BII Licensee of the Year Award 2022 finalists, Stuart Fox MBII and Julian Crowley MBII, licensees of The White Horse, Dover, have become experts at driving footfall and consumer interest via social media. Here, Stuart shares their secrets of success
In September 2016, we threw caution, cash and not a great deal of sense to the wind and took on our first ever pub. As an Accident & Emergency Charge Nurse and an Onboard Services Officer for P&O, we’d never had a pub, run a business or worked with each other. Hindsight would tell us that working together as a couple would be the hardest part, but that’s an altogether different article for another time!
Britain had just voted for Brexit and forecasters were predicting a recession, so from the outset we knew that social media was going to be a big driving force in our success.
Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts for the pub were created by us and were up-and running even before we’d signed on the dotted line.
Then we immediately launched full scale, promotional attack on the public via our social media pages. Any shyness and humility had to be kicked to the kerbside, as we exploited anything and anyone to make our pub seem like the best place in the world to be.
The public were invited to watch as we scrubbed cellars, found new drinks and hired staff to work with us. Even our resident ghosts were utilised to promote the pub. That, in turn, afforded us TV opportunities – which we turned down. That may sound crazy, but anyone who has ever co-habited with ghosts knows you don’t want to upset them.
On opening, we immediately made stars of our customers on social media. We would ask if we could take photos of them for our social media pages, thus creating a feature out of people just having a drink. It’s very easy to do and a great way to create a feature out of five or six photos: “What a fun bunch you all were tonight, great to have you all in drinking us out of house and home!”
We found that most people were happy to be featured and if occasionally a couple were reluctant, it would be easy to win them round by jokingly saying “I did wonder if you two were having an affair?” End result would be laughter and them agreeing to a photo.
People would start following our pages and our audience widened. Even our draymen appeared, with a photograph of them outside the pub: “Big thanks to Mick & John for bringing all the beers in. You’ve been a thirsty bunch.” The following week, the next draymen would turn up and ask why they’d not been asked and then they’d be featured.
HAVE FUN WITH SOCIAL MEDIA
We didn’t stop there. Unafraid to send ourselves up, we were often the brunt of our own jokes. Whether modelling lost property or donning marigolds to clean the urinals, we caricatured ourselves as a lot of fun, whilst simultaneously knowing exactly what was going on with the business, down to the penny.
The key to success with social media is not taking yourself too seriously: be prepared to let people laugh at you.
We famously served TV personality Keith Lemon without recognising him. As he left with his group, an off-duty police officer leaned over the bar and said to me: “That was Keith Lemon, I think.” A quick check on his social media, made us realise Mr. Lemon had very thoughtfully snap chatted and created an Instagram post from our pub. We were able to laugh at the fact we had missed, him which, in turn, was picked up by the papers: “Pub owners reveal hilariously embarrassing tale of not spotting Keith Lemon during visit.”
KEEP IT LIGHT AND RIGHT
Try to keep your posts light-hearted and double-check your spelling and punctuation. When we (annoyingly) received some incorrectly spelt graffiti on the walls of the men’s toilets, we photographed it and posted it, with a tongue-in-cheek announcement that we had received a Banksy overnight.
Naturally, we tagged Banksy – sparking more debate and laughter.
In 2018, we even won a national marketing award from Ei Pub Partners (now Stonegate) for turning a negative Google review into a marketing initiative.
The reviewer said that he found us “too expensive, more of a restaurant than a pub with poseurs sat at the bar”. A simple screenshot of that review, sent across our social media platforms, asking our wonderful customers to step up and take credit for being one of the poseurs. We even had a sign writer come in and scribe above the bar, Poseurs at the bar.
Our customers came in to pose and be photographed and we created the hashtag #PoseursAtTheBar. The resulting column inches widened our audience and increased demand – with our Ei prize of an all-expenses paid wine tasting trip to Bordeaux, cash lump sum and positive publicity, just an additional bonus.
HASH TAGS
To highlight the fact we are a dog friendly pub, we started featuring #DogOfTheDay. Within weeks, customers started bringing them in to be featured. As with the draymen, the poseurs at the bar and the dog owners, people have a fear of missing out and a desire to belong. Done correctly, your own social media can create itself – and it’s free!
STUART’S TOP TIPS
POST REGULARLY. If you can’t think of anything, then default to a picture of your pub with: “Remember we are open today right through until 11pm so no excuse not to come and see us!” Use Instagram to link to both your Facebook and Twitter pages. This winter, post a photo of your open fire or a tray of fresh veg on Instagram: “Thanks to local independent greengrocer Katie for this wonderful tray of fresh produce. Wherever possible we support local suppliers. Katie’s can be found at…”
USE GREAT REVIEWS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE. Screenshot excellent TripAdvisor reviews and post them. Load up two or three and send out into the cosmos: “Some lovely, lovely reviews have come through from you this week. We are glad you all love our pub as much as we do.”
CHECK YOUR BACKGROUND. You might have created the most stunning cocktail, but if the background is an empty bar, then that is in direct polarity to what you want to achieve. Always have people in the background.
ALWAYS USE OPEN ENDED POSITIVES. “Looking forward to catching you all sometime over this weekend.” You’re seeding the idea that the customer is coming in this weekend.
USE YOUR STAFF TO PROMOTE THE PUB. You can easily post a picture of your staff at work. With a photo of your chef: “Dave is in the kitchen cooking up a storm, you were a hungry bunch last night.” Then add in a reminder of what time you’re serving food and how to book.
TAKE YOUR VIEWERS ON A JOURNEY. It took us 13 months and three weeks to reach number one on TripAdvisor out of 100 plus eateries in the Dover District. Make people excited! “We have made it to the Top 10. Thank you everyone that has visited, eaten with us and reviewed us so favourably”. Do the same when you make it to number nine to seven, then focus on being in the top five.
TURN NEGATIVES INTO A POSITIVE. There will always be a fun flip that you can do.
BE GRACIOUS TO OTHER VENUES AND PROMOTE THEM. “Here we are enjoying a #LandlordNightOff at Tommy’s Wine Bar.”
MAKE UP YOUR OWN HASHTAGS: #PoseursAtTheBar or #DogOfTheDay are an opportunity to post daily with no new strategy.
