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Old 11-29-2013, 23:03   #13
Penn
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Join Date: Oct 2007
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To understand social media, it’s about the “street”, whether it’s a company or a revolution, and the most direct way in understand the immediacy of crowd sourcing, or massing protest is to review a commercial template that incorporates the allegiance to brand and connection to the street, be it Mao, Che, or Obama.

That said, in the commercial zone, look no further than Harley Davidson owning the street; with 3.5 million avid Facebook HD devotees, HD long ago turned their web site to their ridership. (think of this as cell phone text swarming) HD encouraged the ridership to post pic’s that showed attitude, bikes, life style. In essence, “you, the average rider are HD”. In doing so, HD acknowledge in the SM context that they could not control their image or message, so they enlisted the ridership to do so.

The ridership is loyal to the point, that they Tattoo the “HD” brand to various points on their body, sometimes in multiplies. This loyalty is comparable to any cult, CAS, particularly, AQ in that context.

But, in relation to the storied history of Harley Davidson Motorcycles it’s co opied- ingrained in the American psyche as the iconic free spirited outlaw, as a marketing strategy established with the formation of the company. The imaging of HD is the foundational underpinning of Harley Davidson current social media marketing program in context to the 110 years of freedom campaign, in that sense, its a SM strategy.

For eg. this past September, 2013, Harley Davidson Motorcycles was 110 years old. The company celebration is a worldwide affair, and as such, Harley Davidson is engaged globally across the following social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Vimeo, and its own expansive and interactive web site. Harley Davidson’s event twitter account is #HD110, launched in 2012 in China, for the event “Crossing Tibetan Plateau”, between Aug 04 - 09, was an international political and public relation success. (http://110.harley-davidson.com/en_US/events/china2012) And most recently in Goa, India http://110.harley-davidson.com/en_US/events/goa Instagram #HD110INDIA

Harley Davidson’s successful use of these two platforms is evident with numbers of a third platform used to promote its brand. Utilizing Vimeo as the video platform to showcase riders experience and Harley lore. AQ does this with its martyr program.
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Harley Davidson's established Facebook page is the company's fourth social media platform, and with 4.5 million fans, is easily one of the most popular contra brand marketers of America’s S & P 500 corporate elites. Harley Davidson with reference to social platform Vimeo, recognized there was a need for viewer content and set up “Ridebook”, a section where videos could be uploaded and shared with the rider base. HD behaves as a CAS SM system.

Eg: Ridebook is Harley Davidson’s intersection of brand to emotion and customer/rider connection, emphasizing the iconic free spirit, enhancing the Harley gypsy outlaw-esque myth, as the following statement readily illustrates. “Ridebook is the riding manual from the voice of those few who cherish the search for new scenery with the wind in their face. A glimpse into a stripped down lifestyle, free of the clutter and filled with style, quality, and the essentials”. Image = self actualization.

Ride book’s “Ghost town USA” video embodies all the classic iconic myth making of the American West. In doing so, Harley Davidson reaches back to our American idealized past to create the linkage to the riders, creating their own relationship with myth and legend on the back of a Harley. In “Ghost towns” Harley Davidson reminds us “there is a violent truth to places like this, where people struggle to survive”, Harley’s implied myth attachment, enriches its own lore of acquiring rough knowledge in forbidden places. http://ridebook.harley-davidson.com/#!/ghosttowns

This imaging is a continuing content thread in all things concerning Harley Davidson. In the video Iron & Resin 2013 teaser http://vimeo.com/53129614, released on March 27, as of April 3, has 16.3K listens, and is an equally compelling story filled with folklore and possible discover.

What is unique about this social media video platform usage is the available opportunity for customer engagement, participation, and the real sense of voice in the Harley Davidson experience, here the nexus of social media campaign, brand, and customer merge. Harley Davidson provides an avenue for the client to upload their video’s, to tell their stories of the open road, a second level engagement vehicle that encourages partnership and the ultimately the big prize, Brand Loyalty. “Your Video Belongs Here, Share a Moment or a Masterpiece”, the add on beckons, join free, click, and you are in.
Another interesting social media-advertising segment, included in all the video’s, is the age bracket of Harley’s ideal consumer it is reaching for. In the video “The Prohibition Tour” a group of diverse riders travel up highway 101, from LA to Napa, it’s cool, but the subliminal messaging was age and technology, as one of the riders present’s “his” story, he states how discovering a charging hook up for his iPhone on his Harley change the nature of his connection, by having the choice to listen to what he wanted to, rather than the “played out music on the radio”, equals choice, action, Harley Davidson.

According to The Media Audit, a majority of motorcycle owners are married (59.2 percent) with an average age of 41 years. Adults who own a motorcycle earn $77,714 in annual household income, a figure that is $12,424 higher than the household income for the average U.S. adult.

Considering the average Harley Davidson owner is 41 years old, and by contrast, those who use Vimeo are a generation removed, Harley Davidson social media program is succeeding in appealing to, and expanding its client base via these various social media platforms, platforms which are not all that familiar to Harley Davidson’s core clientele base in the age range 50-65 years of age. The social media platforms are familiar to this new generation of riders. Harley Davidson recognizes this and uses these social media platforms to recruit the next generation of riders, 17% of owners are 35 or younger, which means the company has made significant inroads to a younger demographic.
The video “Tomcats Barbershop” epitomizes this cultural hipness. The storytelling is actually a demographic profile verbally actualized, its shockingly honest in its brevity, combine with voices that are listenable, it is a pure message of identification, of who we are, what we represent, and where we belong. http://ridebook.harley-davidson.com/#!/tomcats

SM media new venue - social video

Last edited by Penn; 11-29-2013 at 23:07.
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