The consortium will host a series of marketing workshops across the country this year focusing on social media basics and benefits; roll out new social media tools and services; and offer a new video editing platform allowing members to quickly create engaging video content for social media.

Chief executive Gary Lewis said the pivot in marketing strategy would build on a lot of the existing tools, training and social media content the consortium already offers members.

“After the success of our 2019 Evolution strategy, we discovered a common theme across our membership was their desire to further understand social media and capitalise on the benefits it can provide,” said Lewis.

“We have therefore developed a roadmap of training workshops, new social media tools and services to support our members with their journey, no matter what experience level they are at.”

Between March and October, TTNG will host five marketing workshops emphasising the importance, at least initially, of a simple, consistent and strategic approach to social media.

A new cluster day-style seminar, to be held in central London in March, will focus on social media advertising, with a particular aim to target members who feel they have the basics covered and now want to understand how to convert their social media activity into a measurable return on investment, and monitor this.

Available to members with immediate effect is a new online video editing platform, designed to help members quickly create new social video content to coincide with tactical offers and allow them to react to industry trends.

“This new video editing tool allows members to select footage, images and text to create their own videos quickly and easily, giving them the opportunity to get tactical offers and key messages to their customers, and in doing so help drive sales,” said Lewis, who added demand for video content was constantly growing as members feed back how much greater engagement they get from video.

Lewis also added many of TTNG’s initiatives built on existing training videos and social media content available via its marketing portal The Hub.

“We are planning to roll out of lots of further initiatives to help support our members becoming more comfortable and effective with social media throughout the year,” he said.