JADE JAGGER On rocks and rock’n’roll

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business
Tweets, likes, check-ins, circles. They don’t sound much like
the business tools of a brave new world. But with customers
increasingly living their lives online, companies are joining the
charge to the world of social networking – and getting
impressive results.
Claridge’s, for example, takes its famous customer service
onto Twitter to talk to its guests, while London’s oldest butcher,
Allens on Mount Street, posts recipes and competitions – not to
mention shots of its juiciest cuts – on the firm’s Facebook page.
It’s all part of building a brand on the internet, not just via the
traditional web page but through the sites where so many
people talk these days. Facebook has more than 31 million
active users in the UK alone, so there are plenty of potential
customers to talk to.
One of the masters of this cutting-edge style of marketing is
John Lyons, the managing director of Brandmovers Europe, a
local firm with a global reach that has helped businesses such
as Virgin and Sainsbury’s navigate the waters of digital
engagement for nearly a decade.
We meet in his Wells Street office, where the shelves
showcase some of the joy of technology, heaving with many of
the most exciting computers and consoles of the past 30 years.
“Most industries now understand quite inherently the
importance of digital as a marketing and sales tool,” says John.
“We’ve gone through the cycle of people not trusting social
media because they fear that someone else controls it. Now
businesses are willing to step on board Facebook and Twitter.
“What we do is help brands engage with their consumers
digitally. We work across the social media platforms, across
mobile, web and tablet. If there’s a brand that wants to speak to
consumers, or engage them, or build a community, that’s where
we come in.”
And one of the beauties of the internet is that you can be
quite specific in targeting whoever you like with special offers,
sweepstakes, games, adverts – or anything else that will build
your brand and boost your sales.
“We’re confident we can reach pretty much every
demographic,” says John, who was an award-winning architect
before founding his own web-design agency. “We can use our
research tools to find out where they are and what costs might
be involved.
“Facebook’s advertising platform will show you exactly how
many people fit any demographic. So if we’re looking at over-
50s who like wine, who are based in south-east England, we can
find out exactly how many people are on Facebook who meet
that parameter. Not everyone who’s online is on Facebook – but
it’s a pretty good starting point.”
And as the 120-year-old Allens has proven, you don’t have to
be a huge company to make social networking work for you.
Brandmovers has helped everyone from cocktail bars to
restaurants to telecoms giants build their mailing lists, interact
with their customers, create communities, or just ramp up the
number of “likes” on their Facebook page.
“If you were to have a promotion where people are driven to
go to a Facebook page because the client wants to reach a
younger audience or wider audience, we can target the people
BUSINESS: Selma Day selma@pubbiz.com
that match their ideal customer and give them a tool where all
they need to do is ‘like’ the page, enter an email address,
decide if they want to opt in, and they get a discount code,”
says John. “If they want to share it with a certain number of
friends, they can earn a bigger discount. That’s a great way of
developing an audience.”
So, if you’ve just got the traditional website for your
business, have you fallen behind? Not necessarily, says John.
“I guess 15, 16 years ago, when I got into digital, the whole
thing was businesses starting to think they probably should be
on this internet thing. We’re now at the stage where a sizeable
number of people – probably a majority – will jump onto Google
and check out something before calling.
“We all expect to find something online now. So there’s still
value in having your traditional web page because it allows
people to make an informed decision about what they might
purchase or do.
“Where I see things shifting is a convergence of all these
platforms. We’ve worked quite hard on a service which allows
content to be delivered across a number of platforms from one
source – so you can have a website that works on tablet, mobile
and desktop, but it can also go to Facebook and Twitter.
Bringing all these things into one place is quite important.”
Not to mention a big time saving if you’re jumping between
all the different places businesses can have their voices heard
now, from LinkedIn to your company blog. And if you’re worried
about investing in a cutting-edge technology that might be
about to be blown out of the water by the next cutting-edge
technology – perhaps you remember Bebo, MySpace or Friends
Reunited – there’s good news.
“I think mobile is going to continue to grow – I suspect it’s
going to become the majority very soon. But I don’t think there’s
a big platform waiting to happen,” John explains. “I think Twitter
will continue growing. I think as a marketing tool it’s going to
increase its share against Facebook.”
One of the most exciting developments for local shops, bars
and restaurants is the rise of “geo-location” – where people
using smartphones in the area can see what businesses are
nearby and “check in” to earn discounts, points, prizes or
special offers.
“Being able to advertise to people as they’re in the vicinity,
engaging them to go and check in, to become customers, to
become part of a community, that is something we’ve been
doing a lot of,” says John.
So on the way back into Mayfair, I tried one of the fastestgrowing
of these geo-location services, Foursquare, which
works by the smartphone pinpointing your location and the site
offering a range of local places for you to check in with.
I asked it where to get a drink, and it highlighted that Taylor
St Baristas was just around the corner on Brooks Mews. It also
offered reviews from other customers and showed me which
friends had been there and checked in recently.
But it also pointed out that the O’Neill’s pub on nearby Great
Marlborough Street would give me a free pint of Guinness for
every three check-ins. Now that’s marketing.
www.brandmovers.co.uk
Get engaged
LONDON’S OLDEST BUTCHER’S SHOP POSTS
PICTURES OF ITS FINEST CUTS ON
FACEBOOK, WHILE CLARIDGE’S HAS TWITTER
CONVERSATIONS WITH ITS GUESTS. DIGITAL
MARKETING EXPERT JOHN LYONS TELLS
JAMIE DOWNHAM WHY SOCIAL NETWORKING
IS NOW A CRUCIAL BUSINESS TOOL