Facebook Partners with Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce to Run Workshop For Small Businesses Wanting to Make the Most of Social Media

Event: Facebook for Business: Growing Your Business Socially

 
An event to help small businesses in Manchester thrive is being held by Facebook on Friday, as its marketing and growth specialists take their expertise on the road as part of a series of workshops.
 

 
The workshop is the third of six being held across the UK this summer in association with the British Chambers of Commerce, and follows research published by Deloitte in January which found that the growth of Facebook and mobile applications in recent years has already contributed an estimated £2.2 billion to UK GDP and generated 18,400 jobs in small businesses across the country.
 

Related posts:

1. Rich Pickings for the Only Top 5 UK Retailer Selling on Facebook
2. Record Turnout for Free Social Media Surgery for Manchester Businesses
3. 3 Key Points for Businesses considering using Facebook’s new Instant Personalisation features

If you were there and spot any omissions or additions, please shout out in the comments.

The theme for the March 2012 Social Media Surgery is:
‘Relaunching the Surgery as part of the Social Media Managers Association’

Social Media Surgeons:

Ian Pettigrew (@KingfisherCoach), Kingfisher Coaching, Surgery participant turned Chair!

Nicola Pike (@nicolapike on Twitter), Founder and Owner, @marketingspike

Carol Maughan (@mancsocialite), Web Content Developer,@DLA_Piper_News,  DLA Piper UK LLP

Chi-chi Ekweozor, (@realfreshtv), Director, social media consultancy, Real Fresh TV

Live blog by: Chi-chi Ekweozor

As has been mentioned in the Event page on Lanyrd, we will be starting with a brief social media surgery, answering questions on social media practice from attendees.  After this, we’ll be discussing next steps for the surgery, specifically relaunching as part of the Social Media Managers Association.

We kick off with talking about Twitter lists and using clients like Hootsuite to organise social media marketing activities.

The question is ‘how do I use hootsuite.com‘?

Nicola mentions the translation options of Hootsuite and the use of the search function to track keywords and hashtags and lists.

Ian adds that when he follows someone he decides which Twitter list to add them to.

A key topic is managing the workload that social media brings in by investing the time in setting up tools like Hootsuite and Google Alerts.

‘It makes me look like I’m on there a lot when I’m not actually’, Nicola adds.

Tracking hashtags like #metrolink a fun way to spend an hour.

Tracking key words and tracking who follows you is also a key objective that requires a strategy.

Strategies like actively seeking to grow a Twitter following by identifying influencers like journalists, seeing who they follow works.

We talk about using tools like addictomatic.com and socialmention to monitor keywords and track reputation.

Carol from DLA Piper who joins us clarifies the benefits of Twitter for B2B companies.  Campaigns can be very specific, for instance DLA Piper’s different departments have been able to reach very specific audiences.

We talk about how important it is to have a good business model to begin with – social media will not fix a bad business model.

Social media as a way of finding warm leads is one that is becoming unundated with spam messaging. It would seem that many more companies are using social media to market.  This has a knock-on effect of demanding a clear and cohesive marketing strategy to begin with.

Another question: how do you segment messaging to different members of your community?

Nicola answers this:

You need a social CRM system – something that has an understanding of the LinkedIn and Twitter handles of your customers.  It’s all about data, you need an audit trail that can be managed.

Salesforce is mentioned.  It is cloud-based and offers licensing to suit different sized organisations.

We move on to the future of the Surgery:

I kick off with saying that the Surgery is evolving into a platform for social media managers to discuss current interests: Pinterest, Facebook marketing strategies.

Ian talks about the value of the surgery.  Nicola talks about perhaps looking at a more national approach.

Big brands in Manchester and the North West: Kellogs, Moneysupermarket, Co-op, Cussons, these companies would be able to get a great networking environment that added value to their employees in terms of professional development.

Carol shares that a lot of networking for big corporates is London-based.  Something to attend to in Manchester would be useful.

Trying to get two different groups together: it would strengthen Manchester as a hub as the digital marketing communities are quite fragemented.

