Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
a food tourism business should have an active Facebook page with a good,
effective Facebook strategy. Just playing with Facebook will not grow a busi-
ness; once a business has over 1000 likes on Facebook it becomes a major
marketing tool for the business.
Social media is a bit different than most other marketing outings because
the key is the participants have to interact and engage with people, so it is not
a once-a-week task in the business agenda. The good thing is that business
owners and team members that spend time communicating with customers
can and do grow sales and visitor counts.
Second, the person involved in marketing should be enthusiastic about
Facebook and social media in general, but do not over-estimate the number
of messages people want to read from a business. Are you interested in, say,
seven updates per day from your local hairdresser? Probably not and your
customer will not appreciate too many posts. So just post once or twice a
day and a bit more during special events and bank holidays, but do not
over-do it.
How can a business drive traffic to a culinary destination via Facebook?
Here are some examples that can be copied by every reader of this topic:
•
Use coupons that are only available to your Facebook friends. This will
increase the number of followers and you can encourage your friends to
come to your store to use the coupon(s);
•
Do a flash sale. Just reduce one popular product in price for
2
or 3 hours
for (say) 70% and announce it once on Facebook only. You will be sur-
prised how many people rush in to your centre to get that deal! One of our
clients did this with great results and major up-selling occurred in store.
•
A pre-season opening, depending on your climate zone, is always appre-
ciated by loyal customers. Invite your Facebook friends to visit your
season sale the evening before it officially opens and give them a 10%
discount on everything. A client of ours did this and out of 2000 Face-
book friends he got over 400 visitors. With just one post!
•
Every member of your team should take at least one photo during his or
her work per week of something attractive, new or inspiring. You can use
these photos to show your customers what is happening at your facility.
The majority of your team will love it, you get your products directly on
Facebook with photos and it is free.
These are just four random tips and you can use them today or tomorrow!
They all drive traffic to your business and that is where a lot of businesses
miss an opportunity: they are using Facebook but they do not have a clue
how to drive traffic to their facility.
Know the facts
•
UK social networking growth is strongest among middle-age and senior
Internet users;
•
Two-thirds of the followers on Facebook are women - your most import-
ant group to target!
