A NEW training company aims to make mastering social media easier for businesses and entrepreneurs.

The Social Game has been launched at a time when 50 per cent of marketers plan to increase their investments in Facebook, YouTube and TikTok this year, according to software business HubSpot.

It has been launched by two of the team at Bournemouth-based social media agency South Coast Social – managing director Clare Groombridge and head of training Emma Jones.

They founded the business as a separate venture after seeing the number of people who came to the agency looking for social media training and advice, especially during the pandemic, when many businesses had to quickly shift to online trading.

Social media user numbers grew by 424million in 2021. The founders say it is more essential than ever that brands invest in relationships with employees, customers and influencers authentically online. But they say many lack the skills in-house and are not ready to recruit an employee or agency.

As well as providing social media workshops online or in person, the new company will offer “power hours” over Zoom, offering the chance to spend time with a social media professional, and a variety of downloadable resources from LinkedIn action packs to Instagram content generators.

Clare Groombridge said: “Social media is an ever-changing industry, especially with the emergence of networks such as TikTok and the rise of influencer marketing, and we feel that the unique perspective of a social media training company, brought to marketing professionals and business owners by a highly experienced agency team who work in social media day in and day out, will be a game changer.”

Emma Jones said: “We have already seen a huge volume of enquiries pre-launch and we’re excited to be able to bring our vision to life.

"Our Power Hours are proving especially popular to time-poor entrepreneurs and business owners, as they can book online, select a time to suit them and have a social media expert dedicated to helping them with their exact social media issue or query for an hour over Zoom.”