What role does social media play in getting and keeping sponsors?

Social media is now essential - sponsors measure your influence and engagement, not just follower counts. Plan content monthly using categories like race results, product promotions, behind-the-scenes shop content, personal hobbies, and sponsor highlights. Post consistently year-round including off-season. Repost successful content after 90 days since only 6-10% of followers see each post. Create content showing sponsors' products in use - this 'digital sampling' demonstrates products to audiences who can't physically try them. Send monthly social media performance reports to sponsors with screenshots of posts, engagement metrics, and positive comments mentioning their products. Sponsors like Permatex are now running contests specifically evaluating racers' content creation abilities.