1. Promoting Country Markets via
Twitter and Facebook
The basics explained
Pippin Consultancy Ltd Gloucestershire Country Markets AGM 15 April 2013
2. The presentation
• Online marketing
– Websites
– Directories
– Social media (Twitter and Facebook)
• Offline marketing
– Flyers/posters
– PR
Pippin Consultancy Ltd Gloucestershire Country Markets AGM 15 April 2013
3. Online marketing
• Free / low cost promotion
• Most people are online (84% of the UK
population)
Pippin Consultancy Ltd Gloucestershire Country Markets AGM 15 April 2013
4. Websites
• Great place to put all the information about
your Market
• Keep it up-to-date
• Link it in with everything you do
• Facebook?
Pippin Consultancy Ltd Gloucestershire Country Markets AGM 15 April 2013
5. Directories
• Local information websites
• Transition Towns
• Big Barn
Pippin Consultancy Ltd Gloucestershire Country Markets AGM 15 April 2013
6. Social media
“Interactive platforms via which individuals and
communities create and share user-generated
content.”
J.H. Kietzmann, K. Hermkens, I.P. McCarthy
& B.S. Silvestre (2011)
Pippin Consultancy Ltd Gloucestershire Country Markets AGM 15 April 2013
7. Social media
The online equivalent of a conversation or a
gossip with friends, colleagues or
acquaintances.
Catherine Every
Pippin Consultancy Ltd Gloucestershire Country Markets AGM 15 April 2013
8. Twitter?
Every day, millions of people turn to Twitter to
connect to their interests, to share information, and
find out what's happening in the world right now.
Anyone can read, write and share messages of up
to 140 characters on Twitter. These messages, or
Tweets, are available to anyone interested in
reading them, whether logged in or not. Your
followers receive every one of your messages in
their timeline – a feed of all the accounts they have
subscribed to or followed on Twitter.
Pippin Consultancy Ltd Gloucestershire Country Markets AGM 15 April 2013
9. Twitter – usage statistics
• 34 million + active UK users
• 25-34, 35-44 and 45-54 age groups each make
up around 20% of the Twitter population
• 42% use it find out about products and services
• 41% use it to provide opinions about products
and services
• 31% use it to ask for opinions about products
and services
Pippin Consultancy Ltd Gloucestershire Country Markets AGM 15 April 2013
13. Twitter and your Country Market
• Announcements about what’s on sale
• Who’s cooking what
• What’s selling well
• What’s happening in the Market
• Retweeting other Country Markets tweets
• Posting photos
• Link into special dates (Mothering Sunday, Easter,
Bank Holiday etc)
• Retweeting / commenting on local community issues
• Tap into food issues (e.g. beef in your lasagnes
come from your local butcher)
Pippin Consultancy Ltd Gloucestershire Country Markets AGM 15 April 2013
14. Hints and tips
• Tweet regularly
• Have more than one person tweeting
(you can login with your twitter name and
password)
• Stay positive and politically
uncontroversial
Pippin Consultancy Ltd Gloucestershire Country Markets AGM 15 April 2013
16. Facebook
Millions of people use Facebook everyday to
keep up with friends, upload an unlimited
number of photos, share links and videos, and
learn more about the people they meet.
Pippin Consultancy Ltd Gloucestershire Country Markets AGM 15 April 2013
17. Facebook - statistics
• 200 million unique users (c.30 million in the
UK)
• 57% of users are female
• 46% of users are 45 or older
Pippin Consultancy Ltd Gloucestershire Country Markets AGM 15 April 2013
22. How can Country Markets use
Facebook?
• Post photos
• Post updates
• Post questionnaires
• Post information
• Post recipes
• Post special offers
• Post about special dates (Easter, Mothering
Sunday, Breakfast Week etc)
• Share posts and comments
• Comment on posts
Pippin Consultancy Ltd Gloucestershire Country Markets AGM 15 April 2013
23. Hints and tips
• Get started at
www.facebook.com/business
• Do it regularly
• Have multiple administrators
• Stay positive and politically
uncontroversial
• Promote it in Market and all your flyers,
posters, press releases etc
Pippin Consultancy Ltd Gloucestershire Country Markets AGM 15 April 2013
24. Here’s what Ross Country Market
said
“It’s still in its infancy in relation to getting a
decent number of “likes” and is just starting in
the last month or so to get people sharing
statuses. The main benefit is that it’s free and a
useful reminder for people, especially as you
would otherwise not have any way of
communication with them between markets.”
