#NASCAR and Twitter launch new venture this weekend

Brad Keselowki and Nelson Piquet Jr. on behalf of the drivers at the Twitter press
conference at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images
Race fans in the 21st Century have more access than ever before to the personalities who make this sport of racing what it is and social media giant Twitter is tapping into that access this weekend. Beginning at Pocono Raceway, Twitter will officially launch it’s first ever dedicated page to a particular hashtag.

For those of you unfamiliar with Twitter let’s break it down some of the lingo:

Twitter: is a social networking site where users are given 140 characters to share their thoughts, promote their business, or just randomly chit chat about topics of interest. Users have the ability to upload photos and videos to their timeline and interact with other users from all around the world.


Retweet or RT: A retweet (RT) is when one user likes another person’s tweet so much they want to share it with their followers. Remember when Brad Keselowski tweeted a photo from his car during the red flag of the Daytona 500? Thousands of people retweeted that photo to their followers (who weren’t necessarily following @keselowski) making it one of the most popular tweets ever and gaining the driver over 100,000 new followers When retweeting users have to option to add their own comments to the original tweet or present it without comment.


Mention: It’s good twitter etiquette to mention or tag other followers in your tweets if the topic of conversation pertains to them. Like what you see from Pocono or Texas this weekend? Mention @PoconoRaceway or @TXMotorSpeedway in your tweet and they will see your tweet. They just might RT it if they like what you have to say.


Hashtag, Trend or #: The hashtag or # used to track a twitter trend. Popular television shows, sports, and events have their own dedicated hashtag which allows users to search for others talking about the same thing and join in on the conversation. In the NASCAR world we use #NASCAR

Up until recently the only way to track a trend in Twitter was to use the search function within twitter.com or through the search function in third-party clients. Based on the popularity of Twitter among NASCAR fans, reporters, crews, sponsors, tracks, and drivers, Twitter wanted to do something different by setting up a dedicated URL for the NASCAR hashtag. Starting this weekend those who visit www.twitter.com/#NASCAR will find the best of the best tweets from the sport all in one convenient location.

Twitter will use an algorithm to cull the most popular tweets from NASCAR and give the fans at home even more access to their favorite teams and drivers without having to comb through millions of unoriginal tweets. The top names in the sport along with tracks and official NASCAR accounts and sponsors will be included in the #NASCAR URL but fan posts will also be incorporated into the dedicated page.

How do you get your tweets to show up on the www.twitter.com/#NASCAR page? Start off by making sure you use #NASCAR in your NASCAR related tweets. Be original - the more original you are the better. Mention the tracks and teams that pertain to the comments in your status and most importantly RT and favorite the comments you love to help others get their status on the dedicated page.

Make sure to follow @SkirtsandScuffs each weekend as we provide live race coverage during all NASCAR events.
#NASCAR and Twitter launch new venture this weekend #NASCAR and Twitter launch new venture this weekend Reviewed by Katy Lindamood on Friday, June 08, 2012 Rating: 5