Bikes, Babies and Blogs

A couple of months ago I started this blog to share some of my experiences with social media as I went through my assignments of my last module in the Marketing Certificate from UC Berkeley.

After those weeks I can say that I still hate social media! Not the tool, but how it is used sometimes. The constant useless updates with everything a person does or thinks still drives me crazy! I reinforce here: I’d rather ride!

On the business side though, it really makes sense if used correctly. The sense of community created around a brand and the ease of getting messages across are really great! You can get your product advertised to you by your customers by creating a buzz through the social media channels used in your marketing strategy. I can definitely see myself using some of the tools social media and web 2.0 offer to leverage results in my area of responsibilities at work.

The motorcycle market has a great example of good use of social media. Harley Davidson has over 2 million fans on Facebook versus a little over 100 thousand of Honda and Yamaha combined and this also reflects on their sales of motorcycles and accessories. Harley was able to create a great online community through their social media pages and also website, coordinating events and rides all over the US. One of them was an attempt I had frustrated by the weather a couple of weeks ago.

This past weekend though, I changed my point of view again. Last Saturday a beautiful baby girl called Julia was born into our home bringing great joy to me and my wife. Now, when it comes to blogging or using social media, I’d rather ride. But if the choice is between spending time with my baby or going out on a ride, I’d much rather stay.

I can say now that this should be the last post I make on my blog and that my bike should spend long weekends on my garage. It is all about priorities, and mine now is to spend quality time with my family.