Getting going with social media is on most business to-do lists. But with so many platforms to choose from, how do you pick the right ones for your audience? And how do you make your chosen channels work well for you?
Wriggle is a mobile app that offers immediate dining and event discounts at independent eateries around Bristol and London. Wriggle’s community engagement manager Daniel Waller explains how social media has helped them launch and develop the business.
Social media is Wriggle’s number one marketing tool
“Wriggle wouldn’t be here now without social media. As a startup, it would be out of the question to invest a large sum of money for a marketing campaign to even get close to the number of people who have downloaded our app.”
“Wriggle wouldn’t be here now without social media.”
“We use a mix of social platforms. Twitter has been the best platform for us and it’s certainly helped us get thousands of downloads. Pinterest and Instagram have also been extremely useful.”
What Wriggle talks about on social media
“Our mission here at Wriggle is ‘Love local’. There’s more to life than high street chains, so we try to promote local and independent places that we think are interesting and unique. We don’t use Twitter to tout our offers – we want to show we’ve got a voice in the city and show people that we care about the places we’re promoting on the app. We want to show people what’s on and be taste-leaders.”
“We tweet about 3 of our own offers a day, and 18 or so tweets that share different things.”
“Our social channels don’t just promote Wriggle places – since we want to create additional value with our feeds by making them engaging and insightful. On Twitter we tweet about 3 of our own offers a day, and 18 or so tweets that share different things. These can be anything from coffee shops or bars we’re visiting, to promoting food bloggers that we like, or other content we know our audience will enjoy – music or exhibitions for instance.”
Twitter over Facebook
“You can have great conversations on Twitter and it’s much easier to have a human presence than Facebook. We find we can speak directly to people which is a brilliant way of hitting the people in Bristol and London who really appreciate the places we work with and the causes we support.
For us, Facebook has never really been the best tool to communicate. We tried to use it various ways but found it didn’t achieve the best results, especially in terms of social reach. We still drive high quality posts through Facebook such as articles and blogs we write, but these receive greater engagement on Twitter. Often we use Facebook for paid advertising because it’s great for targeting people for specific Wriggle deals.”
Pinterest and Instagram for visual fans
“Pinterest is a great way for Wriggle to engage with a visual audience. We connect with people who have a love of food and drink as well as individuals from Bristol by creating folders and repinning images from different boards.
Lately we’ve been finding Instagram an incredibly positive experience, utilising hashtags such as #fireworks150 or #igersbristol to interact specifically with likeminded individuals and trending events.”
“There’s been an element of trial and error across our social media. Finding a tone of voice that works for Wriggle took a few months. Now the whole team can talk ‘Wriggle’ so when we tweet it sounds authentic, especially from the much newer London twitter account. You have to work at that, try things out, experiment. The tone evolves, but it has to be practised and polished. Soon, this becomes very natural.”
Learning from Wriggle
Daniel says: “The key thing to remember on Twitter, or on any other social network, is to be human. People don’t want to feel like they’re just communicating with a business – they want a unique, interactive and engaging social experience. Be a good person and you won’t go far wrong.”
Wriggle gets its social media mix and content just right. Their engaging approach is spreading the word, building a network of people who love what they do and motivating people to download the app.
Valuable Content Award for Wriggle
We’d like to present Dan and Wriggle with our latest Valuable Content Award. Your badge is in the post.
Thanks for the inspiring story. Keep those fabulous social posts coming.
And see you on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest….
Update March 2016 – lovely post on Wriggle’s values and mission here: A little app with a big mission
