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Thread: Social media and your suggestions

  1. #1
    Former Pubs Galore Coder
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    Default Social media and your suggestions

    We currently have a Twitter account with 329 followers which we barely use and a Facebook page with over 3000 Likes (followers) neither of which we are really taking advantage of.

    Basically we can send messages on either Facebook or Twitter and our followers will see them, so it is a good way of reminding these people we are here and hopefully engaging their interest in our site.

    For Twitter it would be nice if we could start sending random information out on a daily basis, so I have it in mind that you may have questions about the site you could ask and we could tweet the answer or indeed if you think there is a beer festival or some such that should be promoted we can do that. So if you can think of any promotions you would like us to run from Twitter do let us know.

    Facebook is more interesting, the followers count is basically vanity and I am not sure many of those Facebook followers really know what they have done, I think when we send messages we will start losing some of those followers. We recently messaged about a local pub that was giving away free pints of Jaipur and lost about 20 fans. I am not too bothered by this though as it hopefully means the ones left are potentially interested, it does however mean I am less keen to spam this channel. I am thinking of maybe doing a weekly highlights newsletter promoting beer festivals and offers that pubs would like us to promote.

    Also I am thinking of doing a weekly/monthly poll on the site for a bit of fun, so if you have any burning poll questions let us know.

    So any good questions you can think of in general do let us know, or if you can think of problems/improvements on these ideas again let us know.


  2. #2
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    I don't think Twitter is worth bothering too much about. Despite all the hype from its users, the media and corporate press offices it is not mainstream. Lots of people open accounts but the vast majority soon walk away. To make any sense of twitter you've got to be staring at it most of the time, but most of the time, unless we are in the media, we have more pressing things to do, like work.

    Facebook is another matter. It suits its original target audience perfectly, and there are many much older who are just as addicted. Stand at the back of a university lecture theatre and see how many laptops are on Facebook rather than taking notes. It drives teaching staff mad.

    I do have accounts on both, but I find other ways of social networking far more interesting (though thanks to the VAT and duty increases increasingly more expensive) than those.
    Last edited by NickDavies; 02-02-2011 at 16:52.

  3. #3
    Former Pubs Galore Coder
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    I have to admit that I am not particularly a fan of social media which is part of the reason we have not embraced it particularly.

    I think Twitter is a lot more popular than you are giving it credit for, I have seen it used in a couple of ways, so for instance myself I follow a couple of commentators I like and some Bristol City feeds, I then just have it open in a tab which will show a number on it if there is new tweets (or news) to see and in this way I knew about City's new signings within 10 minutes of them happening on Monday. Similarly I find out about downtime on certain networks and things like that.

    The reciprocal of this is being one of those media hubs (hopefully PuG is one) and being able to quickly express news to your followers and possibly creating useful surges. In the case of PuG I think those followers are more in the trade so landlords for instance, it is a good way of us constantly telling them how brilliant we are. And also to extend this example it is a good way of them telling you they have changed a barrel so you can get live updates of their offerings .

    Just quickly, the other way it is used is like a public SMS channel, so a bunch of friends may all stay in touch via twitter with tweets along the lines of "Off to the Nag's Head tonight for a drink anyone interested". Or "Quickly does anyone know the product of an Acid and Salt? #SatInExam".

    Facebook I just can't stand to be honest. It is a brilliant toy, and given I was reintroduced to my future wife through Friends Reunited I guess I have no grounds for moaning about the model but I do find it strangely intrusive. That said it is very popular, and I can certainly see some nice ways of taking advantage of it in the future, for now though I think it is a way of contacting a more consumer audience and I think potentially something nice for pubs to contact us about to try and push some promotion down that channel for them.

  4. #4
    I'll stay on me own PaulOfHorsham's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Conrad View Post
    I was reintroduced to my future wife through Friends Reunited
    Hi Conrad, not sure this is quite what you meant to say

    Does Mrs C. read the forum?

  5. #5
    Former Pubs Galore Coder
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    Quote Originally Posted by PaulOfHorsham View Post
    Hi Conrad, not sure this is quite what you meant to say

    Does Mrs C. read the forum?
    That was the best phrasing I could think of. Me and Mrs C went to uni together, lost contact, met up through FR, got married.

    So hopefully safe.

  6. #6
    Spritzer Swallower
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    As @ericonabike, am a converted Twitter sceptic. You need to work out what you want from it, and what you're prepared to give to it, but it then becomes a useful and fun way of communicating. Facebook I find less interesting and somehow more intrusive/demanding if it's to work properly. And here you've got an excellent website andForum so why bother with it?

    Perhaps you could set yourself up as the pub expert - '@pubsgalore, stuck for a night out in Bradgate,give me one suggestion' kind of thing. Just Tweeting the 'Pub of the Day' woul;d be a start and would drive traffic to the site. Why not put a bit of time into it for a couple of weeks and see how it goes? Thre are a lot of Tweeting beer drinkers out there!

  7. #7
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    We have done a little bit of infrastructure work on Twitter. When they announced the lists (which they seem to have pretty much given up on now) we did sort out a load of lists with an idea that they would be more useful than our Twitter feed in a lot of ways, so in reply to the tweeting beer drinkers bit:
    http://twitter.com/#!/pubsgalore/lists

    Love the idea of a pub of the day though, will let that one gestate a little (will be even better if we can get the forum to supply daily Pubs of the day )

  8. #8
    Roving RAT ROBCamra's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Conrad View Post
    will be even better if we can get the forum to supply daily Pubs of the day )
    Is this the "Big Society" that the Tories keep going on about?

    Evade responsibility and get the community to do it for free.
    A pub is for life not just for Christmas

  9. #9
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    Cool I hadn't realised that I could rip a phrase off for it as well.

    Big Society, doesn't it just make you feel good to know you are part of it

  10. #10

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    I'd say a pub of the day is a good start. Tweeting 'interesting' pub news could also be useful - so not stuff aimed at licensees but that customers might find interesting, so whenever a paper tells us that a glass of wine will kill us instantly or make us live forever.

    I have more thoughts on it but that'll do for the minute!
    *insert something clever/humorous/interesting here*

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