Chapter 15
EVANS CYCLES
The Author
Will is the Online Marketing Manager for Evans Cycles. Prior to joining Evans, Will worked with clients such as Toyota, Porsche and Halifax on their search and social programmes with iCrossing, a digital agency. He is IPA qualified and loves riding his bike.
Twitter: @will_lockie
The Company
Founded in 1921, Evans Cycles is the UK’s largest specialist cycle retailer. With 43 stores across the UK, and a steadily growing ecommerce business, the organization has benefited from the recent growth in popularity of cycling. Currently employing over 1,000 employees and generating a turnover in excess of £75 million, Evans Cycles launched their social commerce efforts in June 2010.
Our Social Media Strategy
For Evans Cycles, social media means getting customers more involved in the products it sells, and allowing them to make better choices – be that informed through Twitter, Facebook or reading other customers’ reviews, on or off site. This openness is manifested on the company’s blog in features such as the “Ride it and Rate it” customer review programme, which invites positive and negative feedback on products on a public page.
Social media is also important as it allows the business to open up a conversation directly with its customers and to get across the passion the staff have for cycling.
The strategy, planning ...