Giving a platform and a reason to connect with people: there’s a lot of really good people in Manchester who would like to be involved.

Get the people who are client side to be the lead – with their brands.  Don’t arrange it as on the agency side as this can be off putting.

Suggestions of venue: Bridgewater Hall, Cornerhouse.

To be continued

Related posts:

1. Live Blog – Sept Manchester Social Media Surgery 2011
2. Manchester Social Media Surgery welcomes Crain’s Manchester Business
3. Open vs Closed Group? Manchester Social Media Surgery on LinkedIn

If you were there and spot any omissions or additions, please shout out in the comments.

The theme for the September 2011 Social Media Surgery is:
‘Combining Twitter with a Business Blog’

Social Media Surgeons:

Ian Pettigrew (@KingfisherCoach), Kingfisher Coaching, Surgery participant turned Chair!

Carol Maughan (@DLA_Piper_News), Web Content Developer, DLA Piper UK LLP Sadly, Carol couldn’t make it in the end.

Chi-chi Ekweozor, (@realfreshtv), Director, social media consultancy, Real Fresh TV

Live blog by: Holleh Nowrouz (@holleh_n), Resourcer, Orchard

The Manchester Social Media Surgery has taken place monthly since December 2009.  To read live blogs from previous Surgery events, please visit the Social Media Surgery Live Blog Archive.

We kick off….

In the Audience:

Richard Phillips – This is the 2nd surgery he has attended. Here to absorb social media strategies.

Gerwyn – Also his 2nd attendance to the surgery.

Paula – Looking into how to effectively use social media as a campaigning tool. She is a part of the charities, Wheelchair Dancespot and Strictly Wheelchair Dancing.

Stuart – Works at Meltwater as a salesman. It is at this role that he has learnt how to use social media for business, and not solely for personal use. Focusses on ROI of social media.

Ian:

He came to the first surgery in July 2010, knowing very little about social media and social media strategies. His number one priority is paid client work so work on the side, he believes must be at the absolute minimum. So social media is a conscious choice of how he has decided to spend any extra time.

Ian is very strategically-focused when it comes to his social media presence and has a social media plan, that he uses on a day-to-day basis, that will inevitably, aid his bottom line.

He encourages people to avoid merely having social media expectations, without seriously considering a social media plan.

Ian has a blog, a few micro-blogs, an email newsletter and a Linkedin and Twitter page. You need to build your profiles effectively, in order to get yourself, your brand, out there in the digital dimension.

Chi-chi

You need to be aware of your objectives, as regards your social media goals.

A company goal, such as sales function, customer service, relationship management and brand awareness will decipher how their social media strategy is formed.

As regards sales – clever searching is key, in order to find who you want to impress. Then create your profile around them and provide them with information that is relevant to them, slowly (and subtly) forming a relationship online with your prospects.

As for campaigning, a lot of advice out there relates to stories and examples, but it is very hard to find specifics.

From the Audience:

Paula yearns to get the word out there for transport and sport with mobilities. She wants to raise the profile of wheelchair sports that are out there, and also to fight the injustice they are facing as regards transport restrictions, mainly the tram ban by the GMPTE, to ban all mobility scooters from trams. For more information on dance charity visit:

http://www.facebook.com/strictlywheelchairdancing

http://dancewiz.co.uk/wheelchair-dancing/

Chi-chi suggests starting a blog to get the information out there. Then she suggests finding people with an understanding and knowledge of the subject and ‘connecting’ with these networks. She enforces that you need to know HOW to use the network ‘influencer’ to achieve your goal and make sure your blog is visible to them.

Ian suggests, finding out who the GMPTE audience is and who influences them and target these networks. Make your voice heard to them and soon, the fear of negative press and opinion, may lead the GMPTE to re-think their actions.

Hyper-local newspaper, @InsidetheM60 – they have created a hyper-local news website.

@networkmcr – has over 8000 followers in Manchester and has become a local influence.

There are tools out there to assess your social media influence, eg. Klout. As Chi-chi has seen the tool evolve, she has become more and more suspicious about it, as there is too much variation between the social media ‘greats’ and the ‘oks’.

