Comments on World in Motion: RAM Racing: How NOT to run a social media page

Great post! I didn't participate in the race, ...

2011-12-07T10:50:18.797-05:00

Great post! I didn't participate in the race, or even know that it was going on this weekend, but I can imagine the outrage these people must be feeling. I usually bring my Blackberry to longer races so I can take pictures before/after, and I know I'm not the only one. I would have been going crazy if I was stuck in traffic and there was no update from the race's Facebook page. It sounds like a case of them overbooking the race.

I've been following this since the race happened, mostly since the Hot Chocolate race has always been on my "Race Bucket List." Now I'm not so sure, especially since the race organizers seem to be just waiting for it all to blow over.

Thanks for the comment! I appreciate your input r...

2011-12-07T10:17:18.661-05:00

Thanks for the comment! I appreciate your input regarding previous RAM events. It seems like they just don't know how to cap their races at a safe number. I don't know the exact number of participants but from one of their pre-race newsletters, that number was thrown out.

It's amazing how many people are still commenting and how quickly word of this event has spread to other outlets. I mean, it was featured in Runner's World! I do agree with you that every race has its fair share of problems but this is just remarkable. There was an article in the Washingtonian earlier this week that mentioned that there was in fact NO accident that caused the back up, so who knows where the event organizers got that information from.

Personally, I still can't believe the event director at RAM Racing hasn't come out with another statement. It seems like they are just waiting for this to blow over, but if they don't do something soon, I can't imagine anyone wanting to attend one of their events anytime in the near future!Thanks again for your comment and hope to hear from you again soon!

Good article. you bring up alot of interesting ...

2011-12-05T14:17:03.162-05:00

Good article. you bring up alot of interesting points. I am from Chicago and have run 3 RAM races over the past 2 years with two of them being triathlons. I have never personally had any issues and actually thought that they did good jobs. I did do the Chicago Hot Chocalate 15K last year and my only complaint was that it was so crowded to get any hot chocolate after the race.
I think that RAM can sometimes be a little over ambitious with the amount of participants they can handle. I don’t think you run into that issue with the triathlons but when they try to do the large races they seem to get some bad reviews. That race directors comment of how the venue could not handle more than 4000 was interesting. And they had 20,000?
I heard about this through the owners post on Facebook yesterday. After reading your blog I kind of have a different look at it now since you bring up a lot of good points as to how they handled it real time.
My thought is that no race is gonna go without any problems but I have never heard of something so disastrous like this from the traffic to the police escorts leading the runner in wrong direction. At the end of the day the race organizer is responsible for the outcome. If they would have had a few races under their belts in DC then I think they would be able to weather the complaints and continue in that area but I am thinking their DC area race days are over.
Over all I hope this doesn’t put an end to RAM since like I said the races I have done I have enjoyed and actually got some good swag (bike jerseys, hooded sweatshirts, etc…).

Hi Jess, Thanks for the comment! I guess you cou...

2011-12-05T10:28:41.401-05:00

Hi Jess,

Thanks for the comment! I guess you could say, they weren't very well versed in crisis management. It almost seemed like everyone was in a state of shock as to what to do next. I do believe there is a "right" and "wrong" way to complain, and certainly don't condone the use of any profanity or threatening language, but the fact that there was no explanation as to why comments were being deleted comes across as incredibly sketchy. A simple statement explaining the situation would have worked, but unfortunately there was nothing.

I must say, most of my frustration was geared towards the Facebook page on the day of the event, as well as what happened after. Looking back, they did do a good job with engaging with fans prior to the event taking place, but I only hoped that they would have taken that approach in answering the concerns of many of the runners as the disaster unfolded, rather than sit back in silence. Doing something is always better than doing nothing.

Thanks again for your comment, and hope you did a great job on your run!

-WIM

I work in social media full time and ran the race ...

2011-12-05T09:55:41.981-05:00

I work in social media full time and ran the race this weekend, and I actually thought RAM racing did a great job on the social media front until right up until the event. in the months leading up to it they were active on Twitter and frequently tweeted at me or retweeted things I said.

And even the day before the race they answered a question I had about exchanging jacket sizes ridiculously fast on their Facebook page. I was actually really impressed with that.

I do agree though that it's poor form to delete comments without an explanation. This is part of the reason why every organization needs a sound comment policy that explains what is OK and what will be deleted (profanity for example.) And I do think it was a big shock to go from such quick responses to radio silence as soon as something went wrong. As customers we just needed something more.