Timwoolleyracing.com
From AlexBrownRacing
This is a draft chapter of a proposed book: Greatness and Goodness, Barbaro and his Legacy.
Here we explore the development of TWR / ABR, why it became the site for all things Barbaro. Issues with regard to growth and the need to transition from a blog to a full suite of social media tools are covered. We also address the importance of working with media, the development of goals and branding issues.
Much of this content was discussed during an interview with Knowledge@Wharton: Social Media for Social Causes: Alex Brown's Passion for the Welfare of Horses
The following refers to both timwoolleyracing.com (TWR) and alexbrownracing.com (ABR) Timwoolleyracing.com was used during the coverage of Barbaro preparing for the Preakness, Barbaro's stay at New Bolton Center and for the first seven months after Barbaro's death. Alexbrownracing.com was used from August 2007 onwards.
History of TWR
TWR began in 2004 as a site for Tim Woolley's racing stable. It was a blog. Blog entries were published about once a month. The topics included Fair Hill issues in general and Tim's horses in particular. The site was the first race horse trainer's site that was a blog. We assumed it would be a huge hit. Not so. The site struggled along with about six visits per day for the two years prior to Barbaro's Preakness preparations. Certainly the site was not updated enough to engage an audience. The site had no "link ins" and no "google juice" which were requisites to an active site. And then along came Barbaro.
Why?
So why did a web-site of another racehorse trainer, Tim Woolley, became the site for Fans of Barbaro.
After the 2006 Kentucky Derby, Barbaro returned to Fair Hill where he trained as a 2yo. I was a freelance exercise rider for Tim Woolley at Fair Hill. I mentioned to Tim that it would be fun to do daily updates on Barbaro as Barbaro prepared for the Preakness, on Tim's site. Tim's barn was next to Michael Matz' barn. Tim Agreed. I had initially set up Timwoolleyracing.com for Tim two years earlier.
We saw Barbaro train each day and we updated the site on Barbaro's activities. A Google Adwords campaign was created (keyword: Barbaro) to promote the idea more broadly across the internet. If the keyword Barbaro was googled, the site's advertisement would appear with information on Barbaro's latest activities noted directly within the copy of the advertisement. This was, and remains, the only advertising expenditure that was made for TWR and ABR. And while it was designed to drive traffic to TWR, it was also our first attempts to brand TWR as the source for Barbaro information.
In the two weeks between the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, the site traffic increased from 6 visits a day to about 120 visits the day before the Preakness. I noted this in a class I was teaching at the University of Delaware. The class topic was Search Engine Marketing.
Following the Preakness the initial reaction was to discontinue updates. The Google Adwords campaign was discontinued. However by mid-day Sunday, after observing the site statistics, it was evident that many people were googling Barbaro and not getting any updated information. A vet from Fair Hill, Chuck, was called for an update. Chuck is an associate of Dr. Kathy Anderson. Dr. Anderson is Michael Matz's vet and therefore was Barbaro's vet at Fair Hill. An update was posted regarding the current status of Barbaro (in surgery) and the anticipated process to bring Barbaro out of surgery (recovery pool and so forth):
Update 4: Barbaro's surgeon, Dr. Richardson, was flown up from Florida this morning. The procedure after the surgery is designed to have Barbaro 'wake up' in a swimming pool. He will be placed on a sling and transported to the pool. This is to help ensure that when he does wake up he does not cause himself further damage. When a horse comes out of anesthesea there is a chance they would start thrashing around, this environment limits the chances of causing further trauma from the thrashing. As he is already 'stood up' by the sling in the pool, he won't need to get up, which could obviously cause further harm to the leg. It is anticipated that this will occur sometime early this evening.
The Google Adwords campaign was renewed. When Barbaro did come out of surgery another update was posted thanks to a swift phone call from Chuck.
Update 5: Barbaro is now in the recovery pool (7:40 pm). He has a bone plate fusing his ankle and pastern and a caste has been placed over this. Dr. Richardson described the surgery as one of the toughest he has performed. He is awakening from anesthesea in the pool, and once he completely comes around, he will be transported via sling back to his stall later this evening (it usually takes an hour from when they are placed in the pool to when they are able to return to their stall.) Bloodhorse has a great mid surgery report (6 pm) that outlines the catastrophic nature of the injury. Also, we have some pictures of Barbaro in our gallery taken at Fair Hill last saturday. Feel free to download them.
Timwoolleyracing.com was the first "media" to note Barbaro had completed surgery and was in recovery. The Google Adwords campaign reflected this.
