Using colloquialisms is a great way to create affinity with your audience and create a community - Make people feel part of a community that is for themIf your message is local make you are talking that wayGet across the character of your business – you can push this with social media. Talk to people as you do in your day-to-day job – if you are not a multiational company you will turn your audience off by talking like you areUse your knowledge of your customer base and the local area to form more intimate relationships with your customersLocal knowledge is a USP – puts you ahead of bigger brandsSo if you are a uni – it’s not just about the latest piece of research you’ve got, where is the best place to get a breakfast on campus? Can you get a discount? Make sure you are the one with the knowledge about all aspects of that area – so that fans don’t turn to unofficial sources
Carole Currie – Landlady of the Helsby Arms, a small village pubInteracts with key tweeters in the village – creating brand ambassadors. She holds coffee mornings with these followers – taking these online relationships offline, in a way that she could only do if she had got across her personality in the way that she has.One stop shop for news about Helsby – encourages all people of Helsby to follow, provides a use. Gets across the adage that the landlady is the key to the village – the central point of all news in a day when people’s locals aren’t necessarily the central points of peoples lives that they once were.Personality shines through – people are following her, not the pub.People are interested in her tweets and so it is easy for her to drop in promotional tweets every now and then – such as tweeting photos of Christmas menus.
Museum of Liverpool – tweets as the museum!
Follow other local businesses – who are their followers?What businesses are like you? Near to you? Use these to find people to follow, find out what they talk about. Communicate with other businesses,Make conversations visibleTalk to your stakeholders, form relationships that could lead to RTs or mentions so that you can become visible to their followersSearch out conversations about your products and areaEngage with people where possible, you have the opportunity to form relationships with people that you would otherwise never reach.LWFG, Wigan – search out conversations about dieting taking place in Wigan. Contact these people with advice and support.Use advanced search features to find local tweets
Why do people follow local businesses? Yes offers, but also to see an insight, to get access that they wouldn’t otherwise have, to have an impact on the decisions made by that businessPeople can get offers from your website
People follow business where they feel that they are listened to and can have an impact on the decisions made by that business
Without going over the top remember, if your local area is a key part of your USP mention this where you can in your tweet - #manchester #ormskirk
Big prizes can exclude people, they are following you because they like your business so reward them with a relevant prizeBeware of compers – local prizes exclude this audience. They are not useful to youLarge numbers are useless if they are only interested in comps
Gets personality across wellTreats customers as individuals – a real connection with the relationships formed through twitter to their experience offline as they visit the restaurant ‘Can’t wait to see you Jeremy’Doing something different than others in the area – first Chinese restaurant to market through twitterNow tries new and innovative things – a live tweet during one of her cookery courses, recipe of the day etcProvides an extra service to her customers so that when they leave they have a reason to stay in touch with the restarant before hopefully they plan their next visit
Twitter is a free marketing tool – promote it wherever you can