Which Social Platforms Are Most Important for Your Brand?
An important question that marketers have to consider is ‘Which social platforms are the most important for my brand?’ The answer can be established by considering the goals of the marketer and the demographics of the target audience they wish to engage with.
Just as you can’t go to every event in the motorcycle industry, your brand does not necessarily need to be on every social media platform. Why stretch your resources and end up with an ineffective strategy across six or seven social media platforms when you could focus on two and get far more robust results?
Demographics and user behaviour vary significantly across the major social media platforms, so examining these differences can help us when we define our social media strategies.
A Different Approach for B2B vs B2C
If your brand is a B2B focused motorcycle parts manufacturer whose target audience are professionals in decision-making roles at major bike brands then it would logically follow that LinkedIn would be a key focus for your company.
U.S. based suspension manufacturer Fox Factory, for example, have a well-optimised LinkedIn page, which highlights the values of the company, as well as the quality of its products.
LinkedIn can be an important part of the social strategy for specific businesses and brands. It is available in 26 languages and according to Hootsuite the platform has 875 million members, with almost 60% of those users aged between 25 and 34 years old.
B2B brands can focus on creating social content that resonates with other businesses, such as showcasing their expertise, providing industry insights, and highlighting their products' technical features. They can use social media to generate leads, build brand awareness, and establish themselves as industry leaders.
Meanwhile B2C (business-to-consumer) brands generally have a wider target audience that includes consumers with different interests and preferences. So they typically focus on creating content that appeals to their audience's emotions, aspirations and lifestyle.
A B2C oriented brand which sells riding gear to a younger target audience in Europe and North America, such as apparel manufacturer Klim to take another example, may choose to promote its products directly through TikTok and Instagram. At the same time the company which owns Klim, Teton Outfitters, has a simple business page on LinkedIn for B2B purposes.
The World’s Biggest Social Platform - Facebook
As the world’s most popular social network Facebook has a diverse user base, with nearly 3 billion active users spanning a broad age range and across most of the globe. Users engage with a wide range of content on Facebook, including written posts, photos and videos.
Businesses targeting users on Facebook typically create a business page and then publish educational, informative and entertaining content in order to build a community around the brand.
Smart brands can also engage with users on Facebook in groups such as the MotoGP Tech Group or the Ducati Monster Owners Club. In the MotoGP Tech group representatives of manufacturers such as engineers and MotoGP race team staff participate in the conversation, promoting their technology and the innovations they are making.
With groups such as the Ducati Monster Owners Club brand managers can engage with the group admins and send them press releases or exclusive updates, knowing that the information will soon reach the key target demographic.
It’s All Happening on Instagram
Instagram, owned by Meta the parent company of Facebook, has 2 billion monthly active users with the majority aged between 18 and 34 years old and with a very slightly higher percentage of male users (52.2%) compared to female users.
Instagram is highly visual with a focus on image and short form content, making it perfect for showcasing consumer brands and lifestyle content. Some brands, especially start-ups, go for an Instagram-first approach on social, putting their efforts into creating content which is specifically tailored for the platform and also working with Instagram influencers to further increase their reach.
Swedish electric motorcycle company Ride Cake have built up a strong Instagram following by producing beautifully aesthetic content and by working with influencers and micro influencers to grow their brand through the platform.
Don’t Forget YouTube for Longer Form Content
We recently published an in depth guide on How to Make YouTube Work for Your Brand and it’s crucial not to leave the platform out of the conversation, especially given that 2.6 billion people use YouTube each month. If your products are going to be showcased best in longer form video then YouTube should be at the forefront of your strategy.
This video produced by Honda UK on the development of a custom built Honda Rebel, in collaboration with artist Dan Gold to be featured at Bike Shed London, is a good example of a brand using a platform in just the right way. The length and style of the content fit perfectly with the platform, with huge views racked up and plenty of authentic interaction going on in the comments section.
TikTok: A Younger and More Female Audience
Now let's take a look at TikTok. It is the sixth most-used social platform in the world and interestingly it has overtaken Instagram for popularity among Gen Z users (born between 1997 and 2012) in the United States. Statista also report that female users account for 61% of TikTok's active user accounts in the U.S.
TikTok boasts the highest user engagement figures of all social media apps, with an average user session of 10.85 minutes, with most users accessing the platform simply to find ‘funny/entertaining content’.
There are some great examples of businesses in the motorcycle industry who have taken TikTok by storm. The @yamaha_alicante account, representing a Yamaha dealership in Spain, is a fantastic case study with slickly produced TikTok content which has seen some of their videos viewed more than 10 million times. Not bad!
While TikTok can be a great way to reach a new generation of bikers, it’s important to know that the platform has been recently banned in various places due to security concerns related to user data as well as other issues.
What About Twitter?
Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter in October 2022 has seen the platform regularly in the news and it reportedly has over 500 million users, but globally it only ranks 14th in the ranking of the world’s most ‘active’ social media platforms, according to Datareportal.com.
Twitter is still a fast-paced platform, with users engaging with short-form text, hashtags and multimedia content. It has a broad user base and is useful for sharing news and quick updates. Twitter tends to be more relevant for companies who have news to share on a regular basis, which in the motorcycle industry might mean media outlets such as MCNSport or race teams such as Repsol Honda in MotoGP.
Unless your brand can gain from sharing news several times per day Twitter is probably not the best place to focus. Likewise for start-ups and brands looking to prioritise social media budget Twitter no longer feature at the top of the list in terms of importance.
Closing Thoughts - We Can Help if You’re Unsure
It's worth keeping in mind that these are general insights and the demographics and behaviour of social media users can vary depending on the region, language, culture, and other factors. It's crucial to conduct your own research and analyse data to understand your specific target audience and how they behave on social media.
Ultimately, both B2B and B2C motorcycle brands should focus on creating a social media strategy that aligns with their goals and target audience. By doing so, they can increase their brand visibility, credibility and profitability.
If you’re considering launching a brand on social media - or want to revamp your approach to social media - and you’re not sure where to start contact us for a free consultancy session with the Motorcycle Marketing social experts!
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