The site received 3,000 visits in the next hour, and then the site crashed. Timwoolleyracing.com was operating on very low bandwidth that was necessary to manage a site that typically received less visits in a year than it had received in the hour after Barbaro came out of surgery. The next day we resolved to provide regular updates if we had access to updates. Team Barbaro was very helpful in providing those updates.
It was important to use a Google Adwords campaign as TWR was not ranked at that point on the natural search results for the keyword "Barbaro". No matter how useful our site was going to be in terms of providing all necessary updates, if people could not find the site it would have been all for naught. Certainly "word of mouth" helped get the word out about our updates (posts on various horse-related discussion boards with links to TWR for example), but in the early days the Google Adword campaign also played an important role. We altered the copy within the ads we displayed as Barbaro's status changed. Essentially right from the search results people could see the current status of Barbaro. This began our efforts to brand our site for all things Barbaro. We continued the campaign for about three weeks, spending about $500.
Blog: Site Traffic
Six visits per day grew to 120 visits per day in the days leading up to the Preakness. This growth was achieved by documenting Barbaro's daily activities and running the Google Adwords campaign that signaled that we had the latest Barbaro updates. There was even a day when we saw Barbaro only jog one turn of the track, yet it was reported in the Daily Racing Form that Barbaro jogged round the track twice. It was fun to observe the descrepancy and to realise that even in traditional media you cannot believe all you read.
In the days following the Preakness, traffic spiked immediately and then leveled off to about 1,500 visits per day. This level of activity remained pretty constant until mid July 2006 when two events occured; the onset of Barbaro's laminitis and Ed Fountaine of the New York Post citing Timwoolleyracing.com as a source as he reported on Barbaro's condition (the onset of Laminitis). Both events moved the site traffic up a factor of about 10. The site was now receiving about 10 - 15,000 visits per day.
As things settled down closer to the 2006-2007 holidays traffic dropped a little (8 - 10,000 visits) but then built up once it was realized that Barbaro's life was again in jeopardy (end of January 2007). On the day Barbaro was euthanized the main site received close to 70,000 visits. It received more visits that day than the number of visitors reported on New Bolton Center's site.
After Barbaro's passing, the main site settled back to about 6,000 visits per day through 2007. Through 2008 we had about 3,000 visits a day on Alexbrownracing.com which had replaced TWR in September 2007. The numbers are starting to decline on the main site, as we continue to reach out through other related sites. We also removed sitemeter, which was used to track the traffic on the main site. Sitemeter had a bug that effected the loading behavior of the site. So now we no longer track the number of visits to the main site, which remains a blog.
While site traffic on the main site is now lower than the days of Barbaro's stay at New Bolton Center, traffic on the discussion board and wiki has increased. Membership of other ABR social networking sites also continues to grow.
Blog: Messaging, Signal Value and Breaking News
Providing updates on Barbaro's condition was not a trivial exercise. It was important to be accurate, understand the reaction that the updates would create among Fans of Barbaro and respect the privacy concerns of Team Barbaro.
Early on a phrase was developed "Another Comfortable Night", also ACN, which was used in the first morning update when things were fine. Using this phrase consistently, it signaled that all was well. When things were not going so well and the phrase was not used, it was quickly understood among Fans of Barbaro that things were not so good. Examples used were terms like: Things are OK. This was used during one morning update. It was a comment from Michael that was simply repeated with additional context. FOBs understood quickly that while things were OK, things were not as good as they were when the phrase "Another Comfortable Night" was used.
When things for Barbaro were going particularly well, "Another Comfortable Night" was still used. It was important that "Another Comfortable Night" did not signal a regression in status, coming down from a state of well being for Barbaro that was higher than that.
Timing of the morning update also had perceived signal value. If an update was late, the perception was that something must be wrong. Certainly during the additional hour or two FOBs were waiting for the update. The reality was that the timing was a function of when the update was acquired from Michael, Peter or Gretchen Jackson.
There were a few times that issues were known but the site was not in a position to report those issues. The reality is that this only happened on a very few occasions. We resolved this by contacting trusted media friends so they could follow up, break the news, which we would then link to.
The first example was breaking the news that Barbaro had been outside to graze for the first time. This obviously signaled a major step forward for Barbaro and was a highly newsworthy event. An FOB, while visiting Saratoga in August 2006, had posted in the comments that she had overheard a conversation between Edgar Prado and another fan. Edgar told this fan that he had just been informed that Barbaro had been outside for the first time to graze. This was not public information at the time.
