Leaders Linked preview: How F1 is driving social growth

The compressed Formula 1 season reaches Imola this weekend, for round 13 of a planned 17-race championship. With Lewis Hamilton mercilessly moving in on a seventh world title, a ferocious battle for third place in the constructors’ championship between Racing Point, McLaren, Renault, and the sport’s return to one of its most picturesque venues for the first time since 2006, there’ll be no shortage of content for F1’s social team to create, splice together and publish across its various accounts throughout the weekend.

Which is probably just as well, since next Thursday, 5th November, we're hosting our next Leaders Linked webinar, where we’ll dig in to F1’s social strategy and hear the story of its impressive growth over the past few years. We’ll be joined by Sam Tremayne, Editor-in-Chief of F1’s social output and Facebook’s Sports Strategic Partnership Manager for the EMEA region, Kike Levy.

There’s much to discuss, notably the rapid development of F1’s social team and strategy, which accelerated following the sport’s acquisition by Liberty Media in 2017. If F1 was once playing catch-up on other rights holders in terms of its social strategy, now its slick, stylish and always-compelling output compares very favourably with any major international sport.

A glance at just one platform – Instagram – over the last week tells its own story about the breadth and depth of content F1 is now producing across its official channels on a regular basis.

You’ll find unseen angles and previously unheard team radio clips from last weekend’s Grand Prix in Portugal, as well as promotion of the sport’s official fantasy game within the account bio.

There’s archive material, clipped up and contextualised, from F1’s previous visits to Imola, including Ralf Schumacher’s maiden win in 2001 and the Juan Pablo Montoya-Michael Schumacher battle on lap one in 2004, to help build up to this weekend’s race.

There’s breaking news, reflecting the announcements this week that Pierre Gasly is staying at the AlphaTauri team for next year and Alfa Romeo is extending its partnership with Sauber, and even time for a birthday message for Racing Point driver Lance Stroll.

You’ll also see seamlessly integrated partner branding, with content posted about the DHL fastest Pit-Stop award and the Aramco-branded power rankings, via Instagram Stories. F1 is also among a crop of rights holders experimenting with Instagram’s new Reels feature, this week posting a clip of Kimi Raikkonen watching his remarkable first lap at last weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix with his young son.

I’m looking forward to hearing from Sam and Kike on the how and why behind these various content types. Some other questions I’m mulling over include how to foster a culture of creativity within your social team and how to react in real-time? Why mobilising your fanbase and building effective fan communities is a key driver of success on social for any sports organisation? And how does raw engagement data get turned into real insights, and how do those insights feed into editorial decisions?

I’m sure you’ll have questions, too. Do let me know, or join us and ask them yourself.

The live Leaders Linked webinar is next Thursday, 5th November, at 15.00 GMT (11.00 ET). It’s free and easy to sign up. You can do so right here.