The Value of Online Communities to Runners and Races

It’s undeniable that huge leaps have been made in technology. Brands and events, such as races, are now able to promote their services directly to their targeted audience with relative ease.
 
Online communities are growing by the hundreds, with thousands of members joining communities every day. 

Communities on Facebook can be built in the form of pages or groups although groups seem to have much more prominent interaction and engagement.

Did you know: Facebook adds 500,000 new users every day; 6 new profiles every second. (source)

Facebook groups seem to take the lead in engagement and interaction. For example, the Running and Race Training Facebook group, hosted by RunPage (the global runners experience platform), receives hundreds of likes and comments every day. This interaction keeps on growing as the group members invite their friends and also through organic reach as Facebook users search for running-related groups!

These communities foster a family-like environment where members share their daily struggles with training, ask running-related questions and bask in each other glory when each race is finished – creating a great opportunity for brands and races to have their services promoted by real participants sharing their genuine race experience.

Just have a look at the screenshot where a R&RT community member shared her opinion about her experience in the Bucharest Marathon. Within one hour over 40 members had interacted with the post! According to Facebook’s algorithm, high levels of interaction bring this post to the top of the groups page and users personal timeline, bringing it to the attention of more members exponentially. 
 
Mihaiela’s experience and honest review is an important asset to brands and races. Word-of-mouth and honest testimonials from trusted individuals are the most valued form of service and event promotion.
 
This is one of the reasons why communities should be an essential tool in a brands/race promotion strategy. Having authentic members inside a community share a certain brands product or participation in a race is undoubtedly efficient!

​Another fantastic aspect of online communities is the sheer speed at which content can reach a wide audience. Within a few hours, a single post has the ability pop up on users’ timelines bringing its information to the reader’s attention.
 
Trending content has the best chance at receiving high doses of interaction. Let’s take Eliud Kipchoge’s recent marathon record… within a few hours, this image had crossed the eyes of over 500 members and along with it, INEOS’ event sponsorship for the amazing feat by Eliud.
 
This is also definitely an amazing tool to boost a certain race/brands reach across social media, especially when specifically posting their content to targeted communities.

Another important aspect is the finisher image posts! Every week, runners from around the world share their victory images with their shiny new medals, many times through their branded RunPage finisher galleries ! This, once again, provides a great opportunity for brands to further their reach.

Race sponsors may have their logos added to the race photos (if the event used a sponsored photography service like Pic2Go’s ), which has an immediate benefit by runners acting as online brand ambassadors for the race sponsors. With the growth of online running communities, this benefit is doubled by users proudly sharing their branded images . This image can easily reach a large number of viewers in a small amount of time. 
 
Have a look at another example, where Herbalife receives hundreds of views and engagement at seemingly no extra cost (utilizing Pic2Go’s sponsored photography service). By sponsoring a race, brands can now reach out to thousands more million eyes as their brand logos are shared by the thousands on social media.

​There is no doubt that online running communities are an unstoppable asset with infinite growth potential for brands and races to promote their services. This potential keeps growing as social media becomes an ever more important pillar of our daily lives. Brands and races should take advantage of the aforementioned information by creating deeply-rooted and authentic bonds with the users inside running-related communities in order to boost their reach and brand image.

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About the Author

​Paulo Piedade is a Certified Track & Field Coach, based in Portugal.
Paulo is the advising Running Coach at the Running and Race Training group.
His Runner Profile - runpage.com/profile/paulo.piedade