Agreed with both sides. From a business (and my personal) point of view to make real friends and be involved in the focused community and for the most part get decent reliable information on how to's you can't beat forums.
There are several disadvantages to social media- seeing what someone ate for dinner, all the retarded drama, all the people who run their mouths because they're hiding behind a device, the bad advice and incorrect info, blah blah blah. To market to masses and touch base with lots of folks plus be in touch with the younger crowd though, you can't beat social media. I had a great conversation with Tim King recently, lat-G's "social media" guy and he gets it, there are huge advantages to using it correctly.
Recently I was excited to fit 315s all around on my G-body wagon to help inspire and lead the way for these cars that are becoming more and more popular. I posted here and on another Pro Touring based forum plus 2 of the most popular G body forums. I got probably less than 10 responses of "I like it" nature from general PT fans fairly quick and then it was old news, it's not a big deal these days to see 315s on a car. I also copy and pasted it on about 6 FB G-Body pages, and there it was potentially exposed to over 15,000 people who likely always have FB open on their phones, a week later it's still getting likes, I've had a ton of comments, and several people asking how I did it and what suspension I had etc. Which one did a better job of showing with Speedtech suspension you can fit 315s on a G-Body?
In a nutshell although you have to limit it a bit, when I'm on social media I don't waste time with all the garbage, I just scroll past and get involved with what will help Speedtech or in my personal life what will promote my own car. It's a great marketing tool. When I wanna meet people that I might rub shoulders with at an event or get real advice from those that have gone before, I get on forums.
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-Ben, Creative Director
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