Shock news last week as one of Britains biggest pub chains, JD Weatherspoon’s, suddenly closed all it’s social media profiles with the explanation that platforms like Facebook, Twitter & Instagram were a “waste of time” from a business perspective. In today’s digital world, social media is an essential route to market for many businesses, and the idea of a marketing strategy without it seems unthinkable. But this is one pub that’s not just crawling – it’s running – from social at a rapid pace.
To set the scene, Weatherspoon’s social media footprint wasn’t exactly groundbreaking, especially for an established brand with a prescence in most UK towns & cities – 44,000 followers on Twitter & 100,000 on Facebook (less than 1,000 per pub), and very few engagements. Plus, of late their pages had become more of an outlet for one-star reviews than engaging content.
So, should they have ‘weathered’ the storm & tried a different approach to manage their social pages more effectively? We think so. In fact, if you ask us, a good social strategy is not unlike a trip to the pub! Here’s our top tips…
Get Organised
Plan how social will fit in with your business.
Choose your pals
Decide who you want your audience to be.
Send a group text
Pick a good platform for social media management, such as Hootsuite or SproutSocial, that can post & monitor multiple platforms.
Decide what you’re wearing
Make sure your profiles look good & reflects your brand.
Have conversations
Engage with your potential customers, respond to comments & encourage PM enquires.
Put money in the kitty
Set a budget for your ad spends & campaigns.
Take a shot
Try new things, keep your content fresh & follow the latest trends.
Know your measures
Use insights & analytics to evaluate the success of your content in numbers.
So, it seems to us that Weatherspoon’s have well & truly gone home early. What do you think?
For more info on our social media management service, drop us an email on hello@bbdcreative.com.
