When my family and I go to the mall, we will often end up down in the food court, mostly because it is cheaper than most restaurants, plus we can all choose something vastly different.
For those of us who are utilizing social media for the purpose of marketing our businesses or products, I think there are a few lessons we can learn from the food court experience:
- Variety & options – Our food court is on the smallish side, with only about a dozen options. But our choices include Italian, Asian, subs, burgers, pizza, custom made salads, and even cookies and Auntie Anne’s pretzels. The target market? People who are hungry. The solution? A wide variety of options. Your company may have a niche market, but you can use social media to offer them a variety of solutions.
- Be aggressive – Walking into the food court is like sensory overload. You are confronted with a whole host of smells begging for you to choose them. With a dozen or so stores, each with a host of food options, how do you decide? Sometimes it helps to be aggressive. Word of caution here: too aggressive in the wrong ways on social media can be a turn-off. But in our food court there are three Asian restaurants. Most of the time they each have someone right out among the people offering free samples. And you don’t have to go to them, they come to you. They hope that you’ll like the sample of Bourbon Chicken or Sesame Chicken enough to spend your money at their particular restaurant. Social media isn’t just about creating a Facebook page or spitting out information on Twitter. You need to engage your community members. Perhaps offer them something for free. Get out among the members of your community and offer them something.
- Meet needs – Our food court is very well planned out. Not only are there a variety of foods to satisfy every palate in your family but the folks who run the mall try to meet all of your needs. Have little kids? There is a play area. Need money to pay for your meal? There is a handy ATM. There is also easy access to several stores (including an arcade) and, of course, some bathrooms. Utilize your social media presence to meet the needs of your community members. Social media allows you to change and tweak things on a moment’s notice, so why not experiment. And don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
- Quick interaction – When we’re shopping at the mall, we don’t want to take the time to go to one of the sit down restaurants they have. That takes too long: waiting to get seated, waiting for your food to be served, etc. At the food court, we get fast service. Use social media the same way. Interact with your customers quickly. If they comment on your blog or Facebook page, comment back quickly. If someone is talking about your product or business on Twitter, or if they ask you a question, provide good customer service and get back to them right away. Having you ever hung up from a phone call when you’ve been put on hold too long? Ever walked out of a restaurant that took too long to serve you? I have. At the food court that’s not a problem.
- Location, Location, Location – The food court is handy. A mantra of social media is “Fish where the fish are.” People generally don’t go to the mall to eat at the food court. They go to shop. But while they are there, the food court offers them great options to keep every one in the family happy. Cheap. Fast. Convenient. This is why it is important to have a complete marketing mix that includes social media. Over 325-million people are on Facebook now, with a half million new users each day! Why wouldn’t you “locate” your business on Facebook, or even Twitter for that matter? If you want to get found, go where the people are…and people are far more likely to find you on Facebook than in a newspaper ad.
Are you using social media as a great location to provide variety and options? Meet the needs of your customers? Are you engaging your customers or just sitting back and waiting for them? And are you providing customer service in a timely fashion?
