Winter is coming and with that comes the season of all things spooky, bonfirey and sparkly. Since lockdown, we’ve observed a worrying drop off in the usage of social media by independent retailers. Pre-lockdown, 40% of indies were active on social media. Post lockdown? That number has fallen to 28%. But as we come into the darker months of the year, that's no excuse to dim the social media lights. In fact, it's the time to shine.
Maybe* is committed to supporting local recovery across the UK. This week we’re off to Basildon where businesses' social media use is in line with the UK average, so you can learns what works on social and apply it to your place.
Maybe* Place Insights allows you to benchmark the social media activity, posts, engagement, sentiment and conversation topics of all businesses within your place. When you know what the local conversation sounds like in any town or place, you can replicate the successful tactics no matter where you are.
Insight: Basildon businesses engage more than Essex on social media
by Amy RountreeHow many businesses in Basildon have social media accounts?
Maybe* Place Insights shows us that 28% of businesses in Basildon, marked in orange, have social media accounts. This is higher than the average across the county of Essex and bang on trend with the national average of 28%.
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How many businesses in Basildon create social media content every day?
Of those 28% of businesses active on social media, 27% of them are active every day. In Essex, this can drop as low as 15%. Getting as many businesses within the Essex area to follow Basildon’s example and stay active on a daily basis will be a crucial way to keeping them connected to customers, especially if they were to face local lockdown restrictions.
How many posts do businesses make and how engaging are they?
Basildon’s businesses create an average of 3,800 pieces of social media content per day which accounts for roughly a third of all of Essex’s content published. Those social posts earn approximately 50,000 engagements per day. That’s 13 per post.
Basildon’s businesses do well to stay consistently active throughout the week, with a small drop off at weekends, but not quite as dramatic a dip as the wider Essex area sees. Engagement in Basildon stays consistent, proving customers are online through the weekend even if businesses are not. Upping weekend activity will increase connection to those customers. .
What is Basildon’s best social media content?
We’ve used the Maybe* Best Post in a Place tool to find Basildon’s best post on Monday, September 28.
Chimes Home and Garden is hitting the Autumn high notes. It’s best post was a contest to win a fire-pit just in time for Bonfire Night. Meanwhile the rest of its Facebook page is already festooned with Christmas trees and winter wonders.
What conversations do Basildon’s businesses create?
Basildon’s content is a wonderful selection box of local conversation tags and industry related terms. Weddings, seasonal style, small businesses, cakes and fashion all feature as well as a few shout outs for national brands as well.
Winter is upon us and there’s a lot to look forward to with Halloween, Bonfire Night and Christmas on the horizon. With that in mind, Basildon and Essex could do with adding a little bit more cheer to their businesses content. It’s far from gloomy but it's not striking the positivity scale as hard as it could.
Key takeaway
Maybe* Place Insights aims to inspire more businesses to take up social media on a daily basis. When one business thrives, others can follow suit by participating and engaging in the local conversation.
Winter will feel different this year, but it’s still coming. Businesses should make an effort to get seasonal and look for ways to inspire customers at home and from a distance, adding a little cheer to warm customers’ hearts.
WATCH THE WEBINAR HIGHLIGHTS: discover more super social from Basildon's independents with the Maybe* team
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