Chi-chi did some social media training for #Media 2012 – She says that they have a clear objective that aids forming a clear and succinct online brand, through social media.

HubspotTV (based in Boston) – they share a lot of information online, and in turn, have turned into a highly trusted source of content.

Stuart, although he prefers not to provide marketing advice as that is not his background, he has found more and more, that this is what he is doing, as big companies are struggling with their social media plans. He believes that many small businesses out there, use social media as an advertising board and there is no communication, no interaction and no engagement.

Orchard’s blog about social media for businesses with Eve Mayer Orsburn.

Hootsuite – carry out a lot of case studies and publish several blog posts about using their tool, and provide easy ways of using their function.

Questions:

How can we use blogging effectively?

Chi-chi – Consistent blogging allows companies to create a trusted and credible resource online with the use of key words. If your articles are informative and thorough, people will begin to trust what you have to say online and will begin to recommend you, through their own social media pages.

Would it work if there was a team blogging?

It should magnify the effect of blogging, if there is a team involved.  A blog should be a company’s social media hub.

Where should you start blogging?

Ian: To dip your toe into the the water of blogging, use free blog sites, such as Tumblr, WordPress and Posterous.

Holleh: Sites such as Flavorsme and Aboutme enable you to link all of your social media pages together, helping you to create a social media homepage for your digital persona.

On a more serious note…

The surgery has been going for two years now and has been a labour of love for all of those involved. However, due to the existing online domain changing, we need to decide how to evolve Manchester Social Media Surgery. Chi-chi proposes creating a Social Media Managers Association. If the format of the surgery is the same, will this be of value to you?

Paula: She is part of a charity organisation, so as long as the new surgery, encompasses the broader (and the more bizarre) walks of social media life, she thinks it would be a good idea.

Stuart: Thinks it is a brilliant idea and will be deemed more ‘professional’.

Chi-chi: The role of social media manager is accepted more and more nowadays, so she feels it is the perfect time to create a space for these people to come together, to connect and to learn from one another.

And that’s a wrap!  Thanks to everyone who came.  Details of the next Social Media Surgery event will be posted soon.

Related posts:

1. Live Blog – March Manchester Social Media Surgery 2012
2. What Would You Like To See At the Manchester Social Media Surgery in 2011?
3. Manchester Social Media Surgery welcomes Crain’s Manchester Business

Jeremy Waite (@jeremywaite on Twitter), Head of Social Media at Phones4U and author of ‘Sex, Brands & Rock’n'Roll‘ shares some invaluable tips on Facebook commerce and fan engagement and its impact on the Phones4u brand.

Coming at a time when UK retail brand social commerce case studies are thin on the ground, the full slide deck, titled “How do you develop a conversation strategy?” and delivered at last month’s Figaro Social Media Marketing Conference is incredibly illuminating.

The slides detail Phones 4u ‘Like’ Cycle, a five stage process that evaluates the cost of acquiring Facebook fans and the value they bring to the business.

Phones 4u ‘Like’ Cycle

1. What is the actual cost of a ‘Like’?
2. What types of ‘Likes’ do we want?
3. What are we going to do with them?
4. How are we going to keep them?
5. What is their value to the business?

It’s worth pointing out that Phones4U’s engagement model on Facebook does not include a Facebook shop in the purest sense.

Phones4U fans are offered Facebook-only weekly deals via links which direct potential customers to the Phones4U website to complete the transaction.

Most of their engagement activity would generate regular sales in a full Facebook storefront if they make the option available to their customers, I suspect.  It is one of the best deployments for this particular sector in the UK.

The presentation ends with a staggering assessment:

Phones4U’s Facebook fans could be worth £10.5m per year (£96.10 per fan)

What do you think?  Would Phones4U’s success with fan engagement translate to sales in a Facebook store if the option were available?

Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Here’s the full slide deck:

Related posts:

1. Rich Pickings for the Only Top 5 UK Retailer Selling on Facebook
2. 75% of UK Facebook Users Would Not Purchase a Product or Service from a Brand’s Profile page
3. North West Brands Leading the Way in Social Commerce

It boils down to this:

As a business, we exist to demonstrate how social media enables progress on business priorities and objectives.

