Proletariat bikes

Eugene is considered one of the biggest biking communities in the state. We’re lucky enough to have some very good and well known custom bike manufacturers in town like Burley and Co-motion. These companies have been in business for some time and have enough money to market their product in traditional media, like magazines and newspapers.

The Eugene area also has a small custom bike shop that makes a quality bike — just ask those who own them — for a reasonable price. Proletariat Bikes are designed, manufactured and painted all in Eugene and Springfield. They’ve only been in business for a short time, and like many small start-up businesses, they are short on resources when it comes to marketing their products.

Finished Proletariat road bike from the company's Web site

This is where social media, like blogs, YouTube and Facebook could really help a small company on a very limited budget. Proletariat’s Web site has links to blogs about biking, but they don’t maintain their own blog, or a way for current owners to blog about their love of all things Proletariat and have them link back to the company.

Proletariat co-owner, Todd Gardner, has a Facebook page that links people to his company’s Web site, but they don’t maintain a company Facebook page, which would be very helpful in getting out their company’s message: “high-class bicycles for hardworking people.”

To get started in social marketing, Proletariat should create a blog for current owners of their bikes to talk about the experience of watching a hand-made bike being built. Owners could blog about where they’ve gone with their bikes and include pictures of their travels to get other people interested in owning a Proletariat. They should start a Facebook page for the company with plenty of photos and a link to their existing Web site. The Facebook page could also inform people about the company’s current bikes in production and other news that’s much harder to put on a full Web site.

With a small monitary investment and some time, Proletariat could position itself on the top of the podium in the Eugene bike market.