Facebook: friend or foe?

Social networking websites are all the rage. Kelly Smith investigates whether they pose a threat or an opportunity to real communities in pubs

It's Sunday afternoon. Four young friends walk into one of the town's most popular bars, which has recently started offering free wireless internet access. They order some drinks and, without uttering more than a few syllables to one another, take out their laptops and spend the rest of the afternoon socialising on Facebook.

This bemusing, if not worrying, scenario is a classic case of how social networking sites have taken a grip on our leisure time.

But at least these people were in a pub. While dozens of community pubs close each month, millions more internet users are at home, joining websites such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and YouTube — there's even one called Our Virtual Pub.

According to communications watchdog Ofcom, Britons are spending more than five hours a month on these sites, visiting them an average 23 times. Figures perhaps enviable to most licensees. So with cyber communities replacing the tangible world of in-the-flesh socialising, will it render the real pub redundant?

"Ridiculous," blasts Fuller's PR manager Georgina Wald, who believes it's unlikely anyone is going to form well-rounded, lasting relationships with cyber-slaps, pokes and imaginary rounds of drinks.

"It'll be a sad day if the pub is ever replaced by a social networking site. But I don't think it'll ever come to that. People will always want to interact face to face," she says.

"Even the best computer in the world can't provide you with a perfectly-poured pint."

Indeed. But as long as it's cheaper to stay at home with a six-pack, it's not hard to see how social networking sites could lure punters away.

There is, however, an upside. Recognising that many of these internet addicts are organising their social lives through these sites, tech-savvy licensees are fast realising that, rather than a threat, the likes of Facebook provide a targeted and free way of reaching new customers, extending that most effective of advertising tools — word of mouth.

Lessees Julian Brown and Russell Townsend discovered the power of Facebook after a buzzing New Year's Eve at their new bar the Vaults in Birmingham, which lies outside the city's main nightlife hub.

"We were only open a month and we had made no flyers for the night, and from nothing we had about 300 people," says Brown, who reckons it was down to the Vaults' Facebook group. Its page shows details and pictures of the venue plus links to other bars in the area. There is also a discussion board, through which they can glean feedback and "resolve problems without losing business".

Brown says: "People have lists of friends, who have their own lists of friends and so on — you have a huge group of potential customers."

For some operators, social networking sites are a necessity in connecting with their core target market. About half of managed operator Barracuda's Varsity venues are harnessing the marketing potential of Facebook and MySpace.

"I don't think these sites are killing off trade," claims Barracuda PR manager Sarah Calderbank. "If anything they are enhancing the loyalty experience that we work hard to foster."

Andy Nicholson, manager at Varsity in Durham, reckons students use Facebook more than they do their mobile phones, giving the bar a chance to build events around customers' social activities.

"What works for us is the personal side of it. Rather than just driving sales, it's a way of making people feel they belong to something," he says.

Nicholson admits keeping the pub's Facebook page updated is time consuming — but it does enable you to be as proactive as you want.

"For example, someone will post 'it's my 21st birthday in a week's time', so we'll get in touch and offer them something to encourage them to come our way. Or we'll post messages like 'Varsity is looking forward to the football match on Saturday'. That then goes onto everyone's newsfeed (updates of what people have posted). And those people could have 600 more people each viewing their pages," he adds.

Varsity in Southampton has run successful promotions via the site. Manager David Bishop says: "Our Free Food Wednesdays — where we bashed out student dishes at a cheap cost — were a great way of getting new people into the bar. We created an 'event', which sends invites to members of your group or the friends in your profile — it's easy to cut and paste a guest-list from this.

"And recently we've started a movie night. We searched on Facebook for film clubs and societies within Southampton and we were able to target people."

Be wary of becoming too big, though, warns Nicholson. Varsity Durham's popularity exploded and its page was taken off for exceeding a thousand "friends". Companies can set up personal profiles, but are encouraged to utilise the groups section or the business directory — Facebook Pages.

Also, despite the obvious benefits, growing an online network seems something of a double-edged sword — in the sense that it ends up driving more people behind their computer screens (and away from the bar). Not if you offer free wireless internet, though, as Varsity has discovered. If people are going to chat online to their friends, then why not do it at the pub?

There's another potential pitfall. The interactive nature of social networking sites could easily backfire in the form of negative postings. And a photo gallery of inebriated drinkers is the last thing the trade needs.

Nicholson agrees: "It's hard to know what a student is going to write when he comes in at 3am from a night out. But you can report people who post something stupid on there."

The trick is to get in there first, says internet expert Graham Jones. "The way around it is for pubs to create their own content online, their own groups in Facebook, and discussion groups on their own websites. And then put up their own positive comments.

"Pubs are probably one step ahead of other businesses because they are already social networking places. What we're doing online is effectively what we do down the pub.

"In fact, they should be using these sites as market research. Licensees may not know what people say to their friends when they leave the pub, but this way they can monitor what's said and react to it," he says.

Social networking sites have many uses, from advertising and surveys to market research, recruitment and even sourcing entertainment acts.

Enterprise Inns licensees Andy and Sarah Turner have used MySpace to build their live music offer at the White Horse in Highworth, Wiltshire. Sarah says: "It has certainly helped with bands contacting us and has provided a good form of free advertising."

But the best thing about these sites, argues Jones, is surely their ability to make the pub a focal point once again: "The community is no longer centred on the pub, it's becoming more rapidly centred on the internet. So, if pubs can link themselves to the internet, then they can re-establish themselves as the centre of the community in some way."

And that's exactly what the Plough in Bicester, Oxfordshire, has been doing since two regulars suggested setting up a group on Facebook. With more than 70 members, the group has been helping Greene King tenants Steve and Susan Cook keep customers up to date and engaged.

Tickets for events sell fast through the group, while photos of successful nights are shared with the pub's own online community.

"We like to show off when we do something and we like to get everybody involved," says Steve. "We have members from far afield and it's nice to be able to let them know when we've got activities on that they can come up for."

So the message for pubs seems to be: if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Pubs can surf the zeitgeist and embrace the boundless opportunities offered by social networking sites; or offer a haven away from them. Either way, it could be in every licensee's interest to set up a page on Facebook or MySpace, telling users