Back in September 2020, Local Bike Shop Day took place. The event earned an increase in reach of 380% on the previous year’s events. And buoyed by an increased interest and uptake in cycling over the Covid-19 pandemic, the hashtag #supportyourlocalbikeshop amassed over 400,000 impressions.
Here we show you the ten steps you can take to replicate their success.
How Local Bike Shop Day increased reach by 380% in 10 steps
by Amy RountreeStep 1: Knowing the business goal
The goal was to shine a light on independent bike shops and get kids interested in cycling. It wanted as many people as possible to use its online index and search facility to find their local bike shop.
Sign up to Maybe* to track your own business goals.
Step 2: Telling their story
Local Bike Shop Day had a special story in 2020. It wanted to celebrate the role local bike stores played in keeping the UK fit and healthy over the Covid-19 pandemic and first UK lockdown. It had not been able to hold the event in May as originally planned, so it used the September window with children returning to school, to also use it as an opportunity to get kids interested in cycling.
To support telling the story the business used paid advertising in the run up to the event on September 5, 10 days prior. Then they used organic reach and engagement from the day itself onwards.
With an increase in social media reach of over 380%, the story was one successfully told. Sign up to Maybe* and learn how to do the same.
View this post on Instagram
Step 3: Getting their audience to take action
Local Bike Shop Day spent the 10 days prior shining a light on many of the local bike shops it was representing in its online index.
They used Instagram and Facebook to share posts from local bike retailers across the UK, all in a bid to encourage customers of each bike shop to engage with the campaign, and with followers of the campaign, to reciprocate the engagement with the featured bike stores.
Sign up to Maybe* to find out what works best for you.
View this post on Instagram
When you look at the conversation the organisation created on social media, the word repost is the most frequently used. This shows how well and how often they took the retailers they were supporting and re-shared their content to encourage its own followers to take action.
Step 4: Engaging with customers
Local Bike Shop Day were able to add the local bike stores they were supporting to their Maybe* Engage tab.
This feature of the Maybe* platform allows users to track a hashtag conversation or any social media users, and engage with their content across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all in one place.
This feature enabled the business to curate and engage with all the independents they needed to, easily.
Do this for yourself by signing up to Maybe*
Step 5: Knowing which audience to engage
Local Bike Shop Day wanted to engage cyclists as customers but they also wanted to get the retailers themselves involved. They provided retail packs so that all retailers could engage with the event offline as well as online.
By creating these packs and making them easily available, the organisation made it easy for the retailers to get involved and removed barriers to participation by catering to their needs.
Sign up to Maybe* to find out what engages your customers.
View this post on Instagram
Steps 6-10
Do you know how you are measuring success? Maybe* helps you do that. Sign up to Maybe*. It's free to get started and you'll have full access to the remaining five steps to success.
Key takeaway
Maybe* is here to help businesses stay connected to customers so you can make more sales. Learning from what other local businesses are doing can help you improve and make social media work for you.
Recent posts
Social media news roundup 23rd October – Instagram’s spicing up comments with polls, Facebook Pages hitting the airwaves, and more
Step right up and ride the digital carousel with us 🎠 As the wheels of the social media funfair whirl and twirl, platforms are aimin...
Don’t miss out on the ultimate guide to daily hashtags for social media success
Daily hashtags are a great source of content inspiration and a super way to increase your social media reach Daily hashtags are a ...
