SOME people can’t do without it, whereas others absolutely loathe it. There is little doubt that social media is divisive and continues to divide opinion.

However, it is fair to say our social media channels and our increased digital presence has really opened up Bridgwater Carnival to a whole new audience, and is now one, if not the most effective way of promoting our carnival. It is also in most cases free to use, and with the ever increasing costs of general advertising, it has been a lifeline to many small businesses, organisations and charities.

A very high percentage of businesses say their social marketing efforts have increased brand exposure, and this can also be said about Bridgwater Carnival.

For example we only need to look at our social media reach and the role it played when tickets for our grandstands for this year’s carnival first went on sale on April 1 to prove this. Within two weeks of being available, we had sold over 850 tickets, not just locally but from places all over the country including Aldershot, Cwmbran, Sandhurst, Chichester, Skegness and Watford, to name just a few.

Our Facebook and Twitter accounts are well established and have been active for a number of years now. We update both on a regular basis, and at the time of writing nearly 15,000 users were following us on Facebook (@BridgwaterGuyFawkesCarnival) and over 5,300 on Twitter (@BCarnival. Earlier this month we decided to enhance our digital presence even further, when we joined Instagram (@bridgwatercarnival). Even though it’s still early days with Instagram, we already have over 300 followers, and this is growing by the day.

So if you are on social media and would like to help us to promote the carnival to your family, friends and the rest of the world, please do ‘like’ and ‘share’ our posts.

If used correctly and sensibly, social media can work wonders.. its certainly doing that for Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival.

Until the next time…

Written by Dave Stokes, davestokes@bridgwatercarnival.org.uk