Campaign Brief

Saving a business through blogs and social media

Campaign Life: June 2009 - December 2009 (initially)

Aim: Show how social meida tools can be used to build better relationships with customers, diversify their customer base and make a direct difference to a company's bottom line.

Background and concept
Based on a concept and idea from the Birmingham blogging community that social media can help to build better relationship with customers and make a direct difference to a company's bottom line.
The idea focuses on how a local cafe using social media tools and particularly blogging can help to generate repeat business converting random customers to regular ones. In so doing it can create a unique community in the cafe within the context of the wider community of the area.
The Digital Business campaign aims to put this concept to the test. Cafe Licious is the chosen cafe in Birmingham to take on a digital journey supported by technology and use this as an exemplar to other small businesses.

Rationale

• A real Birmingham business with real stories to demonstrate how digital technology tools and social media can help beat the economic downturn.
• Encourage more businesses to make full use of digital technology tools and see social media as a part of their wider strategy to building customer relationships.
• Creates a channel and focus to engage with other businesses and stakeholders to put 'digital' into context of everyday business life. Particularly targeting those businesses that find digital still 'out of reach' from where they are in their digital life cycle.
• Currently limited leadership and support for business around social media use.
• Attractive concept to the media to help promote and extend coverage and reach; allows for involvement of commercial partners.
• Adoption of social media by businesses is still in the early stages and can be translated to all kinds of businesses with wide appeal.

Expected outcomes

• Businesses will understand the benefits of using digital technologies and social media, and have a better idea as to how it could fit in with their own business.
• Know what simple steps they can take to get started and where to seek further support and advice.
• Recognise the need to evaluate what they do to ensure a digital mindset and approach within their own business scenerio.