By Natasha McLeod, Director of Chichester BID
A few years ago I wouldn’t have believed one of our most valuable tools for supporting Chichester’s businesses would be a social media account. But @ThisIsChichester, our BID channels, have become an important and effective part of the work we do. A digital shop window for the whole city, reaching people well beyond our streets.
When people ask how the accounts are doing, I don’t begin with follower numbers. What matters is what our audience does with what we put in front of them: comment, share, save a post or walk into a shop the next day because of something seen the night before. This is backed up by wider research: Phocuswright, the respected travel research outfit, found 57% of travellers use social media in trip planning and 62% have made a travel decision because of content seen. Our presence online shapes whether someone chooses Chichester over somewhere else.
We saw proof of that during our Christmas in Chichester campaign: 279,000 profile visits, over 32,600 people reached and a 115% rise in Instagram interactions, driven by collaborative content and influencer partnerships.
One of the things I feel most strongly about is what this means for our independent businesses. Building a following from scratch, on top of everything else running a small business demands, is hard, often thankless work. @ThisIsChichester exists so that no business has to do it alone. Through the BID, they get professionally produced content, cross-promotion and an audience that’s already interested in what Chichester has to offer.
Our recent “More Than…” campaign shone a light on the people behind our independent businesses, their stories, skill and personality. People don’t just want to know what’s for sale; they want to know who they’re buying from and why it’s worth their time. That’s how someone passing through becomes someone who comes back.
There’s another development I’m genuinely excited about: this autumn, will see a major fibre broadband upgrade across Chichester. Reliable full-fibre is one of the clearest markers of a city’s digital health, helping businesses trade online, take payments and reach new customers. It’s an investment in the city’s wealth as much as its digital wellbeing and it complements everything we’re doing with This Is Chichester.
Every post, every reel, every photograph and business feature we publish adds to something larger: a picture of Chichester as a city worth spending time in, whether you’re here to shop, eat, work or simply explore. With the fibre upgrade arriving this autumn, that picture is only going to get stronger.
That’s why I don’t see This Is Chichester as “just” a social media account. To me, it’s a strategic asset for the BID and for the whole business community, one that raises our visibility, shapes how people decide where to go, gives individual businesses real, tangible exposure and keeps reminding both residents and visitors of everything this city has to offer.