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| Credit: http://www.yoursocialmove.com/ |
When we look at the various industries throughout the United States, it is incredible to look at the rapid increase of social media and how this affects the way they operate their businesses. An assortment of social media platforms are now utilized for marketing, creating brand awareness, reputation monitoring, and consumer engagement. When looking at the restaurant industry, this is no different. Nowadays, it takes much more for a restaurant to succeed, then just knowing how to prepare the perfect dish. It takes a great amount of creativity not only in the kitchen, but also in truly realizing how to market your brand and connect with your customer base. Essentially, restaurants are now able to develop social media platforms for marketing, brand monitoring, and beyond.
There are six key steps that restaurants need to dive into in order to gain more customers and to operate their business in the most successful way possible.
1.) Who is talking about you and what is being said? It is critical to go on different types of social media such as forums, blogs, review sites, Twitter, and so forth to see all of the commotion that is surrounding your restaurant. More specifically, Google Alerts should be set up to track any keyword and/or brand mentions. This will help look at the positive and negative talk that is being said online about your business. It is imperative to acknowledge not only the positive comments, but the negative publicity as well.
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| Credit: http://www.googleguide.com/ |
2.) Use your tools and let them do the work. Using Twitter is an invaluable resource for restaurants and since these free tools are out there for anybody to use, why not use them to your advantage? This gives businesses the ability to search Twitter for brand’s relevant keywords and also the choice to set up RSS feeds to track them. More specifically, Tweet Beep is a free service that restaurants should utilize since it automatically emails hourly updates of when a specific keyword or URL is mentioned on Twitter.
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| Credit: http://www.thegetsmartblog.com/ |
3.) Respond to your customers. It is obvious that various industries cannot ignore their customers, since this creates a negative image for their brand and will eventually cause a domino effect of problems. By engaging with their customers, reciprocation shows that you as a brand have taken interest in your customer. Furthermore, when applicable, engage them in a conversation or at the very least send them a brief thank you note. Responding to negative chatter is equally important as well in which these social media tools can assist in handling crisis situations. Identifying and developing relationships with your loyal brand endorsers is extraordinarily critical for restaurants because these people are essentially an extension of your online marketing department.
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| Credit: http://thenextweb.com/twitter/ |
4.) Use Twitter for marketing. As stated earlier, Twitter is an effective way to engage with customers and to increase customer base. Using this social media platform, it gives restaurants the ability to announce the new appetizer or drink special of the day, promote a unique restaurant event, request ideas for new menu items or specials of the day, offer prizes for people who follow you on Twitter by a certain time and date to be entered into a raffle, and even use it as a tool to listen and converse with your customers.
5.) Start a company blog. By effectively creating and using a company blog, this gives your restaurant the rare opportunity to showcase customer testimonials, pictures from specific events, menu items, share food/drink recipes, employee profiles, and anything else that relates to your restaurant. Ultimately, blogging is a great way to bring the customer into the kitchen since it provides another gateway to show customers the behind the scenes work and make them feel a part of the restaurant.
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6.) Reviews. Urbanspoon.com and Yelp.com are two major websites that allows customers to post feedback. Yelp.com is a free “online urban city guide that helps people find cool places to eat, shop, drink, relax and play, based on the informed opinions of a vibrant and active community of locals in the know. Yelp is the fun and easy way to find, review and talk about what’s great — and not so great — in your world.” Yelp.com has more than 39 million monthly unique visitors as of late 2010. For restaurants, it is important to be sure to encourage your customers to post a fair review. Furthermore, if there is a negative review, try to reach out to that customer and mend the situation if possible.
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| Credit: http://www.tecca.com/ |
In order to better understand how a specific restaurant has utilized the various social media platforms, it helps to look at Manhattan-based Cuban restaurant Havana Central. To drive customer interaction, Havana Central uses social media for a series of interactive contests. Havana Central’s Social Media Manager, Tanya Castaneda explains:
“We have found that running contests has substantially increased our following on Facebook, Twitter, and our emailing campaigns. Inside the restaurant, we would promote ‘Win a Free One Hour Open Bar for You and 9 of Your Friends.’ There were 3 ways contestants could enter the drawing: by “liking” our Facebook page and writing ‘Open Bar’ on our wall; by following us on Twitter and tweeting ‘@havanacentral Open Bar’; or by signing up for our email list.”
After just 3 contests, Havana Central had increased their email list by roughly 1,000 subscribers, their Facebook fans by over 200, and their Twitter followers by over 50!
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| Credit: http://latinolife.com/ny/index.php |
In addition to how restaurants are effectively using social media, it was fascinating to learn about Starbucks and their new mobile payment system. This has been a tremendously successful step for Starbucks. Less than three months ago on January 19, 2011, Starbucks rolled out a Starbucks Card Mobile app that allows customers to “touch and pay” for their purchases which can be used at nearly 7,000 Starbucks across the United States. This was available for both the Apple iPhone and BlackBerry applications. Like the long-standing Starbucks Card, users are now given the option to add cash to their account, but rather than keeping a plastic card in their wallets, users hold their phones up to a scanner, which recognizes a unique barcode the app presents on the phone’s screen. The purchase amount is then deducted from the customer’s account.
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The Starbucks Card Mobile app has been used by over 3 million people in only 3 months! As a bonus incentive for Starbucks customers, purchases made through the app qualify for Starbucks’ rewards program, thus allowing customers to earn free drinks. The app also helps users find the nearest Starbucks store. CEO Howard Schultz states that both mobile payments and social networking will remain vital aspects of the company’s “blueprint for growth” in the future.
It is unmistakable that social media is radically helping the restaurant industry in terms of marketing, creating brand awareness, engaging consumers, and much more. In essence, the effectiveness of social media isn’t the tool; it is listening, answering questions, and ultimately connecting with others.
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