A version of this feature ran in the May issue of BRAIN.
BOULDER, Colo. (BRAIN) — For our May magazine edition, we asked our State of Retail panel members: What resources do you invest in social media? What are your expectations for performance and how do you measure effectiveness?
MONTCLAIR, N.J.: Dave Adornato, owner Montclair Bikery
We primarily use social media for advertising and keeping the store in our customer's consciousness. Sometimes we include helpful information about events and interesting news from the cycling world. We leverage the brands we carry and piggyback off their national campaigns. Our posts are often a complement to our emails; posting the same topics with the same photos and complementary text, but without a planning calendar. We use Instagram and Facebook and try to post multiple times weekly, so we maintain our presence on the media platforms and interest in the store. I'm responsible for the posts and content, though I do solicit ideas from the staff. I'm always looking for new ideas and often the best source for new ideas is the social media platforms themselves. I monitor the posts, checking likes and comments and responding in kind. We hope our social media inspires our customers to ride more and shop in our store.
HARDWICK, Vt.: Jason Bahner, co-owner Riverside Cycles
Social media is one of our primary marketing channels. We focus on Instagram and Facebook primarily, sharing a fun mix of content, including educational, lifestyle, shop promos and products. We post an average of five times a week, and also share stories and engage with other accounts. We contract with a local small business, 3rd Floor Media VT, to collaborate on the type of content we produce for our business needs, and have it packaged effectively for social media. Because we know our business really well but don't have the time and expertise to keep up with social media marketing trends and best practices, this has been the best approach for us. We are planning on keeping this model because it is working great for us. We have found that it is not about having a huge following, but having the RIGHT following — being able to reach and engage with our ideal customers and keep them in the loop about what's new and exciting. We use paid ads when we need to and track our analytics and how they impact our website conversions, email signups, and in-person traffic. We have had lots of people share that they have seen something in a post that has brought them in the store. The reach can be exponential on social media, and the networking and engagement has been great for us.
WHEAT RIDGE, Colo.: Enric Die-Girbau, operations manager Rhythm Cycles
We use social media (Facebook and Instagram) to remind our customer base that we exist and we measure effectiveness by customers who come into the shop. We try to post regularly, even several times a day. Our posts used to be exclusively around events and sales deals for in-stock items. We have since evolved to include informational content and highlights of interesting bike builds and service jobs. Our shop owner has found success in being active in the local community, answering questions, offering advice and pointing customers to the shop as well as riding the wave of new product launches with a "we have it in-stock now" approach. Producing content is the primary problem. In the last year, we have been focused on producing simple content that does not require more than a smartphone and some time. Less frequently, we work on higher production efforts with a small film crew. There is pressure to be on social media, generating interactions. This effort can easily turn into a time-sink or a low-effort, poor result endeavor. We typically ask ourselves how many services/sales we need to complete to see a return on the effort. If the return is not there, we stick to our regular approach, turning service quickly and having the correct stock in the shop.
COSTA MESA, Calif.: Lisa Fleischaker, owner The Unlikely Cyclist
We almost exclusively use social media to market our business, and the channels we use are Instagram and Facebook. Brand awareness is what we strive for, especially being a specialty women-focused shop.
We typically post once a day, and the content includes both events and products, as well as educational posts. We also re-post content from influencers. Maintaining our social media effort is a shared task between my co-owner and myself, though recently she has taken up the bulk of the content creation. She’s just better at it.
BOULDER, Colo.: Diana Freeman, owner/founder Cassiopeia
We hope that social media will drive exposure and awareness for our business and help the broader community connect with us by seeing our values and what makes us unique. We also use social media to share promotions and events and engage with our current audience. Our primary channels are Instagram and Strava. Strava is very effective for us, for driving awareness of our in-store events and activations. Instagram is powerful for us, especially because it helps us to share the events and community building activities we do. We're lucky to have a ton of user-generated content, but we also have a team member who helps us with content planning and copy writing two days a week, and we partner with a graphic designer who builds us templates that we can use for text, email, and social communications.
GREENWICH, Conn.: Rob Koshar, owner Greenwich Bicycles
Effective social media makes the phone and the cash register ring. Ideally, social media makes prospective clients aware of the breadth of product we carry, the services we offer, and sales we are promoting. While we post on Instagram and have a Facebook page, our social media marketing has been inconsistent. Last year, we generally posted weekly on Instagram during the busy season of April to October, and we plan to do better this year. We will share posts about aspirational bikes and equipment that we sell, as well as promote closeout bikes. Last year, I outsourced our Instagram marketing but didn’t find it worth the cost and effort to get content to our vendor. It went better when one of my salespeople took on this task last year, and this year, I plan to have two salespeople share that responsibility.
BELLINGHAM, Wash.: Staci May, co-owner Earl’s Bike Shop
The landscape of social media is changing, and while it can be a useful marketing tool, the general public is getting tired of it. We are on Instagram and Facebook because it is the best available right now. We are always looking for more options to get bodies in the building. Our posting is pretty sporadic, but we try to post something organic each week. Usually, it's new bike posts, but sometimes it's shop updates or new products. Because we are a small operation, planning is something we want to do but just really don't do. Promoboxx has been a big help in pre-packaged content. We also get help from two bike brands we carry: Marin and Gazelle. We don't have plans for the coming year, per se, but we are going to start posting more on Nextdoor. In my opinion, social media is really a way to keep our name out in front of people. The dopamine hit is the same for the shop as it is for a person. We love to see the likes. What we really love to see are the bodies coming through the door and mentioning a post someone saw.
MIAMISBURG, Ohio: Sandy Whitman Talley, owner Whitman’s Bike Way Bike Shop
We currently utilize Facebook, Instagram, Promoboxx, and Google Ads. On a regular basis, we post pictures of our customers sporting their new bikes along with fun holiday posts relative to cycling. This season we will be promoting group rides through social media as well. All store personnel are conscientious about making sure we get a picture of each and every customer leaving with their bicycle. We change up the scenery by taking pictures inside and outside of the store. We occasionally post pictures of our two resident cats, as well. Recently, we signed up with Promoboxx, which offers very clever ads for a couple of the brands that we offer. We continue to grow our audience using social media. Often customers comment and share our content. I believe folks really enjoy seeing the smiling faces, adults, kids, and cats alike. We display a family-oriented, community-supported environment.
SAN FRANCISCO: Brett Thurber & Karen Wiener, owners The New Wheel
Social media offers us the opportunity to show signs of life to folks, and that is what we use it for. I post when inspiration strikes, with the goal of showing people how good life is on a bike and to keep people in the loop on key campaigns. I think social media is all about authenticity, so having clear authorship — ideally from an owner — is important to us. Brett does all the posting but will sometimes crowdsource photos from our teams. We have low expectations for social media to make a financial impact on our business. I would not want to make our business too dependent on the monopolistic tech companies that run these platforms. We try to keep it fresh, but don't take it too seriously.
