Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace had no social media and. Studio8 approached them and advised of the many benefits of using social media and created tailored social media strategy to suit their needs. At first their domain names: facebook.com/blenheimpalace, youtube.com/blenheimpalace and twitter.com/blenheimpalace had been ‘domain squatted’ and so we set about getting the domains back into Blenheim Palace’s control.
Our strategy was to engage visitors to the Palace and Gardens and to do this we devised a strategy to include multiple levels of interactivity.
Since implementing their social media strategy, Blenheim Palace has seen a large rise in traffic to their website and Facebook has been one of the highest referrers. In Sept 2010 Facebook traffic accounted for more traffic then google.co.uk alone. All this has been created without ads, and instead through engaging users with exciting content.
In the summer Studio8 and Blenheim Palace worked together to launch a photo competition as part of the strategy to generate interest from visitors to the Palace. Studio8 was able to secure a sponsor for the competition who donated a prize worth £500. The response has been fantastic and is still generating user interactivity today. The final outcome of the competition will also be used to create further social media traffic and help with Blenheim Palace’s online PR strategy.
The competition helped to increase Facebook ‘likes’ and encouraged visitors to the Blenheim Palace website and Blenheim Palace itself. It also provided Blenheim Palace with hundreds of new newsletter signups.
Blenheim Palace’s Facebook page has seen it’s ‘likes’ start to rise and interaction on the Facebook page about news and events is increasing week by week – sending traffic to their main site. Impressions on the site are consistently high as are referrals.
We are constantly adding new content and ideas, such as events, polls, surveys and new features from Facebook as they are introduced, such as ‘check ins’.
Another product created by studio8 was a social web video designed to showcase the Brompton World Championships / Bike Blenheim Palace event held at Blenheim Palace – this received almost as many hits in one week as another video on their site posted 7 months ago. This is due to good content marketing, timing and video optimisation.
“Studio8 Search launched our Social Media channels in the summer of 2010 including YouTube, Twitter and most predominantly Facebook. With online marketing becoming such an important part of any company’s marketing mix, and so many new developments in this area, it’s been fantastic to have Studio8 Search on hand to offer professional and friendly support and advice on which areas will be most relevant to our business objectives. Facebook is now a key traffic driver to our main website ranking in the top 5 sources directing visitors to our ‘Buy Tickets’ page. With Social Media we have found you have to react quickly and Studio 8 Search are always on the end of the phone with practical advice and creative solutions”
Hannah Payne, Marketing and PR Manager for Blenheim Palace
To discuss your own social media marketing strategy contact us now.