#SMDriver

Trying to become a Social Media Driver with Marussia F1 and Monster.co.uk

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#SMDriver Wrapup

So the end of the competition is here.  This small piece of Tumblr and the #SMDriver Pinboard over at Pinterest are my entries. My original plan was something a lot richer…but there’s only so many hours in the day!  However, I’m happy with what there is – I had a great time looking at all the pictures and from the feedback I got, the people taking the pictures had a lot of fun. I had offers and pictures from Twitter strangers – showing exactly what social media is about, connecting people around the world.

But I also had fun looking at what everyone else was doing. There is some wonderful creativity out there (and some not so wonderful!)  With such a loose brief, anything could be done. I trawled through Twitter for the hashtag of #smdriver and looked at many of the pieces I saw (and I may have missed some).   As the Twitter links will disappear into the archive, I’ve pulled them together here.  If you have the time, make sure you take a look.

·         One of the more ambitious was Drew Harding, who registered the domain smdriver.co.uk, the Twitter account @SMDriverF1 and a account with Pinterest at SMDriverF1 He gathered lots of F1 information, creating a magazine type collection

 Stephen Jury pointed to the videos that he’d created before, to demonstrate the quality of what he could do – I love this one about testing the Triumph Dolomite

There were others who also pointed towards content that they had created previously, such as @SomersF1 and his tech blog   @amit_mandalia and his report of an aero test and Dean Leek with his video from the 2010 British GP (nope, absolutely no on-track video there Mr E's lawyer! :-) ) . There was also Heather Taylor who pointed to posts about social media and F1  and why she’d love to the #SMDriver

 Ailish created a news video and created other posts about the team and social media

@WorldF1Fans created a new Facebook page about his time at the MVR camping last year; he also talked about the successful twitter Follow campaign he pulls together around the #F1Follow hashtag on Twitter

 Manish Patel (@Baggies20)created a video about why he would love to be the #SMDriver and had some great comments on Twitter

Vicky Selwyn pulled together the plan for what she would do if she was the #SMDriver, an activation plan for the day

here were other plans on Twitter like this, for example the new account from Nellie, as @MarussiaF1_SMD who set out a whole campaign platform

  George Davis pointed towards his blog, where he told a story of Silverstone

Grace Cunningham had a series of posts,about how social media becomes the Fans Tools  and also asked fans why F1 mattered

 Paul Hadsley had some lots of fun with the hashtag on Twitter and then wrote a post about what he saw. I'd love to read it but unfortunately, it seems to be protected unless you are friends with him on Tumblr!

So there’s lots and lots there – take your time to read, to discover some new voices and new people across social media and make new friends. Whomever wins the competition, it’s been a fun ride!

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I love kangaroos!

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Social Media and Collaboration

So the #SMDriver contest enters its second and final week and people are slowly releasing what they are doing. The @Monster_UK twitter account did a huge Follow Friday of lots of people who appear to have entered; I saw a lot more people getting involved in my twitter stream as well.  Many of these involved more than just the person trying to win the prize.

My entry is focusing on that too:asking Twitter Friends from around the world, some of whom I've met, many others I haven't, to take pictures in interesting places. So Brands Hatch, Hollywood, Alton Towers and the Australian bush are all involved.

That's the power of social media, why brands get involved. It lets them get closer to the fans and - possibly more importantly - lets fans connect across the world in a common shared interest!

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What makes an #SMDriver

it's interesting. Monster and Marussia are after an #SMDriver but what is that?  There competition description says

Interact with Monster’s dedicated hashtag #SMDriver in the most imaginative and original way possible. We’re looking for someone who would make a great Social Media Driver; so it could be a video of you interviewing your friends, a fake commentary on a sporting event, a link to your blog or Pinterest board, or just a really witty post (please keep them clean!). It doesn’t matter what your angle is – just show us your passion for Formula 1™ and get people engaged with you. That’s what social media is all about!

But what does that mean?  What are they after?  The rules state the winner will be judged  "upon their social media skills and creativity within their message". Again, that's very loose, it could be anything. So what we now have s lots of different approaches, all trying different ways.

So I've seen people just asking for retweets on twitter. Another is looking to crowdsource the 'ultimate F1 race track'. Yet another is creating sites and galleries with just lots and lots of F1 pictures and news stories. What's right? they all are!

I've gone for telling the story on here and asking people from around the world to send me in their hashtagged pictures. It's great getting the involvement from friends all over the place!  There's going to be more as well - just tune in next week.

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#SMDriver around the world

Thanks to my wonderful friends on twitter...I've started to collect #SMDriver tags from around the world on my SMDriver Pinterest!

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What's an SMDriver?

That would be a social media driver. Monster.co.uk, one of the partners of the Marussia F1 team, are running a promotion to for a social media driver...someone to join them at the British Grand Prix and report from behind the scenes across the social media channels.  You get access to the team and the drivers, the chance to interview and report on what they are doing, share your experiences across Twitter and Facebook to promote the event, the team and Monster. And I'm definitely up for that. I have a plan!

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What do you need to do to be a Social Media Driver?