If I don’t know what your business priorities and objectives are, I can’t help you.

Social media is unique in allowing true product or service co-creation.  For example, if you tweet requesting a service I can deliver, it’s up to me to ensure we work together.

The beauty of this approach is that we can save you a lot of time!  Rather than spending days working out whether or not a Twitter profile or Facebook presence will help achieve a business objective, you save time and resources by allowing us to demonstrate when and how it can.

It’s an approach that has worked well with a wide range of clients, from Gate Films to Clock Creative to Arts Council England.

The catch is:

We need to know what you want.

The more I know what you’re trying to achieve with your Twitter account or Facebook presence or company blog, the more likely you are to achieve it because, as the attendees of the Manchester Social Media Surgery can attest, I love to help!

So, how can I help you?

What problem are you trying to solve?

Image credit: Napier.ac.uk

No related posts.

Both have recently set up fully transactional shops on Facebook to sell directly to online shoppers and benefit from lower marketing and operational costs, joining retailers like JD Sports, ASOS, Heinz and Autoglass.

With two-thirds of shoppers spending more when they have received a recommendation from their online community of friends, Facebook commerce or f-commerce is seen as a natural progression from ‘liking’ pages and a clear way for businesses to see a return on investment on their social media marketing spend.

Fuelled by the rapid growth and popularity of daily deal sites like Groupon and LivingSocial, the social commerce industry is predicted to grow from £3 billion ($5 billion) to £18 billion ($30 billion) by 2015.

Most of the retailers currently operating in this space are consumer brands, selling products ranging from clothing to electrical appliances. Wynsors sells shoes in its Facebook shop using a combined mobile and social commerce solution developed by Rossendale-based specialists One Iota.

Damian Hanson, CEO of One Iota adds:

“We provide Wynsors with tools to post Facebook promotional links to fans which directly link the user to products within Facebook, this means activity is measurable.

Payment is fully integrated with Wynsors payment gateway and merchant facilities for complete in-Facebook transactions. Regular Wynsors shoppers are also able to log in using their website account details and the solution is fully integrated with their back-office.

By providing product updates and offers to its fans and followers first, Wynsors encourages fan loyalty and purchases through Facebook.”

To assist businesses considering social commerce, Manchester social media agency Real Fresh TV has published a How To guide detailing how to set up a profitable Facebook shop.

The How To Sell Anything on Facebook eBook provides step-by-step instructions for setting up a profitable shop on Facebook and includes a case study featuring a major UK retail brand.

Chi-chi Ekweozor, managing director and social media strategist at Real Fresh TV adds:

“Social commerce is already generating daily profits for UK businesses on Facebook where automatic social recommendations drive further purchases from a shopper’s network of friends.

Our easy-to-read How To guide provides some much needed direction for businesses wishing to gain first mover advantage in this rapidly evolving space and is recommended reading for any business wishing to sell its products or services through Facebook.”

How To Sell Anything on Facebook is priced £58.75 and is available now.  Download a free 4 page sampler.

Over to You.  What’s your experience?

Are you a retailer based in the North West? Interested in social commerce?  Or perhaps you’ve already invested in an f-commerce solution.

We’d love your input for a series of case studies we’re putting together on retailers in the region using Facebook commerce.  We will be providing insight and guidance in return.  Get in touch!

Related posts:

1. How To Sell Anything On Facebook (eBook)
2. Rich Pickings for the Only Top 5 UK Retailer Selling on Facebook
3. Facebook Commerce Tips from a UK Retail Brand: the Phones4U ‘Like’ Cycle

I’m thrilled to announce the publication of our first eBook on social commerce, How To Sell Anything On Facebook.

Want to set up a shop or storefront on Facebook but don’t know how to begin?

Confused about how to start with F-commerce (Facebook commerce)?

Look no further.

How To Sell Anything On Facebook is a step-by-step guide to setting up a profitable shop on Facebook in just 15 minutes!

