Social Media and Longboarding

Online forums save longboard maker’s sale from going downhill

That’s from a Canadian newspaper, talking about how Rayne Longboards really utilizes social media, specifically in the shape of forums, to help their brand grow.  I’ve often thought it was weird how all of longboarding has sorta snuck into the mainstream, using social media and Web 2.0.  Rayne’s a perfect example of that, as illustrated in the article.

I look at the skate scene in my home state as another weird example of how social media helps grow longboarding.  When I got into longboarding in 2007 (with much assistance from social media), I tried like hell to expand the skate scene around my college.  Meanwhile, at a State University, longboarding had been smoldering for years at that point.  The State University had been a hotbed of longboarding, and all the local shops treated it as something of a longboard mecca.  Now, the 2008 skate season ended with an injury to me, which spooked me off of the board for most of 2009.  I wound up losing my sole source of social longboard media due to some personal drama, and Facebook finally opened up their doors to everyone (not just college students).  It was during my year away from longboarding that, via Facebook, the whole state’s longboard scene EXPLODED in popularity.  The aforementioned State University, spearheaded by a young, ambitious student, stoked the longboard embers on campus up into a wild inferno that quickly took the entire state by storm.  Now, this young student had actually been in regular contact with me in years past, and I had given him some great ideas of mine, which he eventually put into place igniting the state.  It’s been phenomenal watching longboarding grow like it has throughout the state…I’m not trying to take credit for anything; I guess I’m just trying to express my disappointment in my missing it all.  And please don’t take that any of this as actual, historical fact…I’m just calling it through my own eyes, and from my own viewpoint.

Now, open up a new tab and check out longboard videos on Youtube…There are multitudes of videos about anything related to longboarding.  Many users have created their own music videos, product reviews, and promotional videos all about longboarding.  Some of the biggest names in longboarding today have gained untold popularity due to Youtube (and other video hosting sites) videos.  Loaded Longboards used Youtube as a platform to launch their Loaded Challenge video series, in which users submitted a series of trick videos to Loaded’s channel in return for a discount on boards.  Original Longboards gave discounts to subscribers to their Youtube channel.  This actually pertains to the skateshop in that the top 2 brands we get questions about are Loaded and Original, mostly due to their Youtube presence.  Sector9 went viral with their Blue Suit Bombers, which was actually featured on Tosh.0 if I remember right.  Skatehousemedia is an entire website devoted to Youtube (and Vimeo) vids.  Hell, I myself won some Veloz longboard trucks through a Youtube giveaway.

As I mentioned in Educated Idiots , a TON of people come in with bits of information gathered from online sources, be they Loaded or Original videos, skate- and longboard forums, blogs of all stripe, or Facebook groups.  So yes, I’ve seen this social media explosion happening right in my own shop.

https://shopmonkey.wordpress.com/2012/05/11/educated-idiots-11/

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