Excellent biker social media management (SMM) and the correct, quality, regular posts can accomplish a lot:
- Build your brand.
- Interact with and build relationships with your audience and customers.
- Provide information and announce sales.
- Increase visitors to your site.
- Keep your current customers.
- Provide customer service.
- Maximize your bottom line.
* 48% of people buy from responsive companies on social media (Sprout.com).
- Social Management
- What is Social Media Management?
- Social Marketing Manager's Qualifications
- Successful Social Marketing
- Types of Social Posts for Bikers
- Important Ways to Use Social Media
- Facebook Marketing for Biker Companies
- Marketing Your Motorcycle Company on Instagram
- Overview of a Social Media Manager
Social Management
Social media marketing is a part of every successful biker business. The number of social posts, follower interactions, etc., varies. And it varies depending on your niche, your motorcycle business’s characteristics, specific products, and more.
Yes, you can do your own social media. But first, you need to understand the fundamentals of business promotion. Some companies manage their social accounts relatively well. However, they often employ an SMM expert. Successful motorcycle businesses do this because social management is complex and valuable.
One frequent problem with social marketing is knowing which platforms to use. Also, some social media managers need help choosing the best types of posts or a different mix of posts. Too often, they need to interact with riders more effectively.
Below is an overview of motorcycle SMM and why it is essential. Following that is information on how social works. Finally, there is information on managing your company’s social pages.
What is Social Media Management?
First, social media management for motorcycle businesses must be an ongoing process. It entails using various social platforms to help increase branding, sales, website traffic, and more. In addition, quality SMM is important because it helps to shape and manage your online presence.
Although using personal social accounts is easy, running a business Facebook page is complex. This is especially true with Facebook Ads Manager.
One challenge is properly configuring the tracking tools for your social media pages. These tools will give you data on the performance of your efforts. Plus, analytics tools will show how your social activity benefited your motorcycle website.
But you need to change items based on facts, not guesses. And the best way to know the facts about your social is to A/B test your social posts. This will help you get data on what works and what does not.
Social Marketing Manager’s Qualifications
Here is a partial list of what is needed to run your social page successfully:
-1- You or your social marketing manager must have social platform skills.
-2- Your SMM should also have expert online marketing. It might sound simple. But I’ve had “marketing experts” at large companies and rallies who lack some basic marketing skills for biker companies.
-3- Next, you or whoever you hire for SMM must know your product or service. And it will help a lot if they know motorcycle history and if they are riders rather than passengers. Yes, these sound like no-brainers, but you’d be surprised how many SMM people don’t.
Here’s an example: I’ll use a Harley Knucklehead engine. First, I’m not saying your social manager needs to know how to rebuild one. But they need to know, at the very least, that it is an iconic Harley engine.
Notably, I’ve seen a motorcycle company use an image of an HD Twin-Cam engine with the words “old school” in the ad. Unfortunately, this set their branding back. This is because some of their audience saw that they didn’t know about the motorcycle world.
-4- Also, the ad graphics of your posts should complement the look of your website’s design. There should be similarities in the colors, phrasing, tone, etc. You do this to transition smoothly from your social media to your site.
-5- Your biker SMM must also know competitors. If they do, they can differentiate your products from others.
It is a deal-breaker if your audience sees you don’t know about your product(s) or service(s). Losing your audience’s interest and respect must always be avoided. Imagine losing 5%, 10%, 15%, or even more of your target audience!
-6- A solid understanding of the motorcycle world, bikers, rallies, and riding is essential to your social. Without even one of these items, the success of your social will be negatively impacted.
Again, some of your target audience will see that your company doesn’t know what it’s talking about. This will hurt your current and future sales.
Plus, a big part of social media is informing your audience. You need to build a relationship with your audience.
But poor, incorrect information kills this. Subsequently, you will lose part of your audience and their purchases.
If you or your social marketer has all these skills, it can help identify your audience. By correctly identifying your biker audience, you will save time and money on social marketing.
Also, knowing the best audience is really important with paid social ads. If the audience is slightly off, your company of motorcycle marketers is wasting money targeting the wrong riders.
* 95 minutes per day is what the average adult spends on social media sites (Emarketer.com).
Successful Social Marketing
Next, here are some guidelines on how to post, interact with riders, and monitor your company’s social accounts:
-1- The importance of creating appealing posts is crucial. If riders regularly dislike your posts, they will leave and not come back. Then, your qualified audience will be smaller, and future efforts will be less profitable for paid and unpaid posts.
-2- Monitoring interaction with posts lets you or your biker SMM expert know what is and isn’t working. Also, there is the opportunity to improve your social strategies. And this will help your engagement, branding, and sales.
-3- Engaging with riders correctly on a social page helps build affinity with your company. And this will make your social pages more profitable.
You must react or respond when there is a comment, question, or review. Doing this reflects well on your company. Notably, if you don’t show that you care about your customers, they won’t care about your company, and they’ll find one of your competitors.
Also, the input from your social page’s followers is beneficial. For instance, the social manager can see what visitors like and dislike. Then they can improve your social media, website design, website content, search marketing, and customer service.
Furthermore, handling a complaint quickly reflects well on your business. Quality client service is critical for converting visitors into sales and for repeat sales.
Every negative comment or review is an opportunity. It allows you to improve your social media, website, buyer journey, customer service, marketing, etc.
Of course, some riders will have problems with something about your company. Note that not interacting with your prospects or customers as often doesn’t mean that the issues don’t exist.
That said, being active on your motorcycle site’s social pages can let you know more quickly when there are problems. This way, you can improve your business faster.
-4- Reviewing the engagement of posts gives your social manager helpful input for future posts.
