Social Media Management in Brighton and Hove

A Brighton and Hove account is read by people who arrive at very different moments: a day visitor stepping off the train, a first year student in the second week of term, a founder comparing studios, a neighbour in Hove who only wants to know whether you are open. This guide to social media management Brighton and Hove businesses can use is for owners and managers who trade here and want one account that serves all of them without turning into a noticeboard.

We are Talha Aslan and team, and all our work for the city runs online. Each section below therefore assumes that you, or a photographer you choose, handle the filming while we plan, write, reply and report. Every section ends with a check you can use whether or not you ever hire us, because social media management Brighton and Hove projects are won on these decisions long before they are won on a posting schedule.

01Who Looks at a Brighton and Hove Account

Name the groups first, because each asks a different question and the answer has to be visible within seconds. Research for Visit Brighton counts 10,508,000 day trips and 1,668,000 staying trips in 2024, so most of the people who meet your account are deciding on the day. Add the University of Sussex with 19,261 students and the University of Brighton with 17,403 (both for 2024 to 2025), and you have a second audience that arrives together each autumn.

• Day visitors: they want today's hours, the walk from the station or the seafront and one reason to choose you over the next door.
• Students and language learners: they save places, ask friends and need plain English and a clear welcome.
• Buyers in the creative technology cluster: they read the team before the case study.
• Residents: they return, and they notice when your hours on the profile differ from the door.

Rank these groups by the income each brings, and let the ranking decide the first three posts you plan.

02Choosing Platforms and Leaving Some Out

Good social media management Brighton and Hove owners can sustain starts small. Choose two or three platforms where your ranked groups already spend time, and add another only when the first ones run smoothly. An account on six platforms that answers on none of them looks careless to a visitor who is standing outside your door.

• Instagram: the main shop window for cafes, stays, studios and shops; profile, highlights and link hold hours, directions and booking.
• TikTok: useful for discovery among students and younger visitors, where a short clip of a counter, a room or a person at work travels further than a still photo.
• LinkedIn: the right place for agencies, software firms and suppliers who sell to other businesses, with named people as the voice.
• Facebook: still useful for local groups and events, particularly for community venues and older neighbours.
• Google Business Profile posts: they reach people who search the map rather than scroll a feed.

Write one sentence for each chosen platform that says what it is for. If a sentence will not come, leave that platform for later.

03A Calendar Built on Two Timetables

The calendar for social media management Brighton and Hove accounts rests on two timetables that rarely line up: the academic year and the visitor year. Students and language learners follow terms; day visitors follow weather, weekends and school holidays. Brighton Festival runs for three weeks every May and gives the visitor timetable one fixed anchor that you can plan around.

Build the calendar in this order:

1. Mark the term starts and ends, the welcome weeks and the quiet weeks in between.
2. Mark the festival weeks and the school holidays on the same sheet.
3. Place your own dates on top: menu changes, new classes, seasonal hours, a refit.
4. Choose one theme for each fortnight so the account never has to invent a reason to post.
5. Leave two empty slots a month for things that happen on the day, such as a delivery of something new.

Welcome content works well a few weeks before students arrive, not on the day they land.

04Filming When the Team Is Online

Because nobody from our side is standing on your pavement, we shrink the filming until it fits a single visit by you or by a photographer you hire. A shot list does the work that a crew would otherwise do, and it is written for your premises, not for a generic shop.

• The approach: the walk from the station or the seafront, filmed once in daylight and once at the hour you are busiest.
• The doorway and the counter: the details that confirm to a stranger that this is the right place.
• The people: the owner, the barista, the tutor or the developer saying one plain sentence about what they do.
• The product in use: hands, steam, a keyboard, a stretch, a finished room.

We turn that material into captions, story templates and a draft calendar, and nothing is published before you approve it. If you hire a photographer, we write the brief: the shots needed, the formats, the rule that no customer appears without permission and the deadline for the files.

05Comments, Messages and the Handoff to a Call

In social media management Brighton and Hove customers notice the reply routine before they notice the captions, because a visitor who asks a question is usually minutes from a decision. Agree who answers, in which hours and with which words, then write it down once so that it survives a busy weekend.

