VA Support Notes
This page is a one stop reference to the various documents and functions you'll need to undertake the support role. As time passes, you will update it yourself, with documents mirroring the video content, such that there's a written and audiovisual version of each 'how to'.
Documentation
A Week In The Life overview document
Customer Support
Website Checks
Website Checks
Around mid morning each day perform a quick check on Facebook and look for any spam comments on the previous days posts. If they do appear then the user needs to be blocked. This will then hide the comment and ensure they cannot comment in future.
Mid afternoon
- Check tomorrow’s cards for the Speed Ratings. Irish racing is not included on the Speed Ratings and neither are the summer jumps meetings (May-Sep). On each racecard there should be speed figures next to each runner that has had a previous run (on the right-hand side of the card).
- Check for five day declarations. At the top of the racecards page there should be dates for the next five days and they should each contain that days fixtures.
- Around an hour or so into the afternoon’s racing, check the results page. Ensure that the first few races of the day are showing their results.
Evening
Check for form comments and summaries. For each race there should be a yellow speech bubble under each runners name. When you click on this speech bubble it should give a short comment on the runners’ chances in this race. At the bottom of the racecard is a summary on how the race will potentially pan out. Check at least one horse in each meeting (I like to check one horse in each race to be sure).
Check the editorial is in the right place. On the homepage you need to ensure that the tipping content – Stat of the Day, Placepot Pointers, Race of the Day and TV Trends all appear on the right hand side. Everything else should be on the left hand side.
Check each racecard for pace score completion. Any horses without a number next to their name, with a ‘u’ instead, will need updating. Alert Matt of this as he is currently in charge of this update.
Social Media Marketing
Race of the Day, and Scheduling tweets / Facebook posts
Social Media Marketing
Races of the Day
Each day, Monday through to Saturday, free registered users are able to access the full Geegeez Gold tool kit on selected races (usually 4-6). This needs to be posted to social media a couple of times throughout the day to ensure that everybody knows about it.
The first thing to do is to log in as a free user to see the list of the free races for that day. Take a screen shot of this (the free races will be coloured yellow) ready to be posted to Twitter and Facebook.
Login to Tweetdeck (login details can be found within the VA Task List spreadsheet). Click on the ‘New Tweet’ icon and compose the tweet highlighting the free races of the day, and include a link for people to sign up to enable them to access these races.
Next upload the screen shot previously saved and schedule the tweet to be sent out. Scheduling gives you a chance to prove read it and check the layout. Amendments can then be made if necessary.
The same process needs to be followed for Facebook (login details can be found within the VA Task List spreadsheet). Copy and paste the wording used on Twitter and the register link. Then add the image of the racecards and schedule the tweet for the same time as on Twitter. Click on the scheduled post to ensure it looks correct.
Feature of the Day
Feature of the Day
As well as free races, each day one of the features found within Geegeez Gold is given to free users to enable them to access it for that specific day.
A free user can see which of the reports is free to use that day by selecting the drop down box in Report Selector from within the racecards section. The free feature of the day will be highlighted in yellow.
Each day’s free report is listed in the Week In The Life Of doc.
For each feature of the day, find an interesting angle and take a snap shot ready to be posted to Twitter and Facebook. Block out the names of the horses apart from the one you have chosen to talk about.
This then needs to be posted in exactly the same way as above. Write a short teaser line to spark interest, include a link for Geegeez Gold highlighting that this report can be used everyday when a fully paid up member, add the snap shot and schedule the posts.
Going Reports
Each day, Racing Going Reports will tweet the going at each of the days meetings. It is useful information for users to know, therefore these are to be retweeted.
Log in to Tweetdeck, then use the 'search' function in the top left hand corner of the page. Type in 'R' and Race Going Reports' Twitter will come up. Click on that, and then 'Tweets' when looking at their profile. This will bring up their tweets, the latest being at the top. Click on 'Retweet' on each of the going tweets, this will then appear on the Geegeez twitter page.
This is to be done each morning when scheduling the other SM posts.
BHA race distances info
On the BHA website each day, information can be found regarding any changes to race distances for that day due to rail movements, etc. Go to http://www.britishhorseracing.com/race-info/fixtures/fixture-updates/ and the latest meetings will be displayed at the top. This can be very important information, therefore it can be tweeted in the following style.
Taunton rail movements effect on race distances:
Race 1 adds 210 yards
Race 2, 3, 5, 7 - 156 yards
Race 4 - 90 yards
Race 6 - 60 yards
This is to be done each morning when scheduling the other SM posts.
Blogging
A bit waffle-y but should make sense.
Notes:
- Category is Race of the Day
- There is an image to include, entitled RaceoftheDaybanner. This should be set as the 'Featured Image', an option in the right hand admin sidebar
- Post should go up ideally before 10am - if that's a problem, let me know and we can discuss.
Race of the Day blog
Each day select one of the free races of the day and create a blog post in Word Press using the Geegeez Gold tool kit to showcase difference aspects and highlighting the use of said tool kit to enable users to find winners for themselves.
Add a screen shot of each part you talk about, mentioning any interesting angles or horses that show up when using these reports. The Racecard, Instant Expert, Pace, Draw and Full Form are all excellent things to talk about and posting screen shots of each with a paragraph explaining what to look for, really helps the user to gain a better understanding of the tool kit.
This blog should be used as a guide rather than a tipping content. Leaning towards a particular horse is fine, however refrain from making it an outright selection. This way the users are encouraged to think for themselves and come to their own conclusions.
Each post needs to have the Race of the Day banner attached to it and ensure the correct category (Race of the Day) is selected when posting. If this isn’t done, the post will not show up on the website in the correct place. Ideally this will be posted each day before 10am.
A short while after the blog has been posted, it will automatically get posted to Twitter and Facebook.