In the days of roaring Brit Pop and outrageous Union Jack dress, London ruled the waves of contemporary cool. Flats were cheap, arts jobs were abundant, and Notting Hill didn’t represent aspirational living.
However, if you listen closely, there is discontent amongst Londoners and the sprawling masses of the UK. The London Bubble, as its so often reputed, is growing and people are looking for new alternatives to long commutes and outrageous housing prices. As a result, new ‘It’ cities are gaining momentum and are becoming serious contenders to London’s economic dominance. Enter Manchester, with its incredible urban history and soaring cultural scene.
If you want to understand how proud Mancunians are of their past, then you don’t have to look further than the fantastic Time Machine app. Banish your thoughts of H.G Wells and Morlocks; The Time Machine app really is something special. The first of its kind, the app combines 100 years of archive film footage with the latest GPS technology to create a historic walking-tour of Manchester city centre. The ingenuity of The Time Machine is that it utilises GPS locator technology with a virtual compass, so that users can directly compare historic events with Manchester’s current urban geography. With this in mind, then, it’s not surprising that Manchester has utilised the best of modern technology to promote its businesses and urban events.
If you live and/or work in Manchester, then there are a variety of ways that you can advertise your brand. However, different social media tools can be useful for different sectors. If you’re employed with an interior design company, then Pinterest is a fantastic resource for showcasing your work. Alternatively, if your passion is digital media, then Twitter is your best friend; it’s quick, efficient, and has the potential for reaching a wide range of audiences.
So, if you’re living and working in Manchester, here are the media tools you need to know:
Many would happily concede that Twitter doesn’t seem like an imaginative addition to a list of social media tools which are useful for businesses. Bear with us, though.
In the fast-paced and ever-changing world of digital marketing, Twitter has unique advantages. The limitation on post size means that companies are forced to be precise, informative, and develop their own neatly-formed sound bites. Companies are able to create lists and contact members from their own industry directly. Their Twitter followers can then quickly access a company’s tweets and can share them with their friends (the ultimate goal in online marketing). Businesses can also publicise their customer’s compliments and they can respond directly to complaints.
On a more substantial level, however, Twitter can be incredibly useful for digital marketing and PR companies. When businesses are dishing out lots of content, it’s not enough to just upload them and hope that people will see it. Company Twitter accounts, which can be verified by Twitter, can help to promote content and upcoming events. Although this effort has its obvious benefits, sometimes it’s still not enough. Some companies need to advertise their advertisements. In the case of Twitter, it’s proved extremely profitable for corporations to encourage their employees to retweet content from their own accounts. This may seem mercenary but consider this: if you have a company with 50 employees, chances are they will have more combined Twitter followers than the company itself.
Twitter and employee Twitter accounts, therefore, hold massive potential for companies to reach a variety of their customers and beyond. In terms of PR and Marketing, however, Twitter is only half the battle. Ask any director worth their salt and they’ll tell you that Twitter only works in conjunction with a wider marketing strategy. It’s quick, instantaneous, but also easily forgotten has little in the way of lasting impact. In order to add value to your business, Twitter needs some added support.
If you are a business with a strong visual product, then social media websites like Pinterest can be a wonderful resource. Launched in 2010, Pinterest has been incredibly useful for businesses and entrepreneurs alike who wish to advertise their products on a platform with complete creative control. The website itself acts as a digital pin board where people can share images and upload their designs.
While Pinterest has attracted over 70m users, it has been especially embraced in Manchester in a variety of boutique shops and up and coming interior design companies.
93ft Design, an interior decorating company based in Spinningfields, has taken full advantage of Pinterest’s promotional potential to showcase their portfolio. Although Pinterest helps 93ft Design to advertise their various clients, it’s also useful for informing current and future customers about the style of their design. Their pin board has been professionalised with official photography and artistic continuity throughout the page.
For a company with a distinctive style, Pinterest is a fantastic resource. It performs the crucial task of attaching a visual style with the brand name itself; a common challenge in the saturated and often anonymous industry of design.
This need for creative businesses to align their brand name with their product has been recently recognised by Pinterest. The social media site has launched a specialised type of account which caters specifically for businesses. Amongst the features, Pinterest allows its business users to actively promote their brand while creating bespoke pin boards. Pinterest also offers businesses the choice of verifying the validity of their user, proving that their pinboard is the real deal. In doing so, businesses can add weightiness to their ‘official’ Pinterest page. Then, finally, and perhaps most importantly, Pinterest allows businesses to monitor their traffic by using track-back links. This means that Pinterest can act as a vital tool for companies to understand their customer and what pages are particularly popular.