Pippin Consultancy Ltd Gloucestershire Country Markets AGM 15 April 2013
25. Here’s what Beccy Stephens said
“Just to spread the word and let local people
know its there.”
Pippin Consultancy Ltd Gloucestershire Country Markets AGM 15 April 2013
27. Offline marketing
• It’s making sure people know you’re there
• More focused than social media
Pippin Consultancy Ltd Gloucestershire Country Markets AGM 15 April 2013
28. Flyers and posters
• Focus on USPs
• Keep branding consistent
• Get out to relevant places – i.e. where
your customers go – and where your
ideal customers go
• Tailor to events: Christmas order forms,
Easter treats, Breakfast Week
Pippin Consultancy Ltd Gloucestershire Country Markets AGM 15 April 2013
29. PR
• Draw up a press list of email contacts
• Think about what’s newsworthy: new
producer, special items for key dates
(e.g. Easter), local food that’s trustworthy,
new season rhubarb, anniversary
• Plan
Pippin Consultancy Ltd Gloucestershire Country Markets AGM 15 April 2013
30. Conclusion
• All marketing, whether it’s online or offline is
about letting people know you’re there and
you’re worth a visit
Pippin Consultancy Ltd Gloucestershire Country Markets AGM 15 April 2013
The term social media is everywhere these days. Today I’m going to look at two of the most popular social media websites: Twitter and Facebook. It’s worth saying that both started as “social” – i.e. a way of communicating with friends and family and that they both still are a means of doing this – you may even use one of them yourselves. However, they’re also both used these days by businesses or organisations looking to promote the “human” side of themselves. So today I’d like to introduce you to Twitter and Facebook and give you some ideas on how you could use them to promote your markets. But before we do that, I’d also like to take a whistle-stop tour of the more traditional ways to market your market.If you have any questions or comment at any point, please feel free to chip in!
Seeing as we’re looking at Twitter and Facebook, I thought we’d take a look at marketing online; I’ll look at two areas your own website and promoting yourself on directory websites or information websites, plus also Twitter and Facebook.Then we’ll look at offline marketing: just going to look at two things today: flyers and posters and PRI’ve specifically chosen these areas to look at because they’re free or low cost. Although, they do require an element of time, sadly!
Why is online marketing important?It’s free or low costMost people are there and most people use it as a source of getting information about a product or service – it’s like a vast Yellow Pages if you like.
Website is probably the first thing you think about when you think about an online presence.Who’s got one?If not, there are loads of options from free options to low cost options to bells and whistles options. My recommendation is to go for something basic but professional – a poorly designed website makes a bad impression as you no doubt know. Websites are a great place to put everything about your Market: who the producers are and what they produce, photos of the Market, how to join the Market. The great thing is that you can put on as much stuff as you like with no additional cost, unlike a leaflet.Once you’ve got your site, keep it up-to-date: it’s your shop window online – so that’s the date of the next Market, anything new that will be on sale, new producersLink it in with everything else you do – if you’ve got an article in the paper that week, link to that, if you’ve got a Facebook or Twitter site, make sure people can link to that. Think of all the promotion you do as part of a bigger whole not something standalone.Having said all that, I wonder if Facebook is a good alternative these days – offers almost as much flexibility, format encourages regular updating and is free. But more on that later.
Directories – catch all term for websites where people looking for information will go. It’s the online equivalent of putting a poster up.The aim is to get your name out there on relevant sites – i.e. sites that people who might come to Market might go to. These might be:Local information websites (minchinhampton.net)Transition Town sitesBigBarn (BigBarn's mission is to reconnect consumers with their local producers). You probably got information from Lesley Thexton, who has just added Coleford’s details and has secured a good deal for adding all the county’s Markets.If you’ve got any kind of web presence – website, Twitter, Facebook etc – make sure it’s on there.
This is how Wikipedia describes social media.Hmmm. OK.