This was a tough issue. On the one hand the event was already being discussed on the site in the comments section. On the other hand the information had not yet been made public through official channels. New Bolton Center wanted to include the information the following week in its next update. I called Jeannine Edwards of ESPN. Jeannine was covering racing from Arlington Park that weekend and the Jacksons were scheduled to be there with Showing Up, who was running in the Secretariat Stakes. Jeannine interviewed the Jacksons on air and the announcement was made public on ESPN that weekend.
During the final weekend of Barbaro's life things were obviously slipping for Barbaro. On Saturday Barbaro went for more surgery. This was not public information on Saturday morning. I called Mike Jensen of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Like Jeannine Edwards, Mike had developed a great relationship with the Jacksons over the last eight months. I explained what I knew and why I was uncomfortable running with the information on the site, yet also uncomfortable knowing what was going on without alerting the public who had been so well informed throughout Barbaro's stay at the New Bolton Center. Mike made the call to the Jacksons and wrote the story. This was on the internet by Saturday afternoon. We then linked to the article. The news was out.
Both examples illustrate how important it became to work with media. The goal of the site was not to always be the first to report information, but to make sure the Barbaro story was reported effectively. The site was a part of how that happened.
Expanding the Communications Mix: Blog, Discussion Board, Wiki, Facebook, Twitter, Twitpic, YouTube, Flickr and BlogTalkRadio
Timwoolleyracing.com began as a blog. The Barbaro updates created a lot of traffic and a lot of comments. Early comments were essentially from those wishing Barbaro all the best, and sharing sadness and grief among other commenters. Once Barbaro's condition began to stabalize conversations among Fans of Barbaro started to develop. The site was getting about 500 comments per day. It soon became clear that a blog comment system was not going to work if the site was to continue to grow.
On August 8 2006 the discussion board was added. This addition was met with some resistance initially. And certainly there are still some FOBs who only go to the main site and comment. There are also now some who only use the discussion board and never visit the main site.
The conversations on the discussion board were somewhat shaped by the naming of the folders and so forth. Some of the folder names have changed overtime as the needs of the FOBs have changed. The first fundraising rescue effort was started on the discussion board. It is very likely FOBs would not have been able to do any significant fundraising if we had not added this medium.
332,000 messages were posted on the discussion board in the first year. By the end of the second year, another 450,000 posts were added. By January 2009 950,000 messages were posted. March 3, 2009 the one millionth message was posted. May 15, 2009, 1.1 million messages were posted. August 8, on the 3 year anniversary of the discussion board, 1.2 million messages were posted. That equates to more than 1,000 messages a day for the first 3 years. The discussion board is the hub of the FOB community. This is where the work happens, the heart and sole of the FOB community. Other ABR sites are geared more for branding, getting the word out and increasing the size of the community.
The wiki was added to the ABR communications mix on May 13 2007. Knowledge was being generated that needed a place to "live". The wiki provides this type of resource. The wiki also allows FOBs and rescues and others using the sites to engage each other, and share additional detailed information via their own wiki entry. The wiki also allows for original content development. Such as this book project and the horse slaughter page. The wiki eclipsed 3 million page views in May 2009 and 4 million page views in December 2009.
The Alex Brown Racing Facebook Group was added in November 2008. This broadens the ABR communications mix and takes advantage of the viral nature of social networking sites. The facebook group also has a means to e-mail out to its members. An e-mail is sent out once a week.
Certainly there are people on the Facebook Group that would not, and do not, access the aforementioned sites. They are either interested in the work being done (which includes some media) or interested in helping with the work, broadening our reach. The Facebook Group is helpful in developing the Alex Brown Racing brand, much as twitter and BlogTalkRadio does. February 22, 2009 the Facebook Group reached 1,000 members. May 27, 2009 the Facebook Group reached 1,500 membership. 1,600 members June 18, 2009. 2,000 members August 21, 2009. 2,600 members in November 2009.
Alex Brown Racing is also now on Twitter. Twitter allows ABR to reach out with updates to more media and others who perhaps do not frequent the main site and discussion board. It is also easier to provide short updates to twitter via iPhone, than it is to update the main ABR site (Blog) by iPhone. Mid May we reached 500 followers. June 8 we reached 600 followers. November 2009 we reached 1,000 followers.
Complimenting twitter, Alex Brown Racing is now on Twitpic which allows us to post real time pictures. We joined twitpic on June 20, 2009.
