So you make bicycles, or the cool stuff that goes along with them, and you want to increase exposure for your products -  and ultimately sell more units – using social media.  As you prepare to put your best foot forward at Interbike, here’s 5 basic tactics aimed at helping you increase brand awareness, trial and sales using social media as the driver.

#1  Listen

Before you embark on any kind of social media program, it’s vitally important that you know what is being said about your brand – the good, the bad and the ugly.  Good thing is, the bike community is a lively bunch and pretty open about sharing their opinions (ha!), so there’s probably plenty to hear about what people think.  Once you have an idea of what is being said, you can develop a strategy for how to jump into the conversation.  If there’s a lot of negative chat, the last thing you want to do is begin a social media program that is oblivious to this fact or you will get slammed. In an ugly way. On the other hand, if your products are wearing halos right now, good to know that too so you can take advantage of the love.

Watch and listen how Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other tools behave, and how your competitors (or other product categories you admire) are using the different platforms. You’ll learn a great deal about how you can use them for your own brand domination plot.

#2  Develop A Strategy Before You Jump In

The biggest mistake I see companies make in social media is that they dive into using the tools before they have developed a strategy – and it shows. If you take nothing else away from this blog entry, please let it be this:  YOU MUST HAVE A STRATEGY. Social media is just like any other marketing program, and it requires strategic planning and direction to be successful. You must define the reasons why you are using social media in the first place.  Is it for brand awareness and sales? Reputation management? Customer service? Thought leadership? Issues advocacy? Extension of PR?  All of the above?  You would never embark on any of these programs without a carefully crafted plan of action.

If you don’t, you may end up with a Facebook page that has 90 fans. Dismal and embarrassing. Or worse yet, a Twitter stream with thousands of followers and none of them your core audience. Waste of time.

#3  Define Your Brand Voice

Everybody has one, whether you know it or not.  The question is, who’s gonna drive this boat?  Marketing?  Product Development? The enthusiasts themselves?  There’s not a wrong answer here, just more questions.

Since social media is all about authenticity, your need to create an honest bond between your marketing efforts and your customers.  If that customers are telling you they want more hardcore information about product enhancements and capabilities, well then you know Product Development is best equipped to be that information source.  Is your audience asking for more general information about how they can enjoy your product more in their lives, like ride routes and fun interactions? That’s a cue that marketing will have good information for that discussion.

#4  Build a Community

Once all this is figured out, THEN you can start to build out your communications platforms.  For most marketers in the bicycle industry, there’s going to be some natural selections:

• Blog – Easiest way to engage with your existing and potential customers through regular updates and interesting news.
• Facebook – Great way to build an online fan base of engaged and excited participants.
• Twitter - An online conversation in real time, this allows you to talk with people who are interested in you and your brand.
• YouTube – Powerful way to show your products in action through the second most popular search engine on the web (behind google).
• Flickr – Photo sharing can be a great way to engage enthusiasts and casual users in showing themselves with your products.
• LinkedIn – May be good if you are trying to build a business and sales network.
• There are dozens more depending on your goals and strategic plans.

All these platforms engage with users in different ways, and your strategy should be focused on how to repurpose your content to be unique for each platform.  I know, sounds time consuming, but after awhile it becomes almost second nature.

#5  Interact With Your Fans

Just remember, it’s a conversation, not a monologue.  Nobody loves a know-it-all chatterbox, and that goes the same in social media platforms.  You must devise a strategy to interact with your fans – that means a two-way conversation that engages them in dialogue with you about your company, your mutual love of bikes, your shared interests in other areas, and even random shit that has no relationship to anything other than you think it’s cool and wanted to share it.  This is what forms a relationship, and these are the things your social media program should employ to build your fan base — and keep them coming back for more.

And maybe, just maybe, Paris can become part of your fan base too.