Lately, it seems much of my attention has been turned toward restaurants and their use of social media for marketing.
Just the other day, my friend Mary McKnight and I were discussing the matter and both agreed restaurants, bars and such other consumer-centric local businesses are obvious choices for use of the medium. (From our joint perspective as marketing consultants, we also agreed they were “low hanging fruit” too — obvious prospects for our services.)
Take, for example, what’s happened with Naked Pizza down in New Orleans. Their entire approach to marketing has been revamped to include social media, especially Twitter. So novel was it, the restaurant garnered coverage in the New York Times as well as investment from Mark Cuban.
The same can be said for Ramon DeLeon, owner of several Domino’s Pizza restaurants in Chicago. He has mastered the art of using social media to sell his products and created a very loyal following in the process. In fact, his popularity has taken on almost Gary Vaynerchukesque proportions.
Recently, I noticed a number of articles and blog posts on the topic of restaurants using social media. Here are a few:
- Where fine dining and social media meet – SmartBrief on Social Media
- Take a Tip from Restaurants on Email Marketing & Social Media – Vertical Response blog
- Atlanta Restaurants Band Together on Niche Social Media Site – 11Alive.com
A year ago I asked the question on Twitter, “If I were a restaurant, I’d use Twitter to…” and received a number of responses ranging from, “I would tweet my lunch specials at lunch time; tweet whether there’s a wait; tweet my best desert of the day” to “ask customers to submit their best homemade recipes and hold a contest, the winner gets dish on the menu 4 a yr & named after them.”
Truly, Facebook Pages and Twitter accounts were made in the shade for restaurants. I can’t think of one good reason why every such establishment shouldn’t have both.
In fact, even though I work as Internet marketing director for a Web design and development company, I once told a client who came to us for consulting on social media marketing that they didn’t need a Web site, and that a Facebook Page would suffice. (And, no, that advise didn’t get me fired.)
In this particular case, the restaurant in question was a lunch counter in an office building, not a full-service establishment. A Web site would have been overkill. (For the record, I do believe every full-service restaurant should have a Web site.)
I’d really like to hear from restaurant owners and patrons alike. If you’re a restaurateur, how are you currently using social media? If a patron (and aren’t we all), how do you see social media being a good fit, and in what ways would you encourage its use? Also, please feel free to share links to any restaurant, bar, etc., that’s using social media for marketing purposes and tell me what you think of their use of it.
(NOTE: This is the latest in a series I started last year entitled Social Media Works for Small Business. I Have Proof. See previous entries here, here and here.)
Tags: Facebook, restaurants, social media marketing, Twitter
Great points, Paul.
We just launched Twavl.com – a directory of restaurants and hotels, organized by city. We have about 8,000 Twitter profiles in our database, but are focusing on 60 cities first.
Select the city you’re interested in, and then select the ‘Places’ tab.
Thanks for the nod Paul. What I love most about social media and bars, restaurants and clubs is the ability to create messageable fan bases on Facebook, Twitter and the like. It’s like creating the “Cheers” regulars bar stools online where you can allow the community to interact with each other and your brand. Secondly, with tools like GiveReal, you can directly integrate sales tools that can show immediate ROI. This combination tends to really help consultants show restaurants, bars and clubs not only how to use social media in an effective way that does not take much of their valuable time but also give them the satisfaction of ROI metrics from day 1.
Paul, one of my clients is a free wifi provider who has created a network in Atlanta, soon in other cities. Their clients get to provide Free wifi and also are exposed through ads to all connections in the network. That is one channel. The other is social media, which I handle for them. Every client can submit information to be posted across the social media network. It is very successful and many of the clients are restaurants. It a new retail marketing approach that is getting a lot of traction.
Hi Paul,
Yes, a good point. But I’m turning it on its head and going to tweet cetain recipe info from my ebook.
Yes.. clear, naked Internet marketing – but, hey ho! If it’s a successful campaign I’ll send you a copy!
Happy New year!
@paulmcls
This is a great post. I just had one of the ?Doh!’ moments and ran back to correct my own site before publishing my comment. You see my own comment form did not match what I’m about to advice. I get less comment than you, so never noticed any problem. I’ve changed it now anyway so here goes.
money and profit
The popular comment layout is common, so it is easily recognized when scanning to post a comment. If the comment section is in a different format, then I am going to spend more time trying to decipher what everything means.
money and profit
Thanks everyone for your input, examples and excellent advice. Seems we’re all in agreement: Restaurants, bars and the like can benefit from a social media impetus.
A local bakery that I frequent had a ‘musical extravaganza’ performance for everyone in the store – then they posted it on youtube. Every time I go in there I hear someone ask when they’re doing another. People really enjoyed it.
Here’s the video of the performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xtur2pulHs
Maddie
@maddieweber