New Pub Landlord? Here's Your First Month Social Media Plan

# New Pub Landlord? Here's Your First Month Social Media Plan

By Tom Fairhall | PubPostPro

You've just taken on a pub. There's a cellar to learn, staff to manage, suppliers to negotiate, and somewhere at the back of your mind, someone's told you that you need to "be on social media."

They're right. But most new pub landlords go about it the wrong way. They set up an Instagram account, post a photo of the bar on day one, get 12 likes (mostly from family), and quietly give up by week three.

This guide is different. It's a week-by-week pub social media plan built around one uncomfortable truth: your content isn't the problem. Your audience is. Most pubs post into an empty room. Fix the room first, then worry about what you're saying.

Follow this plan and you'll hit 200+ engaged local followers in your first month. More importantly, you'll have a content rhythm that takes 15 minutes a day to maintain. Not two hours.

Why Most New Pub Landlords Get Social Media Wrong

Before we get into the plan, let's kill a myth: you don't need great photography or video production skills to succeed on Instagram as a pub. You need locals in your audience.

The algorithm doesn't care how beautiful your content is if nobody with local intent ever sees it. A pub Instagram account with 50 highly engaged locals is worth ten times more than one with 2,000 random followers.

This is a distribution problem, not a content problem.

The strategy below is built around solving that distribution problem first.

The Numbers: What to Aim For

Here's the milestone framework for your first four weeks as a new pub landlord on social media:

Week	Follower Target	Main Focus
Week 1	70 followers	Profile setup + engagement
Week 2	100 followers	First feed posts
Week 3	150 followers	First reel + match-day content
Week 4	200+ followers	Competition + rhythm established

These are realistic, not aspirational. Pubs that follow this plan consistently hit these numbers. Pubs that skip Week 1 and go straight to posting content rarely do.

Week 1: Build Your Foundation Before You Post Anything

Your instinct will be to post something on day one. Resist it.

Week 1 is entirely about setup and engagement. No feed posts. Stories only. Here's what to do.

Set Up Your Business Account Properly

Switch your Instagram profile to a Business Account (Settings > Account > Switch to Professional Account). This unlocks insights, contact buttons, and the ability to run ads later if you want to.

Your bio needs to answer the questions locals actually have:

What type of pub are you? (Free house, sports pub, food-led, community local)
When do you serve food, and roughly what kind?
Do you show live sport? Which packages?
Do you have live music or regular events?
Where are you? (Town/area, not just the address)

A bio like "Community pub in Chepstow. Food served Mon-Sat 12-8pm, Sun 12-6pm. Live sport, real ales, events every weekend. Bookings: 01291 XXXXXX" tells someone everything they need to decide whether to visit. Most pub bios tell people nothing.

Add your phone number, a link to your website or booking page, and a profile photo that is clearly your pub. The exterior, your logo, or a decent shot of the bar.

Create Instagram Highlights

Highlights sit permanently at the top of your profile. Set up four of them in Week 1, even if they start with just one or two Stories each:

Food: Your menu, specials, food times
Drinks: What's on tap, guest ales, cocktails if relevant
Sport: Which sports you show, big upcoming fixtures
Events: Quiz nights, live music, upcoming events

You'll fill these out over time, but creating the structure in Week 1 means every new visitor to your profile immediately understands what kind of pub you are.

Follow 100 Local Accounts

This is the single most important action in your first week. Open Instagram and search for:

Local pubs and restaurants in your town and nearby towns
Local sports clubs (football, rugby, cricket, darts leagues)
Community groups and neighbourhood pages
Local businesses (shops, tradespeople, estate agents)
Local musicians and bands who play venues like yours
Tourism accounts for your area
Local journalists, bloggers, and town social pages

Follow 100 of these accounts. Not random people. Local people and organisations. Many will follow back. Those who do are exactly the audience you want: people who live nearby and are interested in local life.

This takes about an hour the first time. After that, add 5-10 new follows per week as you discover more local accounts.

Your Daily 15-Minute Engagement Routine

Every single day of your first month (and beyond), do this:

Spend 15 minutes on the app:

Like 30 local posts: scroll your feed of local accounts and engage with what they're sharing
Leave 10 genuine comments: not "Great!" but actual responses, such as "Looks a great result, hope you celebrated with us!" or "Congrats on the opening, come for a pint soon"
Reply to every DM, comment, and Story reply you've received

That's it. 15 minutes. Done.

Why does this work? Instagram's algorithm shows your account to more people when you're actively engaging on the platform. More importantly, real humans see your comments, click your profile, and follow you if they like what they see. This is organic, targeted growth. And it costs nothing.

Do not skip this. The pubs that hit 200 followers in a month do this daily. The ones that don't, don't.

Week 1 Stories

Post two or three Stories per day this week. Keep them casual:

A photo of the bar being set up before opening
A quick video of what's on tap today
"Who's watching the game tonight?" with a poll sticker
A behind-the-scenes clip of deliveries arriving or the cellar being restocked

Stories disappear after 24 hours, so there's no pressure. You're just warming up, getting used to creating content, and adding things to your new Highlights.

Week 2: Your First Feed Posts

By the start of Week 2, you should have somewhere between 60 and 80 followers: people who followed back after you followed them, or who found you through Stories and engagement. Now it's time to give that audience something to look at.

Your feed is permanent. It's what someone sees when they visit your profile. Think of it as your shop window.

What to Post This Week

Post 1: Behind the Scenes Show what the pub looked like when you arrived, what you've changed, what you're working on. New landlords have a genuine hook: the story of a fresh start. "New chapter for [Pub Name]" is compelling. People like watching something take shape.

One or two photos with a caption that tells your story briefly. Where have you come from? Why this pub? What do you want it to be? Keep it honest and direct.

