As readers will know, H & C News regularly applies itself to the subject of Social Media, and the issues and opportunities that it presents to our industry. From establishing surveys to benchmark against, to introducing training programmes, to RoundTables where delegates and sponsors meet and exchange experiences and best practice, we seek with the support of our sponsor partners to help the industry better understand and use Social Media.
And our latest RoundTable – just last week – was no exception: an informed group met and explored Social Media Engagement and what it meant for their own businesses.
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“I thoroughly enjoyed the evening. It was an in depth and informative discussion regarding Social Media and just how important engagement is. A lot of knowledgeable people from the industry provided plenty of food for thought! Thanks to H&C News for organising another great Round Table.”
Robyn Sharpe, Digital Marketing Executive, HIT Training Ltd
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Social media is used by 38M people in the UK or 60% of the population
Since January 2014, there has been a 6% increase of growth of active social media accounts and a 7% growth in the number of active mobile social accounts. This has resulted in the average daily use of social media by users amounting to 2h and 13m which is more than half the time that people in the UK spend on the internet in general.
And the higher the social demographic the higher the adoption and use of social media and internet is. So, if 60% of the UK population are using social media on average for two and a quarter hours every day, is your hospitality or catering business communicating with this substantial segment effectively? Or, another way of asking the same question, are you engaging with them?
Cultural differences
‘Engagement’, of course, means different things to different people, and how they measure it can also be different.
For businesses seeking to build their profile amongst consumers, a Facebook or Twitter campaign that uses a competition to attract and secure Followers as well as competition entries can be very effective. On the other hand, B2B operators may use serious ‘content’ to build interest over the long-term.
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As Thomas Kilroy, General Operations Manager at The London Clinic, Harley Street, puts it:
“For me the debate became divided among two cultures: the PR strategists measured their success in, short-to-medium-term campaigns that drove brand awareness through excitement. Whereas the B2B strategists took more of a slow-burn approach, building brand awareness through trust and longer term relationships. Both had the effect of successfully driving engagement, but in very different ways.”
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Reputation management
We’re all familiar with the problems of bad and unfair reviews as well as the dangers of reacting emotionally and/or too quickly.
On the other hand, when every guest or customer can be a critic and broadcast to the world, social media does provide the opportunity to not only respond to comments or complaints fast and effectively, it also demonstrates values and that you care for your customers. Sensitive issues need to be taken offline, but there are many examples of positive, public responses that not only convert a complainer into a loyal advocate, but attract new customers impressed by the response.
Customer service
Closely related to Reputation Management, good, prompt and timely communication ‘engages’ customers by answering or solving their question or issue, establishing ‘brand trust’ and converting them into brand ambassadors who will not hesitate to advocate your service or product.
And, in an era when potential guests turn first to review sites, such advocates are ever more important. Whatever the social media, it’s important to know where your customers can be found, and join in with useful, relevant information (not a sales pitch!).
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“I enjoyed taking part in this well organised event by Hospitality and Catering News where a group of professional marketers were able to exchange their experience and views regarding the role and purpose social media plays in their respective companies. I was particularly interested to hear how everybody engaged with their followers showing how I can translate this into my social media work.”
Lucia Reiling, Armourcoat Marketing
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Which social network?
One of the first comments of the evening was, ‘There are no digital gurus – everyone’s learning’. You may not agree – it’s reassuring to find a ‘guru’ if you can! – but this applies equally to choosing which social networks are right for your business.
Though it requires commitment and time resource, twitter is at the heart of many social media strategies, as is Facebook, with LinkedIn important particularly for B2B. But there are many other options to consider – but what does your target audience use?
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As Thomas Kilroy commented:
“As ever, the ‘big four’ social networks were debated in terms of effectiveness among different audiences. What interested me, however, was the enthusiasm for emerging platforms such as Periscope (for live video streaming), while Twitter’s previous built-in video capability had been somewhat overlooked by the majority of attendees. Another platform that is going through a renaissance just now is podcasting, so again I was intrigued to be the only person in the room with a podcast (Kitchen Sync Talk Show – www.thomaskilroy.com/tkspodcast) in the iTunes store.”
Social media and the marketing mix
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“The theme of ‘people buy people’ came through much of the engagement discussions over the course of the evening. It seemed to me that the most effective and engaging social communications were coming from engaging individuals around the table. As the social spokesperson for a brand, the person controlling or operating social media surely shoulders a huge responsibility. To scrutinise the social game at any company maybe they should be asking if they would empower those same people speaking on behalf of the brand socially to do the same offline at an industry conference. The evening certainly did emphasise how important in every way, including human resources applied, social media marketing is, and how it should be part of a cohesive strategic marketing plan.”
Nick Green, Head of Restaurants and Hotels, Villeroy & Boch UK
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As you’d expect, there was general agreement around the table that social media is today an essential part of the ‘marketing mix’ – though there was also agreement that many organisations still do not ‘get’ digital communication. Unfortunately for such companies, a large part of their potential and existing customer audience is quick to recognise their failure – and move on.
For Rebecca Riches, Managing Director of The Hub, social media is such a key part of the marketing mix that she regards it as a ‘mantra’, and lists a whole range of compelling reasons, including:
- Brand building & differentiation: brands can effectively establish their personality and communicate their company ethos allowing them to connect on an emotional level – people buy people
- Amplifying content: social media when used in conjunction with high quality content creation is a highly effective way to attract new customers to you and also helps you to build authority in your area of expertise
And – very much the recurring theme of the evening’s discussions
- Continued engagement: social media allows you to stay front of mind with your customers – reaffirming the reasons for repeat purchase or visits. It can therefore be a powerful means of creating brand loyalty
So, the evening was once again one that stirred much thought around the table and lots of feedback to our inbox at #HandCSocial in the days that followed.
We would like to thank all the delegates that made the time to attend and contribute to an ‘engaging’ evening discussing social media.
We would also like to very much thank our sponsor partners, Armourcoat and C&C Catering Equipment that enable us to hold our roundtables and the whole #HandCSocial Programme.
The next #HandCSocial roundtable event takes place at Hotel Football in Manchester on October 1 and then on 21 October we are back at citizenM, London. If you would like to join either event please complete the information below.