The two biggest ones at the moment are Twitter and Facebook.I’d like to spend some time looking at each of them, what they are and how they could work for you.First thing to say is that the word “social” in this context is key and that’s especially true on Twitter.In traditional marketing – leaflets, posters etc – you present a very formal view of your business. You are also concentrated on selling and promoting and that’s what people reading your information are expecting.Social media requires a bit of a different mindset. On social media it is OK to sell and promote yourself, that’s what you’re there for, but you need to do it a low-key way. The aim really is to show the human face and the personal side of an organisation and build a relationship with them – i.e. be social. To give an example: I ordered some White Stuff clothes online. On the morning they were due to be delivered, I got a text saying that I could expect my order between 10 and 11am. I thought that was pretty cool, so I tweeted about it. And White Stuff answered, saying “how exciting – what have you ordered”. And that made an already quite cool thing even cooler. And I felt even more positive about a business I already liked – and I’m telling you about it now, so they’re getting promotion as a result of their actions.It’s also a great way to always be there and remind people of your existence. When you’ve got a poster up or send a flyer out, it’s a once only thing. You could send a flyer out every day to remind people about you, but it would be very expensive. If you’re active on social media, you can remind people about you every day – what a great opportunity.
This is how Twitter describes itself.
(340 million tweets per day worldwide59% of users are female)I think these usage statistics are very compelling and indicate why it’s something Country Markets should be looking to embrace:It’s massiveIt reaches out across all age groupsIt’s being used to get informationPlus also, research undertaken by Making Local Food Work suggested that 26% of farmers’ markets customers are particularly responsive to social media. I would argue that people who shop in farmers’ markets are people who should be shopping in Country Markets, so it could be particularly valuable.
Twitter is like a massive online conversation that you can tune into or tune out of. It’s very addictive and very immediate.I have prepared a document that Chris can email you that talks you through how to set up your account. But let’s start with the basics once you’re all set up.Once you’ve set up your account, you can start to follow people. Following someone means you see everything they tweet about when you’re looking at Twitter. This is what you can see in this Twitter feed – tweets from people that I follow. You can see that I follow about 600 people. So this is why it’s immediate and addictive – 600 people are talking to me, so this feed is a bit like a tickertape ticking. I don’t try to keep up with everything anyone says though, I just dip in and out. This screenshot is on my computer, but if you’ve got a smartphone or an iPad, you can get it on there too, which means you can be involved even when you’re not at your computer.So when you first get started on Twitter, you search for people / organisations you know or are interested in – or you think should be interested in you or coming to visit you – your local paper, for example. Good Twitter etiquette says that the people you follow then follow you back (although don’t expect it if you follow Stephen Fry / David Cameron etc). These are your followers. I’ve got 379 here.
UsernameThink of this as being like your email address. You can choose anything you like (as long as it’s not already taken). I use my name; other people use their business name (which is what Claire doe)s. I’d suggest that you use your Market name.MentionThis is using someone else’s name in a message. So you might want to say “How’s the weather with you, @bohemianbeads”. Or you can use it in “I love the @bohemianbeads necklace I bought yesterday.” If you use the name at the start of the tweet, only the person and anyone following both of you see it. If you use it in the middle of the sentence, everyone sees it. It’s a bit like “Hi Claire...” vs “I was talking to Claire the other day...”RetweetWhen you see a Tweet by another user that you are interested in or think your followers would / should be interested in, you can retweet it. This is the equivalent of forwarding an email – except you’re forwarding it to everyone in your address book. I love retweeting because it shows that you’re interested in other people and they’re great when you haven’t got anything in particular you want to say, but do want to be visible on Twitter.MessageIf you want to privately Tweet to a particular user who's already following you, you can direct message them. This is using Twitter like email. I don’t do it very often – 140 characters is usually too few! It can be useful to get in touch with someone who you know, but only through Twitter.HashtagThink of hashtags as the theme of your Tweet. Users can then click on a hashtag to see other similarly-themed tweets and find yours in search. You’ve probably seen the hashtag being used on TV / radio programmes. #BBCAQ
So that’s how Twitter works if you’re being an observer. How does it work if you’re taking part?This is Bohemian Beads feed. Mixture of sales-y:see us at Tewkesbury Town Hall, news-y:tickets sold out, social-y: FF – friendly: thank you. So you can see it’s not really an advertising medium in the sense of “Buy, buy, buy”, it’s more a “Hello, I’m here and I’m friendly and an active member of the community.”
How could Twitter work for Country MarketsThink about it as a forum for what you’d say to people in Market.
Tweet regularly and frequently – your Twitter feed can look a bit like tickertape and it’s very immediate. If you only tweet occasionally, the chances of your tweet being spotted is much less. To get over the difficulty of this...Have more than one person tweeting (you can login with your twitter name and password)Stay positive and politically uncontroversial – think about what you’d say in Market.
This is howFacebook describes itselfI think Facebook and Country Markets are a natural and obvious fit.If Twitter is “Hiya, got to dash”, Facebook is “How are you? What have you been up to? Cup of tea?”