The result of extensive research into over a dozen social commerce applications, How To Sell Anything On Facebook also includes a real-life business case study featuring a major UK retail brand and worksheets to help you achieve return on investment from your shop within 30 days!  Download a free 4 page sampler

Join UK retail brands like JD Sports, ASOS, Heinz, Wynsors World of Shoes and Autoglass in setting up a storefront on the world’s largest social network.

Your How To Sell Anything On Facebook eBook package includes:

• an 11 minute audio book
• a step-to-step guide to setting up a profitable shop on Facebook
• a case study featuring a major UK retail brand
• worksheets and checklists for implementing a profit-generating digital engagement strategy

Price: £58.75 + VAT

Buy on our Social Shopkeeper Facebook shop and get 20% off.

Enjoy! And once you’re all set up, join the Social Shopkeeper network to share your story and network with other social shoppers and shopkeepers.

Join Social Shopkeeper on: Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn

_________________________________________________________________________

How To Sell Anything on Facebook by Chi-chi Ekweozor – Real Fresh TV is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.realfresh.tv.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.realfresh.tv/benefits-of-social-media/how-to-sell-anything-on-facebook-step-by-step-guide/.

Related posts:

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2. North West Brands Leading the Way in Social Commerce
3. Facebook Commerce Tips from a UK Retail Brand: the Phones4U ‘Like’ Cycle

The UK’s fastest growing online retailer ASOS, a Top 5 UK online retailer in terms Facebook fans is adding fans on the world’s largest social network at the rate of 280,000 a month!

ASOS is also one of a handful of  brands in the UK Facebook Commerce Index (Channel Advisor’s index of the 25 UK retailers with the highest fan count on Facebook) to sell directly to online shoppers through a Facebook shop and appears to be doing very well from it.

According to Jeremy Waite, Head of Social Media at Phones 4 U, ASOS is seeing profit growth in the double digits – up by 41% this year to £28.6m and have implemented a solid digital engagement strategy that puts fan and customer engagement on Facebook at its core.

ASOS have taken a radical approach in setting up shop to sell directly to consumers on Facebook but I predict they are only the first.  Social commerce, or more specifically facebook commerce or F-commerce, e-commerce delivered through Facebook is predicted to grow to $30 billion by 2015 and I anticipate that over the next 6-12 months we will see businesses large and small racing to provide consumers a way to visit their shops (or storefronts) on Facebook.

The race to open up shop on eBay will look like a walk in the park in comparison!

Real Fresh TV has put together an in-depth study into social commerce to be published this week.

We’ve conducted an independent review of a dozen social commerce applications and put together a step-to-step guide to setting up a profitable shop on the world’s largest social network.

The study which we shall be publishing as an eBook also includes a real-life case study of a bricks and mortar business generating daily profits through Facebook.

To assist businesses in setting up a Facebook shop, we’ve also included some handy worksheets and checklists for implementing a digital engagement strategy that will drive sales and enthusiastic fans to a well-managed Facebook shop.

We’ve also set up a Social Shopkeeper network on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (search LinkedIn Groups for ‘Social Shopkeeper’) and aim to make it the place to learn and grown from social shoppers and shopkeepers, hear success stories and do social commerce.

This is an incredibly exciting time to be involved in social media and we look forward to sharing results from our study.

Our eBook, priced £58.75 will be available as a paid-for digital download and via our Facebook shop where fans will benefit from a 20% discount.

If you’re a social commerce application provider or have recently set up a social shop on Facebook or another social network, please get in touch in the comments! We’d love to hear from you as we prepare our follow-up report.

We look forward to getting your thoughts on the study!

Image credit: Social Media Influence

Related posts:

1. How To Sell Anything On Facebook (eBook)
2. North West Brands Leading the Way in Social Commerce
3. Facebook Commerce Tips from a UK Retail Brand: the Phones4U ‘Like’ Cycle

With the mobile web playing such a big role in our lives, the timing of the event could not be more perfect.  Manchester needs something like Mobile Monday massively and I was very grateful for the invite by organisers (and client) Apadmi.

Mobile Monday (MoMo) events were started in Finland in 2000.

