Online marketing is a vital part of your communication strategy. As we begin 2024, social media strategy expert Alison Battisby shines the spotlight onto five key areas to focus on this year.
Social media to help people find your pub
One of the biggest changes in social media marketing in recent years is how young people (anyone under the age of 25) search for places to visit. It’s called social search and it’s a huge trend across all platforms, but predominately on TikTok and Instagram. This means that rather than using Google, people will utilise their social media platforms to find what they’re looking for, by searching for Sunday roast in my area, dog friendly pub, cocktail hour or best places to go for lunch in Chiswick, and so on. If your content isn’t including these words and phrases, people looking will not find your pub.
The best way to optimise your social media content for searches is to feature key words in all of your captions – captions are the words uploaded with your video or photos. For example, if you post a photo of your Burns Night preparations, include key words in the caption to cover all bases: “Burns Night party on January 25 – traditional Scottish celebration with haggis, neaps, tatties and whisky cocktails at the Red Lion, Fleet.”
- Work key words into captions that best sum up your offer
- If you’re looking to attract new customers, think about the words they might use in a search, including, quiz nights, live music, cocktails, sharing platters, DJ, disco and date nights, etc
- If you need more space to write about all that your pub has to offer, a well-known hack on TikTok (to get seen by more people) is to upload hidden captions by writing words on top of a video and then swiping the text off the screen. Even though the words can’t be seen on the post, they are embedded into the video and will appear in a search
Collaborate to be seen
Invite influencers and content creators into your pub. You could ask them to review your new menu, or to experience your comfy accommodation in the knowledge that they will post a review to all of their followers. This creates an authentic piece of content that will benefit your pub and get you in front of new followers. You can’t ask them to give you a good review, but the nature of influencers is that they want to maintain their reputations and therefore they are unlikely to post scathing content.
Influencers are required to state if a review is paid for, or if they have received an incentive, such as a free lunch, to write it. Giving someone a meal or overnight accommodation in return for a review could be seen as the equivalent of paying a professional video maker or photographer to film at your pub. The more you collaborate with influencers in your area, the more you will raise your profile. You might want to begin by finding an influencer who has already visited your pub and written nice things. You can search for this by looking for your pub name, location and key words, such as Sunday roast or pub quiz, etc. It’s worth knowing that some influencers, with 50,000+ followers, will charge £1,500-£2,000 for a review.
Getting in front of new people is key to increasing your followers and collaborating is a great way to do this. You can create a collaborative post on Instagram, for example, by creating a specific post and inviting up to three people to also host that post on their feeds, at the same time. This means the post will show live on four Instagram accounts at the same time, giving you maximum exposure to new audiences.
Use video content
We’ve all been told that the most engaging videos last 15-30 seconds – blink and you’ll miss it. However, TikTok is now promoting 15 minute videos, and the indication is that people will now create longer form videos. Longer videos allow you to take your customers behind the scenes: show chef preparing a popular pub dish, or even go on a pub ghost hunt. Last November, the burger chain Five Guys (pictured above) posted a video of almost two minutes, showing how to cook bacon – so have fun with it!
AI – help from Chat GPT
AI – help from Chat GPT AI is now integrated into many tools and platforms across the social media landscape. Using Chat GPT to help with everything from captions for Instagram and TikTok, to ideas on how to promote your Easter egg hunt, are good examples of how it can be utilised in your business. While there has been some backlash on the overuse of Chat GPT, with criticism including that it throws up the same old stuff again and again, means you do need to edit and adapt the content for your own needs. Canva is a popular tool for content creation, and it has integrated AI which will suggest useful design tips to make it easier to use.
From X to Threads
Finally, there is a lot of debate about Twitter/X and if X is still worth being on. Engagement on X is dipping and therefore if you still have an X profile, it’s worth seeing if it’s still working for you. Check the analytics and impressions you are getting. The next big social media platform is Threads. The most downloaded app since Meta launched it last year, Mark Zuckerberg plans to get it to 1bn users. Currently available in 100 countries, including the USA and the UK, Threads is set to launch in the EU this spring, which will create a huge buzz. Like the early days of Twitter, Threads is being used for banter and discussions. It’s about the conversations rather than salesy messages, and while there isn’t any data currently, it’s likely to be popular among the 18-30 year olds.
It’s early days, but if you’re thinking about your strategy for the next few years and you’re looking for success with social media, get yourself a platform on Threads.