Unlike private users, the goal of the business account is to generate as much traffic as possible. This has obvious benefits for the company itself but is great for Pinterest too.
While Twitter and Pinterest can be great for company promotion, LinkedIn offers something different. If you are in the public sector, or indeed any industry that requires networking (i.e. 99.99%), then LinkedIn is a wonderful resource.
LinkedIn facilitates B2B networking by allowing businesses to connect with third party resources, such as suppliers and manufacturers. The business networking site has gained such professional weightiness that companies can research clients and colleagues through their account details. If you are a business which uses B2C networking, then LinkedIn allows you to build your brand reputation through continuous promotion and customer interaction.
More specifically, recruitment agencies find sites such as LinkedIn incredibly useful. For a monthly fee, businesses have the option of advertising job vacancies on their page. LinkedIn also makes it easier for companies to head-hunt and find new employees. A candidate’s employment and educational history are publicly available and easy to access. Furthermore, potential candidates are easy to contact because there is no third party involvement.
More than just being a tool for business networking, LinkedIn has a function which can allow individuals to promote their blog or website on their social media page. For extra advertising, businesses also have the option of adding a recommendation feature to their content which allows users to share products and information.
You can’t talk about social media websites without discussing Facebook. The world’s most famous social networking site has great business potential and is far more useful than its saturation of engagement announcements and baby pictures would suggest. Facebook is especially beneficial for product-based companies, such as automotive and home improvement businesses.
The reason for this is that Facebook combines content distribution with the ability to upload visuals. This is a powerful combination which allows businesses to display their products and give a detailed summation. As a result, the marketing strategy of businesses can take little time and be cost effective. Although many of the benefits of Facebook are similar to other social networking sites, Facebook has some unique advantages.
If you are a business with a strong online presence, Facebook can assess your profile data to give you a complete picture of your visitor demographics (for a fee, of course). This can allow businesses to better understand their clients’ needs and deliver target advertising. In addition to this, Facebook also provides a service where they can direct traffic to your official website. This gives businesses extra traffic and overall encourages users to buy more. By finding out information about a business on Facebook and having the incentive to visit your website, a customer has made a connection to your brand before purchase.
Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of Facebook, moreover, is its free advertising for businesses. The ‘check-in’ feature allows users to update their current location wherever they are in the world, including when they visit a business. The popularity of this feature has encouraged Facebook to create Facebook Places; a compilation of the most-visited places in a given location. Businesses have taken advantage of this free advertising by offering promotional deals in conjunction with Facebook Places.
Finally, the power of Instagram has been extremely beneficial for businesses that have a big brand name. Companies like Topshop and Nike have taken advantage of Instagram’s marketing potential to promote new products and business updates. In the world of fashion, for example, Instagram is a great resource for companies to upload images of gorgeous models wearing the latest clothes.
Like other social media websites, Instagram has a mammoth following with over 150m users. Its benefits are obvious: it’s the perfect example of visual marketing by allowing businesses to promote their products. Instagram also encourages high levels of customer engagement. People can comment and share a business’ product and interact directly with members of staff.
Although Instagram is traditionally used for businesses with a strong visual product, it can also encourage companies to get creative. Even if you don’t sell a tangible, physical product, such as in Media, Instagram can still be useful. You can upload images of your happy staff and the special events you have organised. The social media website can succeed in bringing personality to your otherwise faceless company. That’s not meant to be cruel; it just means that businesses need to use their imagination and utilise every resource at their disposal.
Why Social Media Matters for Businesses in Manchester
Manchester isn’t just an up and coming city, Manchester is here to stay. As new companies spring up every day, they compete to advertise their business on a variety of social network platforms. We’ve already seen the variety of media tools available at their disposal. However, it’s important that businesses find themselves a public platform which suits their individual needs. It’s no use having an Instagram account if you don’t have a strong, visual product. Equally, businesses shouldn’t rush to create a Twitter account if they won’t update it regularly and get their customers involved. Social Media may be a fantastic resource, but it has to be used well.
Depending on your business, there are different social media platforms which can be tailored to your specific requirements. Whether you sell interior design, tasty treats, or your business is digital marketing, you have to do your research. Ask yourself how you want to promote your company and what type of information your customers need. Would they benefit from long-form content or quick, instantaneous updates? Most likely they’ll need both.
It goes without saying that the prevalence of social media isn’t unique to Manchester. However, the ingenuity of Mancunian businesses to utilise this technology is a testament to the city’s changing status as a cultural and economic hub. Manchester is evolving, and it certainly isn’t afraid to show it off.
What do you think? Let us know by tweeting us at @theukseo.