Pubs embracing social media to become heart of the community
Landlords are beginning to wake up to the power of social media to bring in the crowds, according to a new survey by Barclays, but many still struggle to find time to get the best from their social networks.
Impressively, for around one in every ten hospitality sector businesses, social media contributes up to 50 per cent of all sales, with 58 per cent predicting the channel’s importance will grow in the next few years.
As Barclays’ head of hospitality and leisure, Mike Saul, explains, social media, “Not only influences and directly generates sales, but provides a personal link with consumers, building loyalty and driving repeat footfall.”
Unfortunately though, 44 per cent of venue owners admit they dedicate little time to Facebook or Twitter. Saul worries that these proprietors could be missing out on valuable custom, warning, “Just having a presence on social media is not enough.”
For landlords with little time on their hands, the obvious solution is to create a way for pub-goers to generate a social media community for a venue themselves, and digital jukeboxes provide a perfect opportunity for landlords to achieve this.
With the recently launched VenueHub model and its inbuilt new LastFm app, customers access their own most played and ‘favourited’ tracks they have been playing at home or whilst mobile. Using LastFM on the VHub customers can easily find and play their favourite tracks and then broadcast these plays via the site’s own Last.fm account.
The VenueHub’s newest DanceMe feature takes this social aspect a step further, inviting pub-goers to create a hilarious personalised music video. The app merges a snapshot of the customer’s face with an animation of comedy characters performing a dance routine, which can then be shared via Facebook or Twitter, directly from the jukebox.
To learn more about how the latest digital jukeboxes enable landlords to gain extra exposure for their pub, without having to spend precious hours away from the bar, contact the Soundnet team.
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