The Alex Brown Racing YouTube Group was added in January 2009. There is a lot of YouTube content that is relevant to the work and interests of Fans of Barbaro. Setting up a YouTube Group allows for that content to be gathered in one place. The group also provides additional marketing opportunities, for example the ABR YouTube contest about Horse Slaughter.
The Alex Brown Racing Flickr Group was also added in January 2009, and for the same reasons as the YouTube group. Images rather than video of course.
Finally we joined Blogtalkradio in July 2009 and conducted a weekly half hour radio show leading up to the Breeders' Cup at the beginning of November.
Developing and Integrating the Communications Mix
We now have multiple platforms to reach out to Fans of Barbaro, those interested in the work of Fans of Barbaro, and horse welfare and horse racing fans in general. These are three distinct target audiences thar the ABR sites serve. It is important to integrate the platforms and to cross promote each platform. This helps to expand the reach of the community while also creating tighter integration within the community. Here we will look a little more closely at each platform and how it integrates with the remainder of the ABR platforms. Many examples abound.
ABR Blog:
why: The initial blog was a perfect platform to provide timely updates on Barbaro's status prior to the Preakness and during his stay at New Bolton Center. We were then able to integrate other news stories, and link to them, as we went along. The comment section of the blog allowed the Fans of Barbaro community to develop while responding to the status updates. The blog remains the "publishing center" of ABR with 4 - 5 updates a day through November 2009. We have now moved to one update a day.
how: Timely updates. The length of an update was not important, but getting the information out there as it was known was. It was also important to be consistent with messaging. We created a new update page for each day that then included four to five updates for that day through November 2009. The first update was published before heading out to work. The second update summarized the morning work at the track or Barbaro updates when he was at New Bolton Center. Readers came to rely on a certain ways of doing things.
integrate: The blog serves as the central component to Alex Brown Racing and has done so since the inception of the project. It includes links out to all other Alex Brown Racing sites, and integrates other components of Alex Brown Racing in updates that are posted frequently.
target audiences, order of importance: Fans of Barbaro, horse racing and horse welfare enthusiasts in general, those interested in the work of Fans of Barbaro / ABR
ABR Discussion Board:
why: Conversations among Fans of Barbaro were stymied by the linear comments section on the blog. A discussion board allowed Fans of Barbaro to generate their own conversations, oftentimes independent of what was being posted on the main site's updates (blog).
how: Moderation is very hands off. Moderators try not to get involved in coversations. This enables the FOB community to shape its own direction. The moderators do read everything. This is how we observe and learn from our community, and how we take any necessary actions. More details here: Managing_the_Community.
integrate: We link to appropriate discussions on the main site. We also "tweet" any important discussions as well as add those links to the ABR Facebook Group and my personal Facebook profile page.
target audiences, order of importance: Fans of Barbaro, horse racing and horse welfare enthusiasts in general, those interested in the work of Fans of Barbaro / ABR
ABR Wiki:
why: The wiki serves as a repository of content. This was important as the community developed and knowledge needed sharing, storing, and developing. Knowledge about participating horse rescue organizations, individual Fans of Barbaro, horse slaughter issues in general, specific star horses and so forth.
how: Wiki entries have been created for "star" horses like Mine That Bird and Rachel Alexandra. Each time these horses are mentioned in updates on the main site, links to their respective pages are included. Each horse rescue on the discussion board is required to have a wiki entry to store content. Many FOBs have their own wiki entry that provides background information on themselves and their FOB activities. The anti slaughter campaign has a detailed wiki page on strategy and history and so forth.
integrate: links to the wiki pages are included, where appropriate, on the main ABR page. For example, each time Rachel Alexandra is mentioned, her name is linked to her page. The discussion board "signatures" of FOBs and rescues include links to their wiki pages, so it is easy to access the wiki content to add context to the discussion.
target audiences, order of importance: Fans of Barbaro, those interested in the work of Fans of Barbaro / ABR, horse racing and horse welfare enthusiasts in general
Facebook, ABR Group and Alex Brown entry:
why: Facebook reaches out to media and others in the horse world. It adds a more social component to the ABR network. It has a structured framework to connect people.
how: The ABR Facebook group e-mails an update out once per week. That update includes links to a variety of other ABR sites, specifically the discussion board and the wiki. All new "friends" added to Alex Brown are asked to join the ABR Facebook Group. The goal is to grow the ABR Facebook Group.
integrate: The ABR Facebook Group e-mail includes links to the other ABR sites, the discussion board and wiki, where appropriate. The e-mail is also posted on the ABR Facebook Group page as a discussion, and the discussion is linked from there to a tweet, an update on the main ABR page, and a thread on the ABR discussion board. Since the Facebook Group e-mail is not always reliable the additional links from other ABR resources helps get it out there. The e-mail itself is a chance to summarize events over the past week.
target audiences, order of importance: those interested in the work of Fans of Barbaro / ABR, horse racing and horse welfare enthusiasts in general, Fans of Barbaro (Note the change of order.)