Like Twitter, it’s got lots of users and it’s reaching a Country Markets audience because of the farmers’ market connection. I’d even say it’s reaching a more familiar Country Markets audience because family members are on there sharing photos.Who is on Facebook here?What do you use it for?Now, as on Twitter, I’ve put together a handout on how to set up your account.
This is the first bit of Facebook. It’s your timeline. It’s where you can see everything that’s going on. You see updates from your friends and you see updates from businesses/organisations that you like. Only you see this page. It’s the Facebook equivalent of a Twitter feed, but it moves a lot more slowly! Only you see this page.You can interact with this page. You can “like” something someone’s posted. You can “Share it”, so it will appear on the timelines of the people who are friends with you. You can also comment on it and again, this will show up in people’s timelines.You can also make comments / upload videos / photos using the “What’s on your mind?” section. You can also search for people, places and things to find out what’s happening with them or “friend” them or “like” them (you “friend” people; you “like” a business)Finally, note the Pippin and Peckish links here – they’re business pages that I manage and we’ll get on them in a second. But first,
This is what other people see when they look at your page – it’s got all the information that you’ve been sharing or are related to on it (e.g. photos of me that friends have posted on there). So this is like a digest of everything you’ve been doing on the previous page. Now, if you’ve got a personal account, you can set up a business/organisation/interest page – you remember the two from the previous slide – Pippin and Peckish. Let’s take a look at one of these pages.
Again, like the personal timeline, only you see this. Again, it’s got all the stuff from the pages you are following (as a business page, you can only “like” other businesses. You can’t have “friends”.) And again, you can like, comment, share and start a conversation.
Here you can see what Ross Country Markets has been saying and doing. Everyone can see this.I am an administrator of this page, which means I can update it. I can also invite anyone else on Facebook to be an administrator of this page.So to recap – if you want a business page – i.e. a page for a Country Market – you need a personal account first (even if you don’t use it). And each business page can have as many administrators as you like (they must also have accounts). All administrators can update the page.
One of the handouts is a customisable leaflet where you can put your Facebook address.
The downside is that it needs to be kept up to date, far more than I manage really, so it would be useful if there were a few “administrators” to keep the page fresh and generate interest.
I think this is the key, really. Neither Facebook or Twitter are going to bring customers flocking in overnight. But they are free, quick ways to keep you in people’s minds and build a strong relationship with them.
Any questions before we move on to look at offline marketing?
Marketing offline is like marketing online – it’s about making sure that people know you’re there. With offline marketing, you have to do a bit more thinking. If social media lets people see the real people behind something, offline marketing involves thinking a bit more about how you want people to perceive Country Markets and making sure you get it right in a limited amount of space. I’m going to race through two key areas – flyers and posters and PR, but there’s a handout with more info.
Focus on USPs unique selling points – what it is that makes you different from any other shop in town – this gives people a reason to come to you.Keep branding consistent – if you think about Apple advertising, you always know it’s them. So keep the same colours / format / logos to encourage recognition and familiarityGet the information out where it needs to go – schools, playgroups, Transition Towns, in market, in town, through letterboxe, particularly in affluent areas of the townTailor them to events – shout when you’ve got something new – a new producer, Christmas goodies, Easter treats, so people start to think about you as a good place to visit to get something a bit different
PR – public relations. This is about getting stories about Country Markets in your local papers and magazines. It’s a really good way to get promotion because it’s very low cost, but gets you out there to lots of people.First step is to draw up a list of email contacts that you’ll send press release to - you can often do this by just looking at the newspapers and magazines you get at home. But also search online and in the library. Call them if you want to check they’re the right people – you can have a conversation then and start to build up a personal relationship. Do this first, then whenever you write a press release you can just zap it over to them instantly.Then it’s time to think about your story – this might be a new producer, special items you’ll have in for key dates, a celebration in the Market. With time critical things like this, it’s often worth thinking about it way in advance and drawing up a schedule – two weeks before Mothering Sunday you’ll send a release; two weeks before Easter and so on. That way you can keep on top of it and not remember too late!
I hope you’ve found that useful.If I had any conclusion, I’d say that all marketing, whether it’s online or offline, is about letting people know you’re there and you’re worth visiting. Nothing we’ve discussed today is a magic solution, but doing any one (or preferably more than one!) will help raise the profile of your market and has the potential to bring customers in.