City Saver

Social media is not a choice.

We really don’t have a choice about whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it. It isn’t a fad. It’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. If you are operating a restaurant that has not yet jumped on the social media bandwagon, we want to let you in on the secret and help you get started. If you are already rolling with it, how can you make it better?

• Food is a social activity and your marketing efforts should be social as well.
• 25% of search results for the world’s 20 largest brands are links to user generated content.
• 34% of bloggers post opinions about products and brands.

Do you like what they are saying about your brand? You better.

• 78% of people trust peer recommendations.
• Only 14% trust advertisements.

The ROI of social media is: Will your business be here in 5 years?

Do what Dale Carnegie taught: Listen first, sell second
With Online Marketing and Social Media, your actions need to be human, trusting, transparent, authentic, and engaged. If so, your goals will be reachable, and worthy of your effort. Go ahead and start by listening to what people are already saying about you and your brand. Sign up for Google Alerts which are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your queries. The first query should be your brand name.

Have you checked your restaurant’s reputation on Yelp or Urbanspoon? Yelp is the fun and easy way to find and talk about great (and not so great) local businesses. What are people saying about your brand? Urbanspoon is the world’s leading provider of time-critical dining data, a major division of a very important multi-national corporation, and an all-around BIG PLAYER in the multi-billion dollar restaurant information industry. Brand Ed has a great blog explaining each social media outlet and how you can use it.

Use food photos to make mouths water!
You can use social media to distribute great food photos by simply using your smart phone. This is important to your restaurant marketing because you can use it to promote daily specials and avoid the costly hassle of getting professional photographs produced.   Plus you can do it last minute when you have an abundance of perishable food you need to sell TODAY.  Taking nice photos is pretty easy and will have a great impact on your effectiveness through social media. No fancy software, equipment, or time consuming process.

Use Allergies as Talking Points!
Food allergies have become a huge trend in food service. People with allergies, like gluten, are used to feeling like a major pain to restaurant staff that are unprepared for their gluten-free menu request. If you do a great job catering to people with allergies, this can be marketing gold. If not, why not set aside a small part of your menu to cater to this? To make it social, link the menu to your main site and post it on your blog to get the word out (then post it to your Facebook & Twitter pages with pictures every couple of weeks).

Let people know up front and they will seek you out, (while bringing along their dining companions). This is a way to stand out from other restaurants and energize your social media.  More on Restaurant Marketing here.

How do you market your restaurant through social media?  Post a comment to our  (Nashville, Memphis or Louisville) Facebook or (Nashville, Memphis, Louisville) Twitter page and we will send you an article on “50 ways to cut costs without reducing the quality of your guests’ experience” by Jim Laube and Joe Erickson.

City Saver provides FREE marketing for businesses through social media while also helping local schools and charities raise money.  Learn more here.