Top 10 social media mistakes MX tracks can make
We have looked at the accounts of many major motocross tracks across the globe and have listed the top 10 mistakes we have seen and how to improve them. Here is our findings:
Facebook is for personal profiles, friends and common interest social circles/groups, Insta is for glossy pics and videos. Both have diverse audiences with FB typically having an older group (40+) and more interactions whereas Insta is younger. Meta gives you the tools to write a post once and publish it to both platforms.
For example there is a clear age difference between Instagram and Facebook users as you can see in this chart below (source)
Typically around 1%-10% of your followers see your posts.
And that number drops the more followers you have. That is because people follow a lot of accounts, all those accounts post stuff, then Meta also posts stuff (ads, new accounts you can follow etc.). With the limited time people spend on social media, they will not see everything. Your post is competing with many other posts for attention.
Studies show that if you have 10.000 followers, on avg 1-3% will have the post displayed on their feed - called the organic reach. Just because the post is displayed does not mean they read it.
Also, if Meta needs more ad revenue, they will display more ads in the feed which will reduce your visibility further. That is especially true during peak holiday seasons like black Friday or xmas.
Having said that, your MX reach may be higher than that because people intentionally go to your track account to see what you post. But in many cases they don't, or not at the right time, and then it's the algo deciding.
This recent graph for 2024 explains it well (source):
More on that issue and an explainer of Meta themselves:
https://www.facebook.com/business/news/Organic-Reach-on-Facebook
https://www.informationweek.com/it-leadership/facebook-organic-reach-5-facts-for-businesses
When you post something as a track, you typically want to reach people that live close enough to come ride with you. But FB and Insta are global, and Meta’s goals are not aligned with your goals. Meta knows where your followers are, but it does not care about distance. In fact, Meta will try to show the post to anyone across the planet if they think it benefits their advertising revenue.
So when you post something, don’t be surprised if you get a like from Sri Lanka!
That one is tricky: when you post something, unless it is a story, it will stay online forever. And you have zero control on when a user sees that post. That is why, if the post is about a track status update or a specific event, it is very important to include the day of week and a date.
If you post a status update on Friday for Saturday ‘Vet track closed tomorrow’, people may see that on Sunday morning only without noticing that the post is outdated.
At MX-Tickets, helping tracks with their social media accounts is a free service we provide to anyone.
If you want to increase your reach and make sure the right people see your post, you have to run ads. Your followers can be geographically dispersed and you have no influence when you post who gets to see it. As an example, if you post something about practice tomorrow, you want people in the area to know it. With ads, you can specifically geotarget riders that live 2 hours around your track.
Also, ads are cheaper than what you think, for example, we ran an ad recently for a track in Florida to MX riders in specific states (geofenced) and paid $75 for 10,000 impressions and a 4% click rate which meant 500 people clicked. If 3% of those 500, 15 riders, buy a practice ticket for $40, that is already $600 more revenue on $75 ad spend, and you increased your awareness to 10,000 people.
Content matters! Instagram is meant to be the glossy visual magazine, Facebook for personal profiles and social groups. Try to always maximize the content relevance to your audience needs, for example, if you post ‘track is open tomorrow’ including the weather forecast or a way to avoid traffic on the way tip.
If you post pictures with too much text on Instagram, Instagram will either straight refuse it or demote them, which means even less people will see them than the normal 10-30% range of followers..
Let’s first explain what hashtags are used for: they can be used in search to find posts or accounts that relate to a specific theme. So yes, if someone does not know you, because they are out of state and just randomly in the area, they may be using search with hashtags to find you. But how likely is that?
Hashtags are most useful for general businesses with substitutable products or services.
For motocross tracks, we don’t think they make much sense, as most riders know the tracks anyway. So no, using a hashtag is a waste of your time unless it is part of a marketing campaign.
Most people think of social media as a one way messaging. They post information about the track or an event or opening hours and that’s it. The problem is, users can message you with questions regarding your post, and if you don’t respond, you may lose revenue.
If you’re getting a lot of questions you may not have the time to respond to all. After all, the track needs grooming etc. But Meta has an arsenal of tools to reduce your effort, from automatic answers to chatbots. With a little tech expertise, you can set these up and then users get automated answers without you typing anything. Remember, you always know more about your track than your riders, and there always will be questions and comments.
When you post something, never forget the call to action. That is especially true for promotional content. Ask them to visit your website, include a link to your ticketshop or event webpage or ask them to send you a message. Even if you just run a status update like ‘Main and Vet tracks are open tomorrow’ and you have no webshop to sell practice tickets, put a text asking for an action like ‘Come ride with us!’.
When posting social media content, especially promotional content, make sure to include a call to action. This could be asking consumers to visit your website or to send you an email. Without a clear call to action, consumers can be left uncertain of what to do next. Do yourself a favor and motivate your audience to take the next step in becoming a customer by including a strong and clear call to action.
If you use social media, it is best to have a schedule and post regularly, at least once per week, to keep rider engagement high. If you post updates about opening hours or track conditions or riding rules (no quads on weekends), you will create a habit with users coming back to see what you post this week, if there is nothing to see for them, they will not come back next time.
If you follow some simple rules, social media can be little effort and bring good engagement results. On MX-Tickets, we have our own social media for riders that is 100% focussed on motocross riders and nothing else, so you are not competing with Taylor Swift and Chick-Fil-A ads. On top, we provide cross posting features which simplify your life enormously. Cross-posting means you create a post on MX-Tickets and it gets automatically cross-posted across all your social media accounts.