Scrolling. Scrolling.. Scrolling… STOP!

How do you get someone to STOP, read and engage with your post on social media?

This is a question many people struggle with and if you are reading this, well, this is a great start to help you find the answer you are looking for!

It’s what you do with it that counts. Unfortunately, unlike puppies, an image of a Chicken Schnitty just sitting there isn’t going to give someone the same amount of dopamine as you would think.

What do you see when you scroll through your Facebook and Instagram? People? Familiar Faces? YES!

ClubGrants

People like to see smiling faces and money going back into their community. If you don’t have a big cheque, get one!

You are the face of your venue, invite the recipient to you or you go to them, be in the photo, shake the hand, click the photo and share. “Today we gave this much to help these people.”

Food & Beverage

When I go to dinner with my girlfriend, I'm not even allowed to touch anything until she takes a photo, and shares it – your venue's social media should be very similar to your personal account, make it personal, grab lunch, snap a shot and share it.

Events

Tell people what's on, but give them notice. Do you have a personality in your venue, who could get behind a camera in front of your in-venue display and say “Hey this is What’s On, earn or get your tickets now.”

Plan, Act and 100% React!

You have the data sitting right in front of you. Are you using it? How does your Membership Data compare to Social Media Data? Does it match up? Who are you attracting?

Take the time to plan out your year and build your Social Media Strategy. Find out and write down your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats

Strengths could be “We have Free Live Music every Weekend”, and weaknesses could be that “we don’t post on Social Media who’s playing and what time.”

Your receptionist has a new role.

Almost gone are the days of patrons picking up their phones and calling, people are going to slide into your DMs and ask if the restaurant takes bookings - “are you still open?”.

You need to be engaging with these customers to build trust. Make sure to react and respond to comments where applicable. The best person for this is your receptionist, train them, give them access and watch your pages grow.

Are you catching your audience’s eyes?

Things that work:

- Animations: o Get your artwork moving!

- Familiar Faces: o “Congratulations Susan on being Employee of the Month!”

- UGC – User-Generated Content: o Use your phones and share the content.

- An on-brand Instagram feed: o As good as a Google review i.e. people go to your page now to see your food, events and the “vibe” of your venue.

- Links on Facebook/Instagram o Tickets to a show? Link it to your ticketing platform

- Multichannel Marketing or Performance Marketing: o Make sure you are everywhere on all channels driving the same message.

Things that don’t work:

- Same graphic over and over

- Low-quality images/videos

- Inactivity

Everyone has a chicken schnitty and the same beers on tap… think about what your point of difference is and roll with it.

If you can’t think of your point of difference, go to your competitors see what they are doing and do it better. One way to stand out is to put more effort into your posts - Quality over Quantity.

Things to try.

Collaborate with influencers/content creators/bloggers.

They are more than happy to take your money in return for great brand exposure. Do you have a special item on your menu?

A new area of a venue that has just been built? – This is a great time to call upon a person or people with a great following to do the marketing for you!

Do you have a big name coming to your venue? TAG them, and ask them to share your event on their page.

Join local groups such as a local mum's group – got a school holiday event coming up? Post your event to the group.

Paid ads and Google ads – I touched on multichannel marketing earlier – this is the icing on the cake. Build out a campaign, and put money behind something that you are advertising for a month, not just the last 4 days before the draw or event.

Google Ads are highly recommended and everyone should be doing this, – get your brand at the top of each page in front of your target audience.

It’s not too late to try something new and to change up your social media content. Don’t be afraid to experiment and push the boundaries.

Andrew Quigg Marketing Account Manager, Daily Press