Week 3 Assignment, Part 2

For the second half of this week's assignment I looked at the companies listed below. The size of the different companies vary from small local business to a large multi-national company. They are all related in some way to the motorcycle industry as this industry is one I have the most knowledge of.

Yamaha Motorcycles
https://www.yamahamotorsports.com/motorcycle
Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram

After checking all of the Yamaha links, I found that the company had updated all of them as recently as 2 hours before I checked the site (9/8/18, 12:04PM). All of the links had multiple posts daily. The posts focused on product highlights, race team updates and upcoming Yamaha related events. One very interesting fact was that the posts seemed consistent between all of the social media platforms in term of quantity and quality of content. If I wanted to follow Yamaha using only one platform, I could without missing out on information specifically tailored to a single social media outlet.

Revzilla
https://www.revzilla.com/
Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Google+

The various social media outlets that Revzilla uses were very well represented with recent posts and active social media content as recent as an hour before visiting (9/8/18). It was very interesting to see that Revzilla had the quality and quality of content that Yamaha did in spite of being a much smaller company. However, their content varied from site to site. I could find gear reviews on one, new rider guides on another and event information on the next. If I followed this company more closely I might have to include each one of their social media sites in my contacts group in order to not miss something I might be interested in. They also seemed to have more user engagement than the Yamaha social media sites.

North County's House of Motorcycles
https://www.nchouseofmotorcycles.com/
Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram

This company is a local motorcycle dealer. They have a large store and a good product selection. They also have very pushy sales staff and the prices are really nothing to comment on. Their use of social media was not unlike the previous two companies I researched. They had some noticeable differences. There was a disparity between the frequency of posting to their sites. Some were updated as early as an hour before I visited the site (9/8/18). Others hadn't been updated in years. The quality of posts was very dry and commercial. There wasn't much engagement between potential customers and the company. It really was uninspiring.

Shred Moto Co.
https://shredmotoco.com/
Instagram

This is one company where I have had in person interaction with the people involved. I began following them after hearing an interview on one of my favorite podcasts. They focus their social media use to just Instagram which plays to the visual style of their content, but means I also see tons of posts loaded with hashtags since Instagram doesn't allow links in the posts. I personally find posts littered with random hashtags annoying. I might not be following this site if I didn't like what they do and had met them previously. They post frequently and I found posts daily including the day I wrote this assignment (9/8/18). They vary their content somewhat though it is focused on getting the word out about products they sell. They do focus on products that they personally endorse and use instead of selling anything just to make a profit.

Attack Performance
http://www.attackperformance.com/
Facebook

This is a local SoCal business that makes race related motorcycle parts. They sponsor a slightly controversial rider in America's premier Superbike race series, I'll come back to that later. They only have Facebook listed on their website. After visiting their Facebook page I found that their most recent post was from November of 2015. The frequency of their posts was sporadic and the quality wasn't very interesting. They had some engagement with their customers, but not much. Now to their rider. The rider they sponsor is very active on social media for reasons that are not customarily what you would imagine a company would want to have displayed for all to see. The rider is active on many social media sites, he frequently engages with fans and his antics get him posted in many other social media feeds. Since the majority of the posts that feature the Attack Performance rider picture  him on his racebike, the company gets their name out to the people most likely to want their products even though they don't use social media themselves.

I enjoyed this assignment. Having to sit down and analytically view their social media usage plan was a good informational experience. The variety of ways that companies can and do use their various social media outlets let me come the following conclusions. First, social media on a company level requires a good deal of work by the company. Following this comes a secondary conclusion that if a company doesn't spend the time to do it right, they might as well not do it at all. A poorly run social media account can give false impressions about the quality of the company. Another discovery from my exploration of these companies is that if the content is going to be commercial it needs to be of outstanding quality. I'd rather watch a well produced commercial for a new motorcycle model than to see a poorly worded or produced post for a one time party event that I'd really want to attend. The best content seems to be content that gives the visitor a reason to visit. We can open a magazine or log onto Facebook and get a plethora of ads for various products. If I can visit a site and watch a editorial piece done by the company on the state of lane splitting laws in the U.S., I'll be more inclined to visit them for product sales at a later date.

The two companies from my research that seem to have the best handle on the use of social media were Yamaha and Revzilla. Both had frequent postings and recent content. Both had a broad spectrum of content for the user to enjoy. My theory is that because Yamaha is a multi-national company with international branches, they have the funds and staff to make quality content. They have it consistently posted across all of their social media accounts to ensure that every social media user has the same experience regardless of their social media platform of choice. Revzilla on the other hand represents a smaller company that has the freedom to explore each social media platform and make content tailored to the platform. This lets them relate to their customers in a more personal way that many users enjoy. As far as bang for the buck goes, Attack Performance is the winner. They don't really use social media, but are well represented in it through the sponsorship of their rider.

This week I commented on Troy Lunn's blog, Leslie Montano's blog, and Michaella Ellis' blog.