Since its launch last year, all business development managers at the pub company received comprehensive social media training to help licensees get online and build customer loyalty. The course is now being rolled out directly to hundreds of tenants.
Licensees will be charged £25 to attend the one-day workshop, which is subsidised by Greene King and involves participants exploring the online channels that are best for their business, looking at the ways they can increase followers and learning how to promote awareness of their pub.
As well as social media, the training covers website support, database management and events.
Following the course, tenants will receive on-going support from their BDMs, who use Hootsuite to monitor and evaluate activity online.
'Demystifying' social media
Clive Chesser, business unit director for Greene King Pub Partners, said: “Getting online is a must if you run a pub and for some, that presents a real challenge. This course demystifies social media and gives licensees the confidence and practical tools to build a loyal online community which translates into footfall through the door.
“With support from their BDMs and a practical workshop under their belt, our licensees are in a much stronger place to grab with both hands the potential that social media has for their business.”
'Very useful'
Lil Le Grice, who runs the Golden Star in Norwich, said: “Following the course I changed some of the settings on my Facebook account as well as merging a duplicate account which had been linked to my website. I now target posts at specific times for different things as we were advised to by the course leader.
“On the way home from the course I set up a Twitter account for the Golden Star and now use this daily. I find it very useful for engaging with other businesses in the area as well as potential new customers. I had not appreciated the usefulness of Twitter to my business prior to the course so this was really very beneficial to me.”