The bike co-op’s platform fork
Riverbend Cycles runs 14 bike shops and a repair van, with a three-person marketing team and a $2,500 monthly paid social budget. Its Facebook page has 22,400 followers, but organic reach fell from 9.1% to 1.8% over eight months. Instagram has 6,800 followers; saves are strong on repair tips, yet profile visits are flat. TikTok has 900 followers from two sporadic posts. YouTube is dormant. Email reaches 31,000 subscribers at a 28% open rate and still drives most service bookings. The operations director wants to stop posting on Facebook and “go all-in on TikTok,” arguing that reach is dead. The content lead has six staff hours per week and can film at monthly ride events and two service benches. Store managers want local event turnout, not national virality. Leadership has asked for a platform recommendation before the spring season.
1. Should Riverbend abandon Facebook and move the budget to TikTok? Recommend a platform portfolio and explain the trade-offs.
Read the worked answer
No. The recommendation should be a portfolio with different jobs, not a single-platform switch.
Facebook’s organic reach decline is real, but 22,400 local followers still support event turnout, local groups, Marketplace, and paid retargeting. Abandoning the page would remove a distribution channel that store managers actually need. The deeper problem is that Riverbend is treating a rented audience as an owned one. Email is the owned asset: 31,000 subscribers at 28% open rate and most service bookings. It should be the primary conversion channel, not an afterthought.
A workable split:
- Facebook: two organic posts a week plus event assets; use paid local reach ads for ride events and service offers. Keep it, but stop measuring success by organic reach alone.
- Instagram: repair tips and rider proof; cross-post Reels to TikTok rather than producing twice.
- TikTok: a controlled test, not a daily commitment. Four posts a month from ride events and repair benches fits six staff hours.
- YouTube: repurpose Shorts only; no original production until capacity exists.
- Email: every campaign gets an email version with a clear booking or event call to action.
Budget: about $1,500 for local Facebook/Instagram reach and event ads, $500 for the TikTok test, and $500 held for what performs. The trade-off is slower TikTok growth in exchange for protecting local event demand and avoiding burnout.
2. Design a 30-day TikTok test with explicit success criteria and a stop rule.
Read the worked answer
The test should answer one question: can Riverbend produce enough watchable local video to justify more budget and staff time? Define the baseline first: current TikTok followers, median views, profile visits, and event-page clicks; compare against Instagram Reels over the same period.
Test design:
- Publish four posts in 30 days, all shot during one monthly ride and one repair-bench session.
- Formats: a 15-second repair tip, a 20-second rider story, a 10-second event announcement, and a behind-the-scenes service clip.
- Use a unique UTM link in the bio and a dedicated event landing page so clicks are attributable.
- Track 3-second view rate, average watch time, profile visits, link clicks, and event registrations.
Success criteria: at least two posts exceed the account’s median view count by 50%, 3-second view rate is above 40%, and the test produces at least three event-page clicks or one registration. These are leading indicators, not proof of enrollment.
Stop rule: if after eight posts across two months there is no improvement in watch time or profile visits over the baseline, stop original TikTok production and repurpose only. Do not judge the test by follower count; a small, local audience can still fill a ride event. Record the decision and the evidence so the next budget conversation is not based on impressions alone.
3. A store manager says the team should just post more often on every platform. How should the content lead respond using the constraints in the scenario?
Read the worked answer
The content lead should agree with the goal but reject the Plan. Six staff hours a week cannot sustain daily posting on four platforms without lowering quality or burning out volunteers. More posting also does not fix the actual constraint: Riverbend needs local event turnout, and that depends on reach among nearby riders, not national volume.
The response should separate cadence from distribution. Keep a sustainable core: one filming session per month, two Facebook posts a week, three Instagram posts, four TikTok tests, and one email. Repurpose each asset rather than creating platform-specific content from scratch. Measure by event registrations and service bookings, not by posts published. If the store manager wants more local visibility, the better lever is a small paid radius around each store and a clear event page, not more organic posts. Offer to review the cadence after 30 days with the actual hours logged and the event click data.