Sort every incoming message into one of four kinds and attach an action to each:

• Practical question: answer with hours, directions or availability and a link, and save the answer as a template.
• Booking or enquiry: move it to the phone, the form or a WhatsApp line you use for business, and confirm the booking there.
• Compliment or tag: thank the person, and ask before you repost anything.
• Complaint: answer calmly in public, offer a private route, and tell the owner the same day.

Our team can draft replies and handle the routine ones in working hours. Anything involving money, safety or a dispute stays with you.

06Google Profiles and Reviews Across Two Towns

Give every premises its own Google Business Profile, and keep the name exactly as it appears on your sign, without added keywords; Google's guidelines ask for the real world name. Customers search for Brighton or for Hove by name, so each location needs correct hours, a category that matches what you do and photos that look like the door people will find.

Profile posts suit short notices that go stale: a seasonal menu, an extended festival opening, a class that moved, a bank holiday closure. Reviews are a separate discipline:

• Ask every customer in the same polite way, at the moment they are most satisfied, and never only the happy ones.
• Reply to each review within a few days, and keep complaints factual and short.
• Never write, buy or filter reviews, and never offer a reward without saying so. Since April 2025 UK law has banned fake reviews and hidden incentives for reviews, and the CMA publishes guidance for businesses.

Check the profile against the door once a month, because a closed sign on a profile that says open is the review you do not want.

07English, Turkish or German: Choosing Per Post

English should carry the account, because it reaches residents, students and visitors together. Students and language learners read English as a second language, so short sentences and plain words serve them better than idiom. Keep one language per post and review every translation before it goes out.

The 2021 Census counted 891 of the city's 277,106 usual residents as born in Turkey, so Turkish captions make sense only when your customers are that circle, for instance a shop, a service or a place of work that the community already knows. German helps if you welcome guests from Germany, Austria or Switzerland, or if you are a company from those countries planning to trade in the city.

• Default: English for every post, story and reply.
• Add Turkish: in stories and replies for customers who write in it, not in every caption.
• Add German: in a highlight or a pinned post that explains how to find you from the station.

Decide this once, write it in the reply guide and stop debating it post by post.

08Sector Examples From the City

Each sector in the city needs a different first move, and strong accounts copy the habits of their audience rather than the habits of other accounts. Six examples show the range, and the first four link to a sector page with more detail.

• Coffee and bakery counters: a coffee roastery gains from the morning routine filmed in the same place every week, so regulars recognise it and visitors can find it.
• Language schools: a course centre publishes the first week in advance and answers the arrival questions once, in a highlight.
• Day tours and stays: a day tour business leads with the meeting point, the duration and the weather plan.
• Studios and software firms: a startup shows people at work, because buyers choose a team before they read a case study.
• Guest houses and small hotels: show the room at the hour guests arrive, the breakfast table and the route from the station with a bag in hand.
• Salons and studios for residents: introduce the team, explain each service in plain words and make the booking step the same on every platform.

The same test applies to all six: would a stranger who has never heard of you know, after ten seconds on the profile, where you are, when you open and what to do next? If the answer is no, fix that before adding any new content. A sector that serves the community and the visitor at once, such as a cafe, needs both answers on the same screen.

Write down the one question your own audience asks most often and make the next post answer it.

09Collaborating With Creators and Labelling Ads

Work with local creators only when you can describe the audience they bring in one sentence, and label every paid or gifted post. The ASA and CAP guidance for influencers and the CMA's guidance on endorsements ask for a clear marker, such as Ad, whenever a creator is paid or receives a free product or service. A marker that is hidden among hashtags does not count.

1. Write a brief that states what is allowed to be said, what is not, and where the label goes.
2. Agree who owns the footage and where else you may use it.
3. Ask the creator to show the draft before it goes live.
4. Check the label, the claims and the music on the draft.
5. Keep the agreement and the final post together in one folder.

The creator relationship itself is its own discipline under influencer marketing. We prepare the brief and check the labelling on the account side.