Post 2: What's On Tap A flat-lay or close-up of the pump clips. Keep it simple. In the caption, list what you're currently pouring, mention any guest ale, and say something about your cask rotation if you have one. Tag any breweries you're stocking. They often share, which gets you in front of their local followers.

Post 3: The Team If you have bar staff, ask if they're happy to feature in a photo. Something like "Meet [Name], who's been behind this bar for [X] years and knows everyone in the village by name" goes down well with locals. People come to pubs for people. Show them yours.

Caption Basics

Every caption should do one of three things: inform (what's on, what time, what it costs), invite (come in tonight, book a table, join us), or connect (tell a story, share a local moment, acknowledge your regulars).

End every caption with a question or a call to action. "What are you drinking this weekend?" or "Book your table. Link in bio." Comments and saves signal to Instagram that your post is worth showing to more people.

Week 3: Your First Reel and Match-Day Content

By Week 3 you should be approaching 100 followers. This is where you start building the content types that drive the biggest reach.

Shoot Your First Reel

Reels get significantly more reach than static posts or Stories. You do not need a ring light or a script.

The simplest pub Reel format: a 15 to 30 second clip of something visually satisfying. A pint being pulled, a plate of food arriving at a table, the pub filling up before kick-off, the fire being lit on a cold evening. Add a relevant track from Instagram's music library (licensed music, no copyright issues), and a short caption.

That is a Reel. You do not need more than that in Week 3.

One Reel per week is enough. If you post one every week for a month, you will start to see which formats your local audience responds to and can lean into those.

Match-Day Content

If you show live sport, match days are your biggest organic reach opportunity. Post a Story before kick-off: "We're showing [fixture] from [time]. [X] seats left at the bar." Post a photo during the match. Packed pub, big screen, atmosphere. Post a quick Story after with the result.

Tag the teams if you can. Football clubs have large local followings and sometimes share content from local businesses when they're mentioned.

This kind of content does two things: it reaches people who weren't aware your pub shows sport, and it shows your existing followers that the pub is the place to be when the big games are on.

Local Business Collaboration

Reach out to one local business this week. A food producer, a local brewery, a nearby attraction, a sports club. Do a simple cross-post. You mention them, they mention you. Their followers see your pub. Your followers see their business.

This works especially well with local breweries, coffee roasters, or food suppliers if you're using local produce. A post that says "Our bacon baps use [Local Butcher] pork. They're five minutes down the road and worth a visit" builds goodwill with both the supplier and your shared local audience.

Week 4: Your First Competition and Establishing Your Rhythm

You should be close to 150 followers heading into Week 4. Now you run your first competition to push past 200.

The Follow-to-Enter Competition

The simplest format that works:

Post a photo of a prize relevant to your pub (a meal for two, a round of drinks, a reserved table for a match, a bar tab)
Caption: "To enter: Follow this account + tag two people you'd bring with you in the comments"
Run it for 5-7 days, pick a winner, announce it publicly

This format drives three things: new follows, comments (which boost the post in the algorithm), and the tagged friends see the post and often follow as well.

A well-run pub competition with a decent prize should bring 30-50 new followers. More importantly, those followers come in through a social action. They actively chose to follow you to enter. That means higher engagement than passive follows.

Do one of these per month for the first three months. After that, you'll have enough organic momentum that competitions become less necessary.

Establish Your Weekly Rhythm

By the end of Week 4, you should have a rough weekly content schedule you can actually stick to:

Monday or Tuesday: What's on this week (food specials, events, sport)
Thursday: Weekend preview post (what's on Fri/Sat/Sun)
Match day: Stories before, during, and after (if relevant)
One Reel: Can be any day, filmed whenever you have a good moment

That's four content touchpoints per week. Combined with your 15-minute daily engagement routine, this is a manageable commitment for a busy pub landlord.

The One Thing That Derails Pub Social Media

Inconsistency. Not poor content quality. Not the wrong platform. Inconsistency.

The pubs that build a strong local following are the ones that show up every week, engage every day, and keep going even when a post gets six likes. Social media for a local pub is a long game measured in months, not days.

If you follow this plan through Month 1, you will have:

A properly set up business profile with clear, useful information
200+ followers who are mostly local and actually interested in your pub
A daily engagement habit that takes 15 minutes
A weekly content rhythm you can maintain alongside running the pub
Your first pieces of evidence about what content your audience responds to

That is the foundation. Month 2 is where you build on it.

Too Busy to Do This Yourself?

Running a pub is a full-time job before you even think about social media. If you want the content created for you (posts, captions, Stories, Reels scripts), that is exactly what PubPostPro does.

We build a custom monthly social media plan for your pub, write all the captions, and give you a simple posting schedule. You just need to take the photos and hit publish.

Visit pubpostpro.co.uk to find out how it works. Founding-member spots are available at significantly reduced rates for pubs that sign up now.

Key Takeaways

Social media for a new pub is a distribution problem first, content problem second. Build your local audience before worrying about production quality.
Week 1 is setup and engagement only. No feed posts until you have an audience to see them.
The daily 15-minute engagement routine (30 likes, 10 genuine comments, reply to all DMs) is the engine of organic growth.
Follow 100 local accounts in Week 1: pubs, sports clubs, businesses, community pages.
Hit Week 1: 70 followers, Week 2: 100, Week 3: 150, Week 4: 200+ with this plan.
A follow-to-enter competition in Week 4 will drive 30-50 new local follows.
Consistency beats quality every time. Showing up weekly for three months beats going viral once.

Tom Fairhall is the founder of PubPostPro, a social media content service built specifically for UK pub landlords. PubPostPro creates done-for-you monthly content plans so landlords can focus on running the pub.