddy of social media, Instagram has grown by leaps and bounds to become the platform of choice for visually engaging content, and TikTok has emerged as the new contender in the battle for social media supremacy, favored mostly by younger audiences, looking for the next cool and exciting network to join.

So, how should your organic social media presence adapt to this ever-changing landscape? Should you still be spending time on Facebook? Should you be switching to an Instagram-first mentality? And what kinds of content should you post? How often? And with what purpose?

This and many many other questions is what we’ll be discussing today with the help of my guests, digital marketing pros Leigha Pindroh of Pittsburgh Marathon organizers P3R and Alex Ross of the Denver Colfax Marathon. 

With tons of practical experience between them, Leigha and Alex are here to take us from high-level social media strategy all the way down to your everyday content writing tactics, including tips on managing your content schedule, mixing up value posts with marketing content, leveraging user-generated content, as well some off-the-beaten-track stuff you may not even be thinking about, like using LinkedIn to tap into your local corporate wellness market. 

In this episode:

• Is organic social media reach dead?
• Understanding the effectiveness of your social media posts/campaigns
• The most effective social media platforms for races: Facebook, Instagram
• The challenges of making it on TikTok
• Promoting your race to local businesses and corporates through LinkedIn
• Engaging with your audience with Stories, Reels, polls
• Types of content to put out through your social media
• The 80:20 rule: posting 80% value posts (entertainment, education etc), 20% sales posts
• Leveraging user-generated stories and other content
• Hashtags, emojis: where to use and how
• Designing content with an Instagram-first mentality
• Planning your social media content schedule
• Productivity tools: Hootsuite, Canva, Facebook Publishing tools

Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 28,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about social media, digital marketing or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.