Social media can be a Twitter pill to swallow

One of the most fascinating aspects about the information revolution we are currently living through is the need to figure out new forms of communications etiquette.

When I was at school we had lessons on the correct way to write a letter — one format for business, one for personal. We knew what to say when we answered the phone. And that was communication just about covered.

We had centuries to figure out what the done thing was with letters. But now, in the space of 20 years, we’ve been introduced to mobile telephony, texting, email and social media.

When emails first arrived, some people preferred typing in CAPS. Soon, however, we collectively decided that this was the email equivalent of shouting — and discouraged it. Within a year or two of starting 2 txt we lrned how 2 spk a nu lingo — LOL!

And we’re still negotiating when it’s rude to text or take a mobile phone call in public.

Each new channel of communication is adopted more quickly than the last, and that means the etiquette problems start to pile up — we have to learn how to use something new when we’re still figuring out whether it’s OK to flirt with, or dump someone, via that last gadget we’ve only just figured out how to use.

Everyone is talking about social media now. Only a few weeks ago, Michael Kheng used The Guv’nor slot to extol its virtues. He was right to do so. Social media can be a boon to pubs, and its enthusiastic use was one of the key recommendations we made in last year’s Cask Report.​

A Facebook page allows you to create a virtual community of regulars, a simple homepage that is so much more relevant to pubs than an old-fashioned website because it is updated daily and consists not just of the owner broadcasting, but of conversations between staff and punters, and among punters themselves. Done well, it can recreate the pub in cyberspace, encouraging people to visit the real-world place more often.

Twitter, meanwhile, is a broader conversation that allows you to test out ideas, advertise specials, ask for feedback, promote events, swap ideas and develop relationships with peers, customers, colleagues and suppliers.

It’s not difficult to use well — but it does require a bit of common sense.

Even huge brands misunderstand social media, using it as another broadcast mechanism rather than a place for genuine conversations — missing the point and the potential — and often disappointing their most loyal customers by speaking at them on Facebook rather than with them.

Even if you don’t have a big budget, you can do something similar. Once you’re friends with someone on Facebook, you can post a message on their wall — actually put something on their site, not just your own. You can tag them in pictures. You can create a group, and ask them to join — or even make them members without asking.

All these features were originally designed to facilitate contact among friends. But you can now use them as free advertising — post an ad for your services on someone else’s wall, so it reaches all their friends. ‘Tag’ them in a picture so they get an email alerting them to it, when the picture is not of them at all, but an ad you’ve made them look at by embedding their name in it. Create a fan group, and simply add all your friends to it, so they receive regular messages from you whenever you or anyone else updates the group.

These are all great ways of spreading awareness of social media, and I’ve experienced all of them in recent weeks from people in this industry. There’s just one problem — each one of them is incredibly rude.

It comes back to etiquette. Facebook is a social medium — the clue is in the name. Brands, retailers, companies and individuals can all share the same space if they each behave in an appropriate manner. If someone were to interrupt a party or laid-back pub conversation and start making a concerted sales pitch to everyone, they would be greeted with language unfit for this publication.

So please — like everyone else is saying, do use social media. Increasingly, no successful pub can afford to do without it. But recognise the etiquette. Talk to people like you’d talk to them across the bar — not as if you’re auditioning to be a used-car salesman.