Background
I launched the Coast Bike Share brand in January 2014 with the product launch planned later that year. Alongside the brand launch, I activated all social media channels with the goal of building brand awareness. The three major channels, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, would be the primary drivers for content and engagement. While I managed the marketing team at Coast through the end of 2018, I’m only outlining the time I had direct control of the channels through the end of 2016.
Objective
Build and utilize social media channels as a means to bring potential clients through the sales funnel, meanwhile providing valuable, brand parallel content to keep existing clients engaged, enabling advocacy to their followers.
Strategy
Building off of Coast’s vision statement, “Connecting communities through enhanced mobility,” I aimed to achieve my objective by curating shareable, value-adding content tied to social communities outside of the traditional cyclist, identified within Coast’s targeted buyer personas.
Tactics
In developing brand awareness early on, before asking for a sale, I was able to focus on educating users about the new and exciting, city-backed service that would soon be launching. Content based on how bike share would transform the city, where it would be available, and the possibilities created by the new mobility platform proved to be valuable for partner organizations to share, building our direct follower base quickly.
As brand awareness grew over three years and as more clients passed through the sales funnel, a transition in content had to take place. For these folks already engaged with our platforms, content curation shifted to reflect the social communities and the value we could add to each. The tribes targeted included foodies, lovers of the city, riders, and the occasional bike share update.
With content regarding food and city happenings quickly rising to the top of the impressions, the development of each continued. Items highlighted ranged from a new restaurant opening to partner businesses near bike share locations and even themed do-it-yourself food tours with routes and stops included within each post. Post-engagement continued with news of new developments, infrastructure, and things as simple as events happening around town, as our community was deeply invested in the downtown lifestyle. Being involved in a number of community organizations and boards, I would often be one of the first to know about and broadcast these updates, increasing the chance for content to be shared and the Coast Bike Share brand to grow further.
Outcome
- Follower growth across three primary social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, averaged 146.7 users per month across 36 months from January 2014 through December 2016. This resulted in the average three-year growth of Coast Bike’s social media network size by, on average, 61.3% annually.*
- Social media impressions, including Facebook and Twitter, grew on average by 37.71% from year to year from 2014 through 2016.**
- In addition to impression growth, post effectiveness increased year to year. Impressions per post increased by 260.2% during the three years on Facebook and Twitter.
*The results of these tactics implemented over three years were done almost entirely with organic posts, as most capital was being funneled to product expansion.
** Instagram impressions not available
