Case study: John Sinclair, Craigie’s Farm, South Queensferry, Edinburgh

Growing soft fruit and vegetables, John supplies his own farm shop, café and delicatessen, which also sells meats and other products from farms in and around Edinburgh.

Primary tool

For John, Facebook is now his primary marketing tool, and he has used it to develop an 800-strong community of customers, keeping them informed of what’s happening on the farm and enticing them to visit the café and deli.

“We have probably cut down on our paid-for advertising by around 90 per cent since we started using it [Facebook],” he says. “Over Christmas we still put in adverts in newspapers, but on the whole we don’t use traditional advertising now we have this.

“Newspapers don’t have the same impact, so your adverts aren’t speaking specifically to your customers.”

His first foray into social media came through Twitter, but around a year ago, John switched to Facebook, which he says gave him more scope to share his business as he can post events, pictures and videos on the site for his ‘fans’ to see.

“We do get a lot of people coming into the shop because we are on Facebook and on the web,” he says.

“If we think we are going to be quiet, we put a social media offer up on Facebook, so things like a free scone with every cup of tea, or free upgrade on your breakfast, and we get people coming in on the back of that.

“When we do something like that, we get half a dozen to a dozen people coming in as a result, and that is excellent marketing for us.”

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