ABR Twitter:
why: Twitter is great for providing short updates of what has been added to the main site. Broadcasting ABR and FOB news. Twitter can also allow live updates from events, it is easier to provide these updates to twitter via iPhone, than provide these updates via the main ABR site (Blog). Examples include the Preakness of 2009, visits to OLEX, short updates from the morning's work at Woodbine and races in the afternoons. Twitter reaches media and those who are interested in what we do, yet do not have the time to spend within our community (principally the main site and discussion board.) Twitter is very similar to Facebook in this regard. Twitter is important for branding. Each tweet needs to support some aspect of the ABR, Alex Brown and FOB brands.
how: Each "tweet" has to include useful information that supports the aforementioned brands. Some live updates cannot include links (updates from an iPhone at OLEX for example) but otherwise tweets should include links whenever possible. Engaging other twitter users can help develop additional conversations and networking. As well as reaching out to other potential "followers". Frequency is also important. Twitter allows you to build your brand (Alex Brown Racing), so tweeting often enough to become relevant is important. The ABR twitter feed is reproduced on the main ABR page which does effect the twittering behavior while also increasing integration between the main site and twitter.
integrate: Tweets can include a variety of other ABR links. For example an important discussion thread about Ernie Paragallo, or other breaking news that needs broader exposure. A new update on the main ABR site that has original content is another opportunity to tweet. And the ABR twitter feed is displayed on the main ABR site.
target audiences, order of importance: those interested in the work of Fans of Barbaro / ABR, horse racing and horse welfare enthusiasts in general, Fans of Barbaro
ABR Twitpic:
why: Twitpic compliments twitter and allows for pictures to be posted via twitter. This is good for real time pictures of events, OLEX auction and Woodbine races for example. It also inspired a series: Woodbine Characters.
how: Each photograph is sent to twitter via twitpic.
intergrate: Twitpic works with Twitter.
target audiences, order of importance: those interested in the work of Fans of Barbaro / ABR, horse racing and horse welfare enthusiasts in general, Fans of Barbaro
ABR YouTube Group:
why: YouTube is a growing network and as such ABR needed to participate if at all possible. Many FOBs like to create video content, and also like to discuss and view content posted by others, a major horse race for example. Having a group where all relevant content is placed in one place is useful. YouTube is also useful for running contests and creating buzz via those contests.
how: We can add relevant YouTube content to the ABR YouTube Group, unlike Flickr where the content has to be added by the author. We created our own ABR YouTube contest. This was our second marketing expense. A $1,000 prize.
integrate: The YouTube Group is mentioned in the Facebook Group e-mail from time to time. Especially if new content is added. The YouTube horse slaughter contest was heavily promoted on the main ABR page (blog), the ABR Facebook Group and twitter.
target audiences, order of importance: Fans of Barbaro, horse racing and horse welfare enthusiasts in general, those interested in the work of Fans of Barbaro / ABR
ABR Flickr Group:
why: FOBs like to take pictures and share their experiences. They also like to view pictures of relevant events. Having those pictures in one place that each can contribute to is important.
how: Unlike the YouTube Group, the photographer has to include his / her own pictures on the Flickr Group. This has stymied the growth of this group.
integrate: The ABR Flickr Group has been mentioned on both the main ABR page (blog) and the ABR Facebook Group e-mail.
target audiences, order of importance: Fans of Barbaro, horse racing and horse welfare enthusiasts in general, those interested in the work of Fans of Barbaro / ABR
ABR on BlogTalkRadio
why: Another medium which helps us further develop the Alex Brown Racing brand and reach out. It also allowed us to summarize the horse racing issues for the week as we got ready for the 2009 Breeders' Cup. We will start again as we prepare for the 2010 Kentucky Derby.
how: A 30 minute show, once a week. The shows are all archived for those who cannot listen live.
integrate: The shows are linked to the main site, included in the weekly Facebook Group e-mail, linked to the discussion board and also posted to my personal Facebook profile page.
target audiences, order of importance: Fans of Barbaro, horse racing and horse welfare enthusiasts in general, those interested in the work of Fans of Barbaro / ABR
Media
Prior to Barbaro, TWR / ABR essentially did not exist. It was hard to find in google under any meaningful search, and with a readership of six it had no impact on the media landscape.