According to Wikipedia:

“They are an open networking organisation for mobile industry professionals fostering cooperation and cross-border business development through virtual and live networking events to share ideas, best practices and trends from global markets.  Founded in autumn 2000 in Helsinki, Finland, MobileMonday now has 115 chapters worldwide, which host meetings on a selected Monday evening each month.”

As networking events go, it really seems to have captured the mood of the moment, 147 people signed up to attend and a significant number of those, over 100 turned up.

It felt rather like the excitement around the very first Social Media Cafe Manchester event back in November 2008, run along a similar panel debate and Q&A theme.

I was a panel speaker at that very first Social Media Cafe event and know just how influential these gatherings can become.

Since its launch, Social Media Cafe Manchester has evolved to become Social Media Manchester, hosting events such as the first talk by Greater Manchester Police about their 24 hour Twitter experiment.  The network now boasts over 1200 members and a number of user groups including a monthly free-to-attend Social Media Surgery which I organise.

The first official #momomcr event, billed as a debate on the similarly topical Mobile Apps Vs Mobile Web was very informative, particularly for a marketing type like myself unsure of the differences between the two opposing camps.

The panellists were Ste Brennan (@stebrennan) from Code Computer Love, Brendan Dawes (@brendandawes) from magneticNorth, Rich Millington (@richie3258) from 2Ergo, Tim Haysom (@haysom_runner) from Wholesale Applications Community (WAC), Jeff Coghlan from Matmi, Duncan Stockdill (@DuncanStockdill) from Capsule CRM and Adam Fleming from Apadmi.

The debate got a little heated at times but the speakers really helped clarify the issue at hand: allowing consumers the convenience of mobile access to a ‘brand’ in their pockets, regardless of whether this was via a native app or a Flash or HTML 5 application.

The official account of the night will be posted on http://www.momomcr.org but here are my favourite takeaways, as tweeted during the event:

@ComputerLovers reckons novelty of zoom & pan for mobile websites have worn off Need a common standard vs HTML 5/Titanium X/Flash #momomcr

July 11, 2011 6:08 pm via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@realfreshtv

Chi-chi Ekweozor

@brendandawes feels native app development, for iPhone apps specifically provide the best functionality for a beautiful experience #momomcr

July 11, 2011 6:14 pm via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@realfreshtv

Chi-chi Ekweozor

2ergo sitting firmly on the fence @wacapps make a good case for letting the user decide between Web and App. @matmi @apadmi agree #momomcr

July 11, 2011 6:30 pm via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@realfreshtv

Chi-chi Ekweozor

Top marks to Garry Partington and the rest of the team at Apadmi for putting on an excellent event.

The next #momomcr is on Monday 12th September and will be about Near Field Communications (NFC) and Mobile Payments.  Keep an eye on the @MoMoMcr and the #momomcr hashtag for updates.

It was interesting that at such a ‘mobile-themed’ event, social media got a fair bit of discussion.  The ‘Facebookisation of the web’ discussions during the audience Q&A were my highlight.

Where you there?  What was yours?

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We’re running a digital marketing campaign for the Manchester-based family run business which has been operating for eight years to promote its new Supper Club, a collaboration with two other independent businesses that sees local food lovers sitting down with the local butcher and fishmonger once a month to enjoy a gourmet meal made from the region’s finest produce.

The introductory post laid down the methodology we are following in this live case study which sets out how we help businesses achieve sustainable social media ROI.

This post is about the strategy behind the Supper Club marketing campaign. However, before we delve into campaign specifics, here is a reminder of the fundamentals:

Campaign Objective: To increase the conversion rate of leads-to-orders

What we are doing

By using social media to grow an engaged community of potential customers, we’re helping North Star Delicatessen increase the conversion rate of leads-to-orders in a cost-effective way.

Campaign ROI target: To achieve ROI of at least 20%

What we aim to achieve

We are marketing 30 tickets priced £25 each for North Star Delicatessen’s first Supper Club and want to deliver minimum ROI of 20%.  In other words, we want to be able to give them £1.20 for every £1 they spend with us.