-5- Collaborating with biker social influencers also has advantages. First, an influencer is recognized as an expert in different motorcycle niches. It is also beneficial when an influencer posts or re-posts content or engages with your social page. Plus, it benefits branding and can help increase sales or fill your sales funnel.
Following and engaging with potential influencers’ posts is one way to build relationships. And if you do this correctly, they might help promote your business.
-6- Note, if your SMM agency wants you to pay for ads, they still need the above five items to make your paid ads profitable.
Types of Social Posts for Bikers
Having a good mix of posts is essential for several reasons. First, different types of posts appeal to different types of bikers. Second, having the same kind of posts is boring. This is true if you only post about your products or sales specials.
As you’ve seen, some motorcycle social pages only post about specials or products. Subsequently, many of their target audience will not visit their social pages as often.
Functionally, these sales social posts say, “Give me your money” or “Buy, buy, buy.” If this is what your social posts are like, you need a new social media manager. Any marketing expert knows there’s much more to the buyer’s and customer’s journeys than “Gimme, gimme, gimme your money.”
Here are some types of social media posts. Note that the posts below can be text, images, or videos.
- Informative posts related to your products or services are good. For instance, if you sell motorcycle jackets, you might post about different types of leather.
- Posts that explain the difference between your products and your competitors.
- Posts about your company.
- How to take care of your product posts.
- Installation or usage instructions.
- Featured products without the “Give me your money!” – “This product is on sale!” – “Buy now!”
- Testimonials
- Reviews
- You could also post holiday-related posts, again without the “Give me your money!” For instance, you could post, “Merry Christmas. We hope you and yours have a happy and safe day!”
- Pictures of your booth at events.
- Pictures of your target audience wearing or using your products.
- Cool pictures of motorcycles, rally attractions, stunts, etc.
- General biker world news
- Motorcycle history
- General interest posts
- Entertaining/funny posts
- Company information
- And yes, you can post to sell your products or services.
- Sales specials
A common question is, what percentage of your posts should be promotional? A good rule of thumb is that only 20% of your posts should be promotional.
That being said, most e-commerce companies don’t follow this rule. However, if they did, it would increase their sales and branding.
Important Ways to Use Social Media
Another good post is to announce the location of your company’s booth at motorcycle rallies. This is especially important because many of your social followers attend events.
Next, since people are impatient on the internet, they might buy if they get the answers they need at an event. That said, they can get answers directly at a rally.
In addition, it isn’t easy to see the quality of your motorcycle products online. At events, riders can see if something looks good on them or if it fits right.
Plus, many people dislike buying online because of the risk of credit card fraud. Additionally, no one likes to return products. Subsequently, many people wait until rallies to buy. Finally, closing a sale is by far the easiest in person.
Below are some statistics for Facebook and Instagram. These are two of the most popular social media platforms for biker companies selling to end-users (B2C).
Next, using Facebook Ads Manager is a significant problem if the user is not an expert. They can waste huge amounts of money.
This can happen if they target the wrong audience or select the wrong button. They can easily exclude a lot of your ideal target audience, and these errors can become extremely expensive.
Facebook Marketing for Biker Companies
Facebook is the most popular social media platform. Below are some rough statistics:
- Almost 3 billion monthly active users
- Over 1.8 billion daily users
- The average age of a Facebook user is over 40.
- The average time spent on Facebook daily is about 30 minutes.
The above Facebook statistics are huge. Noteworthy for marketing a motorcycle Facebook page is that the age is over 40. And the age is significant if your motorcycle company sells products or services for Harleys, other large displacement V-twins, baggers, touring bikes, etc. This is because many motorcycle products’ target audience is those over 40. Just think about who rides Harleys and V-twin motorcycles.
Here are some tips for advertising a biker Facebook page.
Overall, boost ads have low engagement or conversion rates. Yes, they are easy to use. But the ability to target your biker audience is low. Also, engagement and conversion rates could be higher.
But the motorcycle ads you create via Facebook Ads Manager are the most profitable. And this is partly because you can dial in your target audience.
Next, there is a significant danger in using Facebook Ads Manager if you are not an expert. Likewise, the same danger is if you don’t know your target audience.
And the risk is that you might click the wrong button and miss the right audience. Or you can easily exclude a majority of your ideal biker target audience. Of course, this can get extremely expensive.
Moreover, your Facebook specialist must understand the biker world and its culture. Plus, they must ride. If they don’t, your targeting will be off. And if your Facebook audience targeting is off, you’re wasting money. Note that when creating ads in Facebook Business Manager, you use the Facebook Ads Manager.
Marketing Your Motorcycle Company on Instagram
Next, Instagram (IG) is the fourth-largest social media platform. Below are some useful IG statistics:
- 2 billion active users each month
- 500 million users each day
- Almost 70% of total Instagram users are under 35 years old.
- Thirty minutes per day is the average time riders spend on Instagram.
No matter which social platform is best for your company, you should always post free content on the ones that aren’t. This is because some of your target audience is on there. And even if it is 10% of your audience, 10% matters.
Next, Instagram is a visual platform. And hashtags are a huge part of how people navigate the platform. Now, the above IG marketing info sounds simple. But there’s a lot more to know about Instagram marketing for your motorcycle company to get the maximum benefit.
Instagram’s numbers are significant. However, with 70% of the users under 35, it works better for some motorcycle products than others. For instance, consider social marketing for a sports bike company. Advertising sports bikes on Instagram is probably the best, and advertising touring products on Facebook is perhaps the best.
Overview of a Social Media Manager
In summary, social media marketing can be invaluable for motorcycle companies. But that is only if your SMM agency is an expert on social media.
They must also know the biker products, the motorcycle world, and your target audience. Finally, Revolution has the web & search skills, biker background, and riding experience to get you the maximum from your social pages.