In our 1st round of all things Altrincham we looked at the Biggest Altrincham Stories of 2014 and what was shared by the general public across Facebook and Twitter
This week we look at what were our Social Media Highlights of 2014 for Altrincham
If you haven’t read our How Often Does Your Town Tweet blog last year you’ll not know of how great Altrincham is in terms of a supportive network of businesses and residents who will amplify the positives and tweet local
In reverse order here are our Top 5 Social Media Highlights in Altrincham for 2014
#VEGOUTALTRINCHAM – THE WEEK ALTRINCHAM WENT VEGETARIAN
If you follow us on Twitter you probably know that I’m a committed vegetarian of 18 years … and Altrincham is the home of the vegetarian society
When it came to National Vegetarian Week we teamed up with Altrincham Town Centre Partnership to launch the #vegoutaltrincham foodie competition to highlight the range of vegetarian options in Altrincham
The event itself took place in early may (ahead of the week itself in order to meet traditional press deadlines) and judges includes representatives of the Vegetarian Society, the Civic Society, event organiser Jacinta Dawn as well as ourselves and ATCP
Throughout 2 judging days including a range of daytime and evening eateries in which we judged on strict criteria
If Social Media Marketing was one of the aims to highlight the various options then the results certainly worked – the pre-publicity lead up to the event reached 16,000+ twitter account for the #vegoutaltrincham hashtag whilst the night of judging reached over 80,000 accounts
KEY TAKEAWAY: Great positive things can come via collaboration
GUMMY WORM INSTAGRAM
Gummy Worm dabbled with Twitter and Facebook with little success An audience was there for them on those platforms in terms of parents of children who loved vintage sweets, but like any type of marketing it takes hard work and sometimes
when you don’t get that instant reaction or feedback it’s easy to give up However Instagram has proved a winning formula for them recently going straight for the teenagers themselves and appealing to the 5 minutes of fame nature of
youth taking regular photos of their customers
At the time we said 280 Instagram followers and get around 30-40 likes on each photo which makes for a 12% engagement rate – something many business could only wish for on Facebook / Twitter
Now they have 1700+ instagram followers and most posts generate over 130+ likes
KEY TAKEAWAY: Experiment with different Social Media platforms until you find the one that works for you
Lounge Ceol is sadly no longer with us – a huge success at weekends like many public houses they became the victim of a poor midweek nighttime economy in Altrincham and extortionate brewery costs
But their Ice Bucket Challenge was one of the Social Media Highlights in 2014 in Altrincham
The Ice Bucket Challenge was everywhere – personal facebook, business facebook, twitter, youtube – and the success for the charities involved was massive
Standing out was hard though as the many back garden shots testified – however we think Lounge Ceol did it with a fiddler, irish dancing and a huge crowd watching on one of the main streets in Altrincham
It was on brand – it raised the issues and raised £££s for charity
Watch it here – https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1543286222568089&set=vb.1412533672310012&type=2&theater
KEY TAKEAWAY: When you get involved in Trending subjects – you need to keep it on brand and do more than the average
ESSENCE WORLD CUP CAMPAIGN
Essence do one thing really well on Social Media and in person – they hero their customers!!!
As they have a loyal following that visit each week, they regularly post photos of their customers on Facebook – but it was one moment that really stood out this year on Essence’s social media
Many of Essence’s regulars are sports fans – be it football, cricket or boxing – and so is the restaurant owner Amin – so when the World Cup came it was a perfect fit for the restaurant
First of all they crowd sourced opinions as to whether they should get TVs in the restaurant to show the World Cup and the majority opinion was they whilst many loved football they would likely be getting Takeaway from Essence on the
days of the matches and that those eating in the restaurant on those days may want to escape the football
So to tie in with each of the major matches – they did one very simple thing – post a photo of Amin with the score predictions. It chimed with the audience and the engagement in each post was the highest seen for the year
It was the photo above when England lost a key match and there was only 12.5% chance of them getting through to the next round that really really did it for people – real time marketing at it’s best
KEY TAKEAWAY: Think of what is the cross-section between your interests and your customers interests … and then talk about them!
ALTRINCHAM FC PROMOTION
This moment stood out for one massive reason – it just brought the whole town together and the atmosphere at the ground was euphoric
The moment up to potential promotion was being teased with the hashtag #altypromopush – but it wasn’t neccesarilly one tweeter or account who made this our number 1 social media moment of 2014
It was what followed the moment that winning goal came in – sheer joy from hardcore fans who go every week, the tweets from visitors who just wanted to be there in the moment and the well wishing from local supportive business
If you could bottle that positive energy on the day Altrincham got promoted, the world of social media would be a much better place
KEY TAKEAWAY: Positive tweets will always over-ride any negative tweets
*** WHAT WERE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS OF 2014? LET US KNOW BELOW ***