Joe Gibbs Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, and #48-Jimmie Johnson are among NASCARs strongest and most engaging users of social media, a new social media study of the NASCAR industry finds. The study conducted by Tuckahoe Strategies, a strategic communications firm – scored drivers, teams and select NASCAR sponsors and partners on a 20-point scale. Joe Gibbs Racing topped the charts with a Social Media Score of 15 points, Hendrick trailed by one point at 14 points and Johnson scored 13 points. Gibbs online accounts comprise one of the broadest social media strategies for reaching fans of the sport. The team site, www.joegibbsracing.com , is up to date with timely features, and the homepage points to six social media platforms, including a mobile app for iPhone, Blackberry or Droid. The team maintains active social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and FourSquare. Hendrick also has an active and diverse menu of social media platforms including a mobile app. Gibbs social media score bested Hendricks by a single point because of its slightly more effective home page promotion of its social media platforms. Johnson is the most comprehensive user of social media among drivers. He reaches his audience on a broad array of platforms including: Facebook, 657,062 page likes; Twitter, 348,402 followers; YouTube, 265 subscribers; and Instagram, with an industry-leading 60,618 followers. Johnsons social media reach (the sum of all social media followers across platforms) is 1,066,347. This veritable ‘media machine” has a following larger than the circulation of the Los Angeles Times, which is the fourth largest newspaper in the country. The sports largest audience holder and content curator across the board is NASCAR. The sanctioning body regained a voice and a direct connection to its fan base this year after repossessing control of its online assets in a January 2012 agreement with Turner Sports Interactive. NASCARs total social media reach is an astronomical 5,044,070, more than double the daily circulation of the largest U.S. newspaper, The Wall Street Journal. In fact, NASCAR commands the industrys top position in terms of audience on Facebook likes (3,239,504), Twitter followers (841,027) and YouTube subscribers (5,430). The sanctioning body also has 1,420 followers on Pinterest and a staggering 956,689 circles on Google+.( Tuckahoe Strategies )