This continued until Barbaro's Preakness. We very quickly became the place to come for the most accurate and up-to-date information on Barbaro. And news on Barbaro was important to the racing world and the broader world in general. We became an interesting, niche, blog. We were a source for news, but we were not cited as a source for a while by media. Certainly other media did not want to drive traffic to our site, running the risk of losing some of that traffic. After a few months media mentions began to occur, and the audience for our site had become pretty well established.
Media followed TWR and also covered TWR during Barbaro's time at the New Bolton Center. The first media coverage of the site was early summer 2006. Because we were able to get updates on Barbaro before other media we became a source for other media reporting. Ed Fountaine of the New York Post cited TWR on at least one occasion as a reference for Barbaro's condition (during the Laminitis scare in July 2006).
Jeannine Edwards (ESPN), Mike Jensen (Philadelphia Inquirer), Jack Ireland (Wilmington News Journal) and Glenye Cain (Daily Racing Form) followed the site for updates and provided the site significant media exposure.
On a few occasions we worked directly with media to break stories on Barbaro's condition. This highlighted our goals at the time. The Barbaro story was more important than breaking the story. The goal of the site at the time was to have the most accurate and uptodate information and to do this it was sometimes prudent to provide other media information about a story to make sure the story was written in a timely fashion.
As the site has evolved (it is now a major player in the horse slaughter fight) media coverage persists. For example, on Kentucky Derby Day of 2008 we were cited in an article in the Toronto Star about rescuing racehorses from slaughter. Each new event creates media opportunities. Nicanor's debut (CBS News), Nicanor's first win (USA Today). The unveiling of Barbaro's memorial, and the anniversary of Barbaro's death are more examples of events that attracted media attention to Fans of Barbaro and ABR. These events also attract additional new members to the Facebook Group, followers on Twitter and spike the traffic on the discussion board and the blog.
Work outside the site, to further engage media, developed in 2008 when I started contributing to The Rail (New York Times). This helped further brand ABR, FOBs and my personal brand. It served as a "seal of approval" from a traditional media of high reputation.
To develop within the media section: How does Alex Brown Racing fit in with the landscape of other horse racing and horse welfare web-sites. Discussion boards and so forth. How has this evolved over time. Chronicle of the Horse. DreamHorse. ICERS.
PR
One of the roles I undertook early in this project was the role of public relations. It was important to work with media and help get the FOB story out there. The broader the media coverage the more access it provides to engage the public and therefore to attract new Fans of Barbaro and those interested in FOB work and horse welfare more generally. The additions of the ABR Facebook Group and twitter also help in this regard.
The "story", for the media, has evolved overtime and comprises four themes:
Establishing the site
Initially the message was to gain attention as a site providing Barbaro updates. The Daily Racing Form, Cecil Whig and WJZ from Baltimore covered that story early summer of 2006.
Once the site was truly established in the media landscape regarding the Barbaro story the site was quoted in media stories covering Barbaro. Most notably Ed Fountaine of the New York Post, Mike Jensen of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Jeannine Edwards of ESPN. All the while the media covering the Barbaro story were reading the site and working directly with us regarding the story.
Promoting Fans of Barbaro
The next story to promote was the story of Fans of Barbaro itself. Coverage began after Barbaro's death, close to Barbaro's fourth birthday and the 2007 Triple Crown series. Examples included ESPN.com's The Church of Barbaro story and Washington Post's Preakness front page story: Out of Preakness Tragedy a Legacy. The key was to illustrate that the FOB community was making a measurable impact on horse welfare issues.
Coverage quieted down through the remainder of 2007. Fans of Barbaro's work did not. All the while the site's credibility was established and I was perceived as someone who knew things about horse racing, horse welfare and horse slaughter, much of which had been learned over the preceding year of this project.
Source for Horse Slaughter, Horse Welfare and Horse Racing Issues
During the 2007 - 2008 winter I moved to Texas. It was another tipping point for the site and its media coverage. I also became an author. I wrote an essay on horse slaughter to help establish my credibility within that community. Helping establish and organize Americans Against Horse Slaughter provided additional media opportunities, including the Wilmington News Journal.
