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Iceni Magazine | March 26, 2024

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Iceni talks social media to… Jason Borthwick

Jason Borthwick. Photo credit: Andy Davison

Jason Borthwick. Photo credit: Andy Davison

Development Partner at Dalegate Market.

What does your role within Dalegate Market as a Development Partner involve? The job is pretty varied, but the core is about making sure people know Dalegate Market exists and getting them to visit the site. That includes giving reasons for people to stop at the site, promoting the site around the web, organising events and generally getting the site known. 

Can you give us a brief run down on how you use social media to interact with potential clients and the general public? We use social media for a whole range of uses within our business. However primarily we use it to let people know what’s happening with all of our different shops and cafe, and also to keep them up to date with events and activities. Maybe a shop has a sale on, there’s a live music event at the cafe, or a new stall is confirmed for the Christmas Market. We hardly ever try to sell anything through social media, we just want people to know what’s happening and hopefully that leads them to want to visit and see for themselves.

How do you use social media as a tool for your existing clients? We’re a destination for most of our customers, so most actively have to travel here or visit when they are in the area. They like to know what is going on, so they know whether to return and visit.

Which social media platforms do you use and and why? i.e Hootsuite, TweetDeck, etc? Hootsuite to manage everything, although like all platforms there are some things which are easier to do on the desktop than using the app, and vice versa.

There are quite a few networking hours on Twitter, which is your favourite and why? I like #NorfolkHour as I manage to chat with quite a few people. I still haven’t found the best app to use to follow this, normally finding it better to do this online. I’ve also tried #WestNorfolkHour and #CraftHour for particular things, but finding the time to go on regularly proves to be more difficult than it should.

What is your favourite social media campaign you have managed? My favourite is Deepdale Christmas Market, as we have over 100 reasons to visit and its lovely seeing different reasons being reposted in different directions.

Which social media experts and/or influencers do you follow? Not many. I tend to watch what is happening, particularly from my colleagues in similar industries, and hopefully emulate the good stuff and try not to fall into the pits that many do. There’s no definitive answers with social media, as its an art that is very much in its infancy and so lots of people have lots of different views. Also things vary massively depending on the customers following you.

What kinds of skills/qualities do you think you need to possess to be a Development Partner? You have to try to look into the future, and try and see the bigger picture. Neither are easy and you certainly can’t always get it right, but you have to try. You also have to try and move all the relevant parties in the same direction.

What are your competitors doing on social media? Kind of depends on who you class as our competitors, so many variations of what we do. Because of that, we watch a wide range of organisations. Some are great at social media, others are less so.

And finally, what one piece of advice can you give to someone starting out into the world of social media? Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, but never get into arguments with customers or others on social media.

To find out more information about Dalegate Market visit: www.dalegatemarket.co.uk

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