Aug

26

Interview with Ramsey Poston - NASCAR Managing Director of Corporate Communications

Filed Under Blogging, Interviews, Social Media 

For the first time on SPRB, we have an interview with someone who does PR in the auto racing industry. Ramsey Potson is today’s interviewee and as NASCAR’s corporate communications managing director, he has plenty of knowledge and experience regarding the PR industry.

1) How did you get your current position as NASCAR’s Managing Director of Corporate Communications? What are your day-to-day responsibilities?

In 2001 was working at the public affairs firm of Powell Tate in Washington, DC when we were hired to assist NASCAR with the crisis surrounding the death of Dale Earnhardt. In 2003 I was hired fulltime as the Managing Director of Corporate Communications. My day-to-day role is to manage all aspect of the company’s communications including the on-track competition communications for all 11 NASCAR series; business communications; lifestyle communication and the issue management. The PR department consists of 31 employees that are divided up into five teams: Competition/Print; Broadcast; PR Services (which handles new media); Business; and, strategic writing. Each team is managed by a senior manager or director.

2) You personally have a Twitter account as does NASCAR. What is the upside of using Twitter both on a personal level and a league level? On the other hand, what are some concerns that NASCAR may have about Twitter and how are those issues being addressed?

Social media is the new frontier for the 21st Century - we’re all learning everyday about the impact of online media including Twitter, Facebook and other outlets. The immediate upside is that the traditional media outlets are no longer my only hope of getting out my message. I can now communicate directly with my audience without being filtered. This is an especially great tool for athletes - look at what Shaq and Lance Armstrong are doing; with the push of a single button they can instantaneously reach a million fans each. That’s power. That’s something that the news industry has to compete against.

The concern - like all things - is responsibility. Whether someone is talking to a reporter or tweeting, what is said has to be truthful and factual - we’ll all see examples of rumors and mis-information extended through the social media sites, it’s happening now. However, the other key word in this new media world will be credibility -everyone wants it but those sources that get the facts wrong will lose credibility and won’t have the kind of influence as those who get the stories right.

3) Earlier this summer, NASCAR announced its Citizen Journalists Media Corps. Will you continuously re-evaluate the individuals in this group and even consider adding more in the near future? What has been the media’s reaction to this announcement?

We are very proud of this. There are so many websites that are dedicated to covering NASCAR. What we found is that many of them provide daily updates, have credibility, a point of view, and growing audiences. It was important to us to bring these Citizen Journalists into the fold and provide them with access and information so they make their websites even bigger and stronger. From my position I want as many outlets talking about NASCAR as possible. Right now we have 28 websites that are part of the media corps - these sites are largely independent and not connected to a major news organization. We will continue to evaluate sites on a ongoing basis and add more in the future. The media has overall been supportive, in fact the National Motorsports Press Association welcomed the citizen corps into the sport. I thought that was a class move.

4) Going along with the above question, how have the changes in the media industry affected your communications department?

We’ve had to adapt to the changing media landscape. If we were just pitching newspapers and TV affiliates like 10 years ago then we’d be way behind. But we’ve been working with a number of the big online media outlets for years. NASCAR.com, which is run by Turner has done very well to capture the hard core NASCAR fan. But there are a number of outlets for fans to choose from to get a diversity of opinions and voices about NASCAR including ESPN.Com; Foxsports.com; and Yahoo.com. Additionally, much more news moves now on the newspaper websites - the Charlotte Observer’s “that’sracin.com site is very good as it USAtoday.com. One of the best and most consistent sources of information can be found at sportingnews.com.

As for Social Media, the NASCAR industry presence is getting bigger by the day. Virtually the entire media corps is now on Twitter and or Facebook and more drivers are joining the discussion every day. This gives me the ability to monitor what is happening with drivers and reporters; I can see what they are working on and something get a glimpse into their personal lives for what that’s worth. On the other hand I can quick communicate to this group on any issue.

5) What advice would you give to someone wanting to work in the sports PR field either as an intern or in a full-time capacity? What are important qualifications, experiences, and characteristics that they will need to have?

I would say to do whatever you can to understand the industry - not just the sport and the racing aspect - but you need to understand how the industry and all the moving parts works. You’ll see that it really is a very complex industry and involves hundreds or thousands of people - sometimes, all with conflicting agendas! Like in any industry a young person has to be willing to knock on a lot of doors and be willing to do whatever it takes to get in the door. Championship crew chief Chad Knaus swept the floor at Hendrick Motorsports a while back and today is one of the sport’s great crew chief’s in history! The characteristics required include hard work, team work and reliable work.

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