A Public Relations firm was engaged (for free) to help shape the story of the site and Fans of Barbaro and get wider media exposure. As a result, the New York Times asked me to help with its 2008 Triple Crown coverage via its new site: The Rail. The Rail ultimately received an Honorable Mention in the end of year Eclipse Award voting. Following the 2008 Triple Crown, and as a result the work on The Rail, I was able to convince Bloodhorse to allow me to be a guest on Talkin' Horses. I returned to The Rail's Triple Crown coverage for 2009. This resulted in multiple stories also being reproduced in the regular New York Times sports section, further developing my credibility and brand.
During the spring of 2008 I had moved to Canada and continued writing articles. The first was about my experience in Texas. The remainder addressing issues related to Canada and Slaughter. Again, working this project over time has enabled me to establish credibility within media to help source stories and write stories. The Toronto Star's front page coverage on Horse Slaughter, on the day of the 2008 Kentucky Derby (Battle to save horses from slaughterhouse), includes work this site has performed. The story resulted from a meeting with the author of the article. How Many Horses Can One Man Save? won a Sovereign Award for best feature story in Canada in 2008. Recent rescue events have also become newsworthy events that readily cite Fans of Barbaro and alexbrownracing.com
Social Media for Social Causes
Alex Brown Racing and Fans of Barbaro has become a good case study for the use of Social Media for a Social Cause. In our example, horse welfare and the horse slaughter issue. This has been covered by an interview with Knowledge @ Wharton: Social Media for Social Causes: Alex Brown's Passion for the Welfare of Horses and an article in Thoroughbred Times: Exercise rider uses Internet to raise anti-slaughter awareness
All along the way, I respond to all media requests. This is an important part of my current role. Keeping this site, Fans of Barbaro, and horse welfare and horse slaughter in the news.
Evolution of Focus and Goals
The site's initial focus was on providing Barbaro updates accurately and in a timely fashion. There was only one day throughout Barbaro's time after the Preakness that a Barbaro update was not provided. This was on a Sunday and Michael Matz and Peter Brette proved very elusive that day. Michael and Peter were the usual sources for updates, along with Gretchen Jackson.
Once the site gained "traction" as the principal site for Barbaro information, additional horse racing news was added. It was clear the majority of those visiting the site were not horse racing fans, but loved horses. This was an opportunity to educate Fans of Barbaro about our sport.
The Jacksons (Barbaro's owners) soon made it clear they were interested in additional horse welfare issues, specifically horse slaughter.
Thus horse slaughter became an additional focus during the summer of 2006. The highlight of the summer was the passing of the anti-slaughter bill in the House in September 2006. The day it passed the main site (blog) crashed. The discussion board had only recently been added.
Sadly the bill was not passed in the Senate and thus we had to start again in 2007.
The final focus was a more broadening view of horse welfare, including horse rescue. The first fundraising effort was September 14, 2006 In Honor of Barbaro Rescue Challenge
The site (alexbrownracing.com) is now considered a player in the horse slaughter fight while also involved in horse rescue and other horse welfare issues.
Fundamental behind the focus of the sites has been the constant focus on the goals of managing the sites versus goals for the outcomes of the sites. Managing the sites effectively was the principal priority. The outcomes of the sites (raising money for slaughter-bound horses, raising awareness of the horse slaughter issue etc.) were not goals at the outset of the sites. Those outcomes simply developed as the community took shape.
The community drives the outcomes of the sites, the goals of managing the sites is to grow the community effectively.
Branding AlexBrownRacing Alex Brown and Fans of Barbaro
There are essentially three brands involved in this project; Alex Brown, Alex Brown Racing and Fans of Barbaro. And while the three brands have many elements in common (hopefully), they are distinct. In order to effectively manage the project it is important to understand the meaning of each of the brands, and develop those brands appropriately.
Brand meaning.
Alex Brown. As the "author" and manager of Alex Brown Racing, I have developed a certain reputation. This reputation combines with my own, much less known, history prior to this project.
Ideally: a horseman who cares about horses, knows horses and is hands-on. Knowledgable. And a geek. All work is done to try to reinforce those brand labels.
Alex Brown Racing. The sites that host Fans of Barbaro, cover horse racing and horse welfare issues and everything Barbaro related.
Ideally: Straightforward reporting of relevant horse news. Reliable source. Social media success story. All updates on the sites are done to try to reinforce those brand labels.
Fans of Barbaro. A community of compassionate people who were joined through the experiences of following Barbaro as a racehorse and a patient, and now developing his legacy.
