How Shimano has created additional visibility on social media

Shimano is one of the biggest companies in development, production, and distribution of bicycle components in Europe. As business partner of many retailers, communication and involvement are priorities within the organisation. In 2017, Shimano kicked-off with a new external communication strategy that involved social media as part of the marketing resources to support Shimano Service Centres. To facilitate retailers online, Shimano engaged in a collaboration with Apostle. Retailers, the eyes and ears of the organisation in terms of customers, got the opportunity to share the knowledge of Shimano on a regional level, using ready-made social media posts. “Using the Apostle tool, it is easy to set up ready made social media posts for retailers, which they can share right away with their (potential) customers,” according to Erik-Jan Brunninkreef, manager retail services & concepts at Shimano. Shimano has experienced tremendous growth online in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Swiss, Portugal and Italy using the Apostle tool.