Full Mix Marketing were asked by the East Anglian Daily Times’ Business Team to comment on national pub chain J D Wetherspoon’s decision to cease all social media.

“Pub chain J D Wetherspoon deleted its social media accounts this month. Chairman Tim West is reported to have said that the company’s pub managers do not believe that closing the accounts will have any effect on the business “whatsoever”. Is this the start of a trend or does social media still have a role to play for businesses?”

Sarah West, Managing Director of Full Mix Marketing, responded: Whilst so many people remain active on social media, it will always have a strong role for business. However, companies are realising it isn’t always easy to turn it into results. Social media platforms, and their use, have changed more than many realise in recent years. It’s a noisy space, so simply posting updates is rarely enough. However, we’re still seeing strong results from the right tactics, particularly for our business-to-business clients. The important factors are choosing the right platforms, creating content customers genuinely want to receive and making sure it’s the best use of resources. J D Wetherspoon may feel they can achieve more from other forms of online and offline marketing. In 2017, J D Wetherspoon deleted their entire customer database to avoid new GDPR legislation. As the data could have been shared with social media platforms to help target customers, the two decisions may be linked.