Happiness + discomfort. Why I don't love social...

Social media does a pretty emphatic job of telling us to ‘live our best life’ have ‘no regrets’ and that happiness is indeed all around.

This has always been something I’ve struggled with greatly. ‘Cos? It’s BS. 

You see I run a what has become a social media agency but I truly don’t love social media... Not for me the bright lights of Silicon Valley, the Digital Marketer bucket list items of meeting Mark Zuckerberg or other such digital comms heavyweights. The woohoo's and the ra ra's.

In order to run my first Facebook Business account, over 8 years ago, I had to actually open a personal page... and because of my deep level of discomfort with the platform, I was compelled to find comfort with it. To relate to what I was doing. To resonate.

So I set out to research what competitors in town were doing with their pages. And without fail they were posting pretty garish sales driven content. My subject was the stunning and historic Lord Nelson Brewery and I just couldn’t come at running it’s content this way.

So? We started to storytell (or ‘storysell’ if you like). And suddenly, I was in my element.

Tales of its colourful and sometimes sordid history, images of its stunning sandstone facade, details of its Georgian fittings and fixtures, an irreverent ‘Old Lord’ tone of voice and plenty of vivid, smashable and colourful brews. 🍺🍺🍺🙏🏻

And the people loved it. Within 2 years the page had had traffic of over 50,000 (please note I don’t mention likes as I find to this day that likes are not an adequate way to measure a pages engagement) and an always steady business was consumately booming.

Now, I am not saying that Facebook ( and not long after Instagram) was the entire measure of this growth. New ales were released, a consistent EDM rollout was established, the pub turned 175 with a knees up shindig, its position as an elder in the Aussie Craft / Indie beer community was acknowledged with several gongs and Gourmet Traveller Wine awarded it Best Pub Restaurant wine list, 2 years running. 

But I am saying that digital marketing played an incredibly powerful part in ensuring it was top of mind with its people through consistent and engaging brand storytelling - reminding them that they could visit, taste, endorse and dine in a way they could engage with.

And the rest? Well it’s history.

Always learning,

x Jess