This is part of my series where I invite guest bloggers to post on a topic of their choosing related to social media. Not only does it give me a break, but it allows for some fresh ideas. The opinions expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of Inkling Media.
Today’s post is from my friend Sara Bozich, yet another person I wouldn’t know if it weren’t for Social Media, particularly Twitter. Sara and I have actually never met in person, but it sure feels like we have! (Gotta change that sometime, after all, we live rather close to each other.) Sara blogs about Harrisburg nightlife and writes a regular nightlife feature for the Harrisburg Patriot-News. She is also the author of Hershey: A Guide to the Town Built on Chocolate.
While Sara’s guest post centers on restaurants and bars, her advice applies to any aspect of the hospitality industry, and even across other business disciplines.
While I don’t purport myself to be some kind of social media “expert” (my expertise comes more in the form of eating and drinking and telling you about it), social media is becoming a valuable and usable marketing extension for the restaurant and nightlife business.
1. Drop the excuses – I know that restaurateurs aren’t often the most tech-savvy of the bunch. You’re not sitting at a computer all day like so many of us desk jockeys, and you barely check your emails; and the server you have running your FB page could quit next week. You’re busy, always time-crunched and relaxation-starved. No one knows how hard running a bar or restaurant can be, so no, you don’t have time for me and my silly requests to join this new-fangled Internet craze.
But you need to.
Someone is going to come along who can do it – and do it better. They’re going to spread their name across these tubes and wires, and the people – they’ll come. They’ll come because they know this business is still thriving because they see its presence when they receive weekly or monthly updates about specials or events. When they can’t remember the last time they saw your logo or heard about your [insert famous dish], they may wonder, “Hmm – in this economy … maybe Restaurant X closed? We better go to New-Fangled Joe’s for our date/power lunch/office party.”
A web presence makes you seem reliable. You just have to put a little effort in. Okay, maybe a lot to start. But in more cases than not, I can promise you it’s worth it.
2. Get a website – It should have your address, hours of operation (bar and kitchen, if they are different), a CURRENT menu, and way to contact you (that forwards to an email address you or your manager actually USES.) The rest is ancillary, but of course you can offer a newsletter sign-up (I can’t tell you how many I’ve signed up for and never received), directions (people should be able to google map from your address, but this is a nice, easy feature), photos, specials, etc. Ideally this is not a stagnant page, but something that you or your staff checks at least monthly to make sure the information is still current. Which brings me to …
3. Update that website – If you change location, change kitchen hours, change the menu — change your website! Pet peeve: poring over an online menu to psych myself up for a dinner only to show up and see what I’ve selected is no longer available.
4. Create a Facebook Fan page – So you can’t afford a website – okay, but you need to get online somehow, and Facebook is the site du jour for connecting with others – and it’s free. Treat this like a web page and make sure it has all of your venue’s pertinent info easily accessible. Spend some time on there, get a little addicted. Merge your contact lists, find the people who come to your bar/restaurant. Include all relevant information in your profile. Do all this before you start adding friends of friends.
5. Interact – Provide some incentive to help spread the word that you’re on the ‘net. Pick a random commenter to receive a free appetizer or gift card. Post your daily specials. Post your events (as events – and invite people).
6. Find that girl – You know…the one who writes for the newspaper and blog on local food/dining/entertainment/nightlife and e-mail her your event information, your menu changes.
7. Master all that? Can you handle Twitter? – Don’t do it if the account will simply sit stagnant. This is another free service that connects you with your friends or “followers” and allows updates throughout the day (much like the status update on Facebook, but relegated to a mere 140 characters). Confit French Bistro in Camp Hill did this well until their designated Tweeter left the building. Until then, every day, the local Twitterverse was privy to Confit’s lunch specials, could tweet reservations and were teased with images of food, prompting that increased dinner reservations, brought in a younger crowd and increased business for their Monday AYCE Mussels special – a night that ordinarily is slow for restaurants. They are still using Twitter, but seemingly not as often.
8. Follow Twitter as you would Facebook - You can even connect them so you only have to update once and get your message out twice. You’ll discover the magic of the “ReTweet” as your followers pass on your updates for you (How’s that for word of mouth?), and you’ll have an instant connection to get much-needed outside feedback on how your venue is in the eyes of your customers.
9. Don’t forget about updating! – This is the most important part – staying connected and active in your community. It’s easy to not make the time and to push aside self-made deadlines for free marketing, but making the effort will reward you.
10. Learn from your feedback – Twitter and Facebook are great ways to “poll the audience,” attracting visitors to your site and finding ways you can improve. Finding out what’s important to your customers and where you should focus your time can be an invaluable resource to successful business owners.
Cheers!
What are your thoughts? How can you apply these to your business?