10Consent, Children and Music

Treat every recognisable face as a data protection question. The ICO explains that valid consent under UK GDPR means a clear, specific, freely given choice that is easy to withdraw, and pre ticked boxes or silence do not count. For a business account, that translates into a short permission note signed by anyone who appears in your footage in a way that identifies them.

Take extra care at family events. Brighton Festival's Children's Parade alone brings over 20,000 people to the streets, according to the festival, and a wide shot of a crowd is not an invitation to post close ups of children. Ask a parent first, or film hands, costumes and backs.

• Students: ask before featuring a customer, and never name a student without agreement.
• Staff: agree in writing what may be posted and for how long.
• Music: use the licensed tracks that the platform provides for business accounts, and never lift the song playing in the room.

11Measuring and Reporting Without Promises

Good social media management Brighton and Hove reports measure what leads to a visit, a booking or an enquiry, and present it once a month in plain words. Likes are the weakest signal. Saves, shares, profile visits, link clicks and messages that become calls tell you more, because they show intent.

• Link clicks: tag the link in your bio with a UTM builder so your website analytics shows which post sent the visitor.
• Calls and directions: read them from the Google profile, separately from the social platforms.
• Messages that became bookings: keep a simple tally on paper or in a sheet; the numbers come from your records, not from us.

Each month, discuss three things: the format that earned the most saves, the one to drop and the single change for next month. A paid boost can help a post that already works, and it is planned separately under Meta ads management. No agency can promise a follower count or a reach, and we do not.

12Quiet Weeks, Bad Weather and Closures

Plan for the weeks when little happens, because a seaside city has many of them. A cold, wet Tuesday outside the festival weeks is when the account either carries on with something useful or goes silent, and silence reads as closed. Keep a short bank of posts that never expire: how the team makes the product, answers to questions that customers ask often, a walk through the neighbourhood from your door.

Closures need their own routine. If you shut for a private booking, a repair or a day of poor weather, tell people in the same three places within the hour.

• Stories: a single frame with the reason and the reopening time.
• Google profile: the special hours or temporary closure setting, switched back afterwards.
• Pinned post: a line that you remove when normal service resumes.

Decide who is allowed to make that change when the owner is away, and write the person's name in the reply guide.

13Common Mistakes in the City, and What to Do Instead

Most weak social media management Brighton and Hove accounts fail on habits rather than on creativity. These six come up repeatedly.

• Posting only in summer: keep a lighter autumn and winter rhythm built on residents and students, so the account is not new again in May.
• Different hours in different places: fix the profile, the highlights and the Google listing on the same day.
• Treating Brighton and Hove as one tag: use the quarter that fits the place, such as the Lanes, North Laine, Kemp Town, Seven Dials or Hove.
• Using a festival's name as if it were a partner: describe your own offer during the festival weeks instead.
• Answering reviews with one template: write two sentences that name the point the customer made.
• Buying followers or reviews: it breaks platform rules and, for reviews, UK law; grow through content, replies and, where useful, paid promotion.

Pick the two that apply to you and fix them this month.

14Choosing a Partner and Your First 90 Days

Choose a partner who asks about your street and your timetable before showing a package, and who tells you plainly what they will not do. Ask any agency for its reply routine, its labelling checklist and how it handles filming when it is not in the city.

Our own approach is to say clearly that we have no office or crew in Brighton or Hove, and that the filming stays with you or with a photographer you choose. The pages your posts link to matter too, so look at web design for Brighton and Hove before you start.

A sensible first 90 days looks like this:

1. Weeks 1 and 2: audit the profiles, fix hours and directions, and agree the audience ranking.
2. Weeks 3 and 4: write the shot list, film once and approve the first calendar.
3. Weeks 5 to 8: publish steadily, run the reply routine and review the first monthly report.
4. Weeks 9 to 12: keep what earned saves and messages, drop the rest and plan the next season.

To start, send us your profile links through our contact page, and read how packages work in the pricing section. We will reply with an honest read of the account and a written scope.