Ideally: Compassionate animal lovers. Dedicated to ending horse slaughter and supporting horses in the slaughter pipeline. Generous.
It is also important to consider the brand meaning amongst different audiences. Alex Brown as a brand to the audience of Fans of Barbaro, versus a broader audience that includes horse racing media and horse racing fans in general and animal welfare advocates. Alex Brown Racing as a brand to the audience of Fans of Barbaro, other horse racing media, horse racing fans in general and animal welfare advocates. Fans of Barbaro as a brand to horse racing media and other animal welfare advocates. While the different meanings may be nuanced, developing and growing as a community will be more attainable as these brand meanings are understood and shaped.
Managing the Brands.
Search engine optimization is important for the site Alex Brown Racing. It is important that this site comes up under relevant searches, and comes up highly ranked on those keyword searches. Because ending horse slaughter is an overarching goal of Fans of Barbaro and ABR "horse slaughter" is a keyword term that is important. Generally Alex Brown Racing fluctuates around 20th on this term. Alex Brown comes up second on the keyword search for "Alex Brown". Only bettered by a bank. Interestingly, as you type in Alex Br in google and google starts a list of suggestions, Alex Brown Racing is listed second on the suggestions. We can also look at google's Keyword Tool to get an estimate on the number of times certain keyword phrases are searched each month:
June 4, 2009: Alex Brown Racing: 3,600, Fans of Barbaro: 110, Barbaro: 201,000, Friends of Barbaro: 140 As a point of reference, Bloodhorse was searched 33,100, Chantal Sutherland was searched 5,400 times and appears to be the most popular personality (jockey or trainer) in horse racing in North America.
July 1, 2009: Alex Brown Racing: 4,400, Fans of Barbaro: NA, Barbaro: 246,000, Friends of Barbaro: 170 As a point of reference, Bloodhorse was searched 40,500, Chantal Sutherland was searched 6,600 times and appears to be the most popular personality (jockey or trainer) in horse racing in North America. And Kelly Carlson was searched 135,000 times.
October 3, 2009: Alex Brown Racing: 4,400, Fans of Barbaro: 140, Barbaro: 246,000, Friends of Barbaro: 170 As a point of reference, Bloodhorse was searched 40,500, Chantal Sutherland was searched 6,600 times and Kelly Carlson was searched 135,000 times.
To help strengthen the brands of Alex Brown and Alex Brown Racing, I have participated outside of ABR on horse racing projects as well as writing about the topic of horse slaughter. I work for Steve Asmussen, which reinforces the notion that I am a hands-on horseman who knows horses and horse racing. I have worked for the New York Times writing articles on The Rail, their online Triple Crown coverage (2008 and 2009). This has helped reinforce my own brand, the brand of Alex Brown Racing and that of Fans of Barbaro. I now also contribute weekly to a UK online Magazine, Eclipse. Writing addition stories online not only helps define the brands directly, but also gains additional "googlejuice" for those specific articles and for the Alex Brown brand as the author.
Managing the site
Managing timwoolleyracing.com comprises two aspects. Managing the community and managing the technology. The former is discussed separately.
Managing the technology meant making sure there was necessary site uptime as well as transitioning to additional technologies when needed. The needs for adding the ABR Discussion Board, ABR Wiki, ABR Facebook Group, ABR Twitter, ABR YouTube Group and ABR Flickr Group are discussed above. Along with PR, the decisions to add and develop these additional sites has been a critical strategic role.
When the project began it was hosted on a free hosting service based in the UK. Support and customer service were not helpful and any downtime created much anxiety from a project management standpoint. When the anti-slaughter Bill passed the House in September of 2006, the main site went offline completely for close to 24 hours. Thankfully we had recently introduced the discussion board so we could at least communicate to the community what had occured. It was apparent though that to run this project professionally, we would need a robust hosting service with strong customer support. We made the decision to move to HostMySite.com
Transition to alexbrownracing.com
In August of 2007, I left Fair Hill to embark on a racetrack by racetrack travel experience of North America. I wanted to learn first hand about horse welfare issues around North America. Since that would mean I would then no longer be working for Tim Woolley, it was decided to start a new site: alexbrownracing.com and return timwoolleyracing.com to Tim. TWR is now managed by Tim's wife, Penny. The transition was relatively seemless as we copied all the content from timwoolleyracing.com to alexbrownracing.com and simply continued to do what we are doing with the sites.