How we are doing it

To do this, we’ve put together a campaign that uses PR and tactical social media marketing to engage with our client’s stakeholders.

In the last post, we also proposed a benefits dependency network for North Star Delicatessen that illustrates how social media marketing helps to achieve the campaign objective outlined above.

This benefits dependency network, developed following some fantastic insights into the topic by Ian Pettigrew at Kingfisher Coaching, diagrammatically answers the question ‘So What?’ for every stage in the ROI assessment process.

The benefits dependency network for North Star Delicatessen is reproduced below:

It shows how, as outlined earlier, we are helping North Star Delicatessen increase sales value and volume by increasing the conversion rate of leads-to-orders using social media marketing.

Effective Social Media Strategising is all about Finding The Story

Social media campaigns often fail to take off because of a poor assessment of the likelihood that the ‘story’ behind the marketing campaign will catch on.

As highlighted in this article by social business hub One Forty, a good social media campaign puts forward a compelling story and engages an online community around it in such a way that it develops into a bigger story with input from the community constituents.

After North Star Delicatessen approached us about promoting their new Supper Club, we sat down with Digital Content Consultant Jess Perriam to extract a story around the Supper Club that would resonate with its target audience.

As you may have spotted from the first few paragraphs of this article, we decided that ‘the story’ behind the Supper Club wasn’t the fact that North Star Delicatessen was putting on an exclusive dining event for food lovers but that local food lovers would be able to meet and greet their local producers on a regular basis and learn about the provenance of what they were eating.

In addition, the story we chose took the close-knit nature of the community where North Star Delicatessen is based into account.  Chorlton is a well-to-do suburb in South Manchester that proudly celebrates its destination as a hub for small independent businesses.

North Star Delicatessen’s community is fiercely loyal to its shops and businesses, as demonstrated by today’s online celebration of ‘Independents Day’ and we had to ensure that they were aware of the collaborative nature of the Supper Club.

As the campaign took shape, North Star Delicatessen actually involved their suppliers in the creation of the Supper Club which made all the difference as we could turn this brilliant story into a ‘social story’ that would grow with each telling.

Telling the Story

With the core ingredients of the story identified, we put together a campaign schedule that used a blog and North Star Delicatessen’s presence on Facebook and Twitter to share the experience of preparing for and experiencing the Supper Club.

This meant we put together an social editorial schedule that took in engagement on each of those platforms on a daily and weekly basis in the run up to the event.

North Star Delicatessen have been behind our approach and have brought in additional stakeholders to tell the story; founder Deanna Thomas came on board to share the history of the company and to add a personal touch to the Twitter engagement on the Supper Club’s @JoinUs4Supper Twitter account.

A local chef and well-known personality amongst the region’s North West food loving community, her contacts and industry insight added real weight and credibility to the campaign.

Managing the Process

By following a carefully structured process that combined stakeholder engagement with influencer identification via social media monitoring techniques over the last 3 weeks, we have been able to engage with a sizeable proportion of the target audience in the North West.

Early Results – Supper Club Tickets going like hot cakes

Early indications are that our efforts are bearing fruit.  With less than a week to go before the event, only a handful of tickets remain. Want to come?  You can still buy a ticket.

This concludes the ‘what we did for strategy’ perspective on this post on proving social media ROI.

In the next post, we will share some more detail on the social media implementation process applied for this particular campaign.

Over to you. What do you think? What would you do differently?

Please share your thoughts in the comments!

………………………………………

Can We Help?

If you’d like some help with social media strategy development and implementation, we’re offering free 30 minute telephone consultations worth £75 for a limited period. Only 10 places available.

Please enter your name, email address and contact details in our short online form and we will contact you to arrange a phone call within 24 hours.

About Real Fresh TV
Founded in 2005, Real Fresh TV is possibly the best agency in the land to evaluate the return on investment for businesses considering social media marketing.

We have considerable experience in helping businesses achieve sustainable social media ROI, first through our industry-leading social media marketing training and the ever popular Manchester Social Media Surgery. Learn more.

Image Credit: Fredrik Sarnblad

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