From Jason Stix Buckley, founder and owner of Legends Nation –
Hello everyone! Recently we have had some questions, and even targeted upset social posts, regarding one particular thing we do. Many do not understand, and I wanted to directly spell out the reasoning to be completely transparent, and hope to give some more insight into Legends Nation and what we do here as well as what those in the Nation can do to help themselves, piggybacking off what we do.
The “controversy” surrounds two names: Brexton Busch and Keelan Harvick. As most know, Brexton Busch races in the Bandolero Bandits division of INEX and is the son of NASCAR champion, Kyle Busch. Keelan Harvick races in the Legends Young Lions division, and is the son of NASCAR champion, Kevin Harvick. Both have been picking up victories here and there, and Legends Nation has been posting about them. So, what is the controversy?
Throughout the 2024 Summer Shootout Series coverage on Legends Nation, we have been posting up on our social channels a “LIVE NOW” post when the racing action goes live on FloRacing, and generally wait until after all races are finished to post results that are seen on MyRacePass and photos of the winners are posted from INEX. However, last week, when Brexton Busch won during the action on Monday and Keelan Harvick won while racing continued on Tuesday, we made “breaking news” posts specifically about their wins. And even though we posted our usual post-race who won post with every driver and results at the completion of each night’s action we received some flack from a few fans, a few teams, and a few drivers for the individual posts. Some bashed us for not posting other winners (which we do), some thought we were somehow being paid by Busch and Harvick to promote them (which we aren’t), and some just thought we only cared about Cup kids (which we care about everyone).
Why did we post what we did? There are multiple reasons (beyond congratulating them), so I will break it down, and how drivers can take advantage of this as well.
First, posting mid event is something we sometimes like to do to encourage those checking in to social to make sure to check out our friends at FloRacing that have the action live going on. We do not do this often as we are usually still working on the backend of the website while we watch the races ourselves on Flo. But sometimes a reminder helps.
Now, to the main reasons.
Below I am going to pull back the curtain and give you all a peek into some numbers on the Legends Nation Facebook page, specifically the Brexton Busch post from last Monday, and the Keelan Harvick post from last Tuesday.
BREXTON BUSCH – JULY 1 POST
Post Impressions: 353,081
Post Engagement: 11,687
KEELAN HARVICK – JULY 2 POST
Post Impressions: 871,150
Post Engagement: 33,224
To explain those numbers, post impressions is the number of times the post is on screen, while post engagement is the number of times people have engaged with the post through reactions, comments, shares and clicks.
To give you an example of where those stack up against other posts within the same few days, a few we looked at had 1579 impressions with 43 engagements, 1652 impressions with 116 engagements, and 1882 impressions with 58 engagements.
As you can see, the Busch and Harvick impressions and engagements were through the roof compared to a few other winning driver posts. Why is that?
First, Legends Nation does NOT boost posts. Boosting is paying Facebook to increase the amount of people that see the posts. While we might do that in the future for a few things, like our sponsored posts (if a sponsor pays for it), we do not do that currently as that isn’t in our budget to do so. Our posts reach are completely 100% organic, meaning we do not manipulate them whatsoever or pay Facebook or anyone else to promote our posts. So, the reason for these two posts going nuclear have to do with three things: 1) popularity of the drivers being NASCAR Cup kids; 2) interaction and sharing by fans of those drivers; 3) Facebook’s algorithm that pushes posts it feels is either getting a lot of interaction to others in their feeds or posts they feel are important to show to people, regardless whether they follow the Legends Nation page or not.
With that knowledge, it only makes sense for a business, or news page, to make posts like these two that brings traffic. As someone that was the Project Manager of Community Development for the company back in the day that launched MySpace, I have been around social media in some form or another dating back to 1999, and I try to keep ahead of and up to speed with the trends that help bring more eyeballs to the projects I work on. That helps increase engagement and helps sell sponsorships as well as give our current marketing partners exposure.
But, it isn’t just about us.
The more eyeballs viewing the content on Legends Nation brings more exposure to Legends and Bandoleros as a whole, including the drivers, teams, tracks, series, and sponsors within. And lets be honest here, while we (me included) are fans of the sport and enjoy the competition, whether inside or outside of the race car, without money, tracks cannot operate and drivers cannot compete. So the more people that see what is happening in our world of racing, the better. That includes drivers and teams that do not have the Busch or Harvick names attached.
So, how do you tap into the viewers and supporters of those drivers on those posts on Legends Nation? First, while it is the polite thing to do to go into any post on Legends Nation and posts a “congrats” to a driver, doing so can also put your name as a driver, or team, in front of all those viewers. If you raced against one of these drivers, a post like “Congrats, Keelan! Had a great time racing against you. I thought I was going to get you on that last lap!” or “Good job, Brexton! Love racing with you all and thank you for the pointers!” might get you a few fans, or at least, put your name in front of viewers, which helps your sponsors get exposure (which is what you need to race). Or, for sponsors, even of other cars, posting a congrats in that post can get your business exposure. And, back on the drivers, your reply in there might just get you a sponsor! I have always told drivers that one fan you think might just be a fan could be someone that owns a multi-million dollar company looking for a brand representative to back in the sport.
I know, some of you would just like to race and not worry about all this social media stuff. I get it. However, that isn’t where we are in 2024, and haven’t been there in many years. Interacting with fans, posting on others’ socials, and being in front of everyone is pretty well needed to succeed.
And one other thing I would like to address, and this goes back to the roots of Legends Nation. When I created and launched Legends Nation, it was under the 51 Sports brand in 2007, then later I pulled it under my STIX FX Entertainment brand in 2010 until 2015 when my career went a different direction and relinquished ownership (I reacquired ownership in 2023 and relaunched the shortly after). Both 51 Sports, and my business STIX FX Entertainment, in addition to running Legends Nation, had website clients where we built and managed websites, and in some cases, handled some driver representation and Public Relations. While there were some accusations that were always disproven, Legends Nation absolutely NEVER played favorites in coverage with any driver, regardless of being a client or not. LN did have highlighted driver website links on the site and did post press releases from the website clients, however, it was pushed weekly for drivers, teams, tracks, and series to send in their press releases for posting on the website, and all we received were published. We positively and professionally interviewed drivers that were intentionally targeting our clients on and off the track, because we believe in non-biased journalism. In one case, I remember a father of a driver badmouth myself personally for never covering his driver and only promoting our website clients, to which I pulled data showing actually we had more winning story posts on our site for his kid than any of our clients!
This is another reason why we push the “… and justice for all” phrase on the website (since 2007) and on our newer shirt. We believe in the old code of journalism (which has been lost in many forms of media) of non-biased coverage, and coverage for everyone, regardless.
So, for those drivers or teams out there wondering what to do next time you see a post on Legends Nation of “one of those Cup kids” winning races, instead of being upset seeing the post on the site, or making a negative post within it claiming falsely we only highlight these kids, join the conversation in a positive way! Help yourself, your racing, your team, and your sponsors. It is not only the right thing to do morally, but also might help your racing career exposure as well!
One additional note: During my time away from Legends Nation, I worked PR / Social / Management for a few drivers in the NASCAR world of the sport. One had plenty of money, and one not so much. So I understand both sides of the coin in the financial aspect and promotional part within. It is hard for those that do not have funding like others, and those drivers and teams have to work harder for exposure. That is why I am glad to give everyone exposure that wants it on Legends Nation, and why I encourage all drivers to take advantage of when LN, or other sites, promote others, by promoting yourself within.
Feel free to contact us with any questions, suggestions, or feedback about this or anything else we do here at Legends Nation!
Photo credits: INEX
