Facebook Timeline Set To Affect NASCAR

It's always controversial when Facebook rolls out another redesign of the pages that many of us use for both personal and professional conversations and information. That is Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg above in the middle of doing media interviews for the new Facebook format called Timeline.

"Timeline is Facebook’s most radical profile makeover yet," says the Harvard Independent. Timeline has been called a visual scrapbook, an online filing cabinet and even a life tracker. What it certainly will be is controversial.

NASCAR has 2.4 million friends, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has 1.2 million and Jimmie Johnson just over a half million. It's fair to say that many NASCAR fans get their information from and interact with drivers, racetracks and sponsors on Facebook.

Click here for the official Facebook page explaining Timeline. Todd Wasserman for Mashable.com reports that Facebook is concentrating on changing the individual pages first and has yet to release a Timeline date for brands, fan pages and the other commercial aspects of the service.

Despite not being able to use the new format yet, brands like Mountain Dew are already in the mix. The company is supplying free page elements for the new Timeline format on its current Facebook page. Mountain Dew has over 6 million Facebook friends.

You can see in the demo that once Timeline is across the board, live apps can be placed right on the page. The repercussions for services like SiriusXM, MRN and others seeking to expand their NASCAR reach online will be significant.

This will also give a big boost to NASCAR's own brand marketing folks who will be charged with developing easy to use apps for things like timing and scoring, news and results. NASCAR can be put right on anyone's page.

Facebook is fully mobile and the Timeline app will also appear on Android and iPhones. The entire thing is completely portable as long as technology allows it to be. Facebook will see to that.

The reach of this service is amazing. NASCAR has yet to scratch the surface of Facebook and continues to be light years behind in modern social media applications. One big reason for this is the continuing roadblock of having Turner Sports controlling the online NASCAR content across the board.

Next season should be a transition year as the Sports Business Journal reported last week that NASCAR is actively negotiating to buy back its digital rights and should be fully in charge of all online content, applications and streaming for 2013.

If you have switched your Facebook page to the new Timeline format, we would love to hear some feedback from you. It seems that this change is almost entirely geared toward individuals. What happens to racetracks, sponsors and teams when the other pages move to this format is going to be fascinating.

We welcome your comments on this topic. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. Thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Go Daddy Internet Ship Listing To Port

It's a highly charged political atmosphere these days in the media and the online world is no exception. The "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA) was introduced by West Texas Republican Congressman Lamar Smith back in October.

Click here for a primer from CNET.com on SOPA and the broad-reaching effect it would have on almost every part of the current online environment.

Go Daddy CEO Warren Adelman came out in support of SOPA, a move that motivated a GoDaddyboycott.org website and triggered the movement of over 21 thousand domain names out of Go Daddy before Christmas. Click here for that story.

While the current total of around 40 thousand domains departing is not even a blip on the 40 million or so domains registered on Go Daddy, there is one stat that does make a difference. Part of the key to the company is the continuing registration of new domains and that may be the most affected.

This Thursday, December 29, has been named "Dump Go Daddy Day" by those fronting the movement. Click here for an article from Betanews.com that sums up some of the issues facing the company in terms of dealing with this growing backlash.

Go Daddy has several different press releases out now, the first one is the original strong support for SOPA and the most recent states: "We’ve listened to our customers. Go Daddy is no longer supporting the SOPA legislation."

Needless to say, all of this bad media could not come at a worse time for Go Daddy, a company about to embark on two very different high-profile national TV and media projects. The first is the airing of two more "cutting edge" commercials during the Super Bowl.

The picture above was released on Twitter by Bob Parsons, the former president of the company and now its Executive Chairman. That is Parsons grinning with Danica Patrick, Jillian Michaels and the new mystery Go Daddy girl during the Super Bowl ad shoot. The picture was removed from Twitter only minutes later.

The idea is to get Super Bowl viewers to see the ads and then move directly onto the Internet and visit the Go Daddy website. Ultimately, the business plan is to have those viewers return when they need to register a domain name. It's a simple equation.

The second big project is entering Patrick in the Daytona 500. It might be nice that she left IndyCar and is running full time in the Nationwide Series, but the story of January and February is the ability of a female racer to enter and possibly win the biggest NASCAR race of the year.

To many people Patrick is the face of Go Daddy and the TV exposure from her tongue-in-cheek sexist commercials is no doubt going to draw a new audience to NASCAR this season. At Daytona, Patrick will have Greg Zipadelli as her crew chief and Stewart-Haas Racing providing her car and crew.

The type of issue Go Daddy is facing with SOPA can snowball, as one such issue recently did for Netflix. An error in judgement and the subsequent poor handling of the effects of that error in the media can lead to very real results.

Here are some additional media sources on this topic:

SOPA Supporters Facing Boycotts from CBS News

Has Go Daddy's Elephant Killing CEO Finally Gone Too Far? from Gawker Media

Go Daddy CEO "We're Not Cynical Folks" from Mashable.com

Go Daddy's Reversal A Win For Customer Pressure from PC World

Go Daddy is going to be creating a new relationship with the NASCAR fan base once Patrick hits the track for Sprint Cup Series testing in just over two weeks. How Patrick manages her personal brand in the middle of this latest online controversy should be fun to watch.

We welcome your comments on this topic. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Holiday Recap: Here's What We Know

It's been a whirlwind of NASCAR TV and media news for the last month. Here is a little reset of what we know and some of the things coming up.

SPEED is back on the air with NASCAR from Daytona on January 12. Three days of Sprint Cup Series testing will feature a morning and afternoon session. The 9AM activity will be carried only on the SPEEDtv.com website. The 1PM session will be live on SPEED.

The network is still working on final on-air talent line-ups, but Darrell Waltrip has already said he will be there for all three days. That kind of sets the tone.

On Sunday, January 22, SPEED will carry live the NASCAR Hall of Fame induction ceremonies featuring Mr. Waltrip and the other inductees.

NASCAR RaceHub on SPEED returns the following Monday, January 23. Steve Byrnes will again be at the helm and the show has been scheduled for 6PM ET. The West Coast re-air details have yet to be announced, but look for 11PM again as the time.

SPEED closes out January with live coverage of the Rolex 24 from Daytona on the 28th. We will pass the on-air announcer line-ups along when we get them.

No word from ESPN on the role of Marty Reid for next season or any changes in the NASCAR announcer line-ups. A network spokesman told TDP that NASCAR Now will be returning in 2012 but there were no specifics provided.

While the Sports Business Journal reported that NASCAR will be buying back its digital (online) rights from Turner Sports, that deal is expected to be completed in 2012 and start with the 2013 season. Right now, nothing will change in terms of SiriusXM's NASCAR channel not being streamed online or NASCAR races being available on the Internet.

There you have it, just a snippet of the things going on right now as we work toward 2012 and a big reset of the NASCAR season. Sponsorship issues are dominating behind the scenes right now and it continues to be a very tough landscape to try and find dollars for racing.

Feel free to leave a comment of ask a question on these topics. Just click the comments button below. Thanks for taking the time to stop by.