If I was a Restaurant...How Would I Use Social Media?

A Social Service

One of the industries that was expected to be hit the hardest by the recession was the eating out/restaurant sector. There were fears that consumers would cut out eating out altogether, however although they failed to materialise the industry has been through some tough times.

• US Restaurant industry trends


• Brits choosing pubs over restaurants

There is a change in consumer behavior that has and will continue to affect how people communicate with brands, what they spend money on, who they trust and what they value. Ogilvy produced a great report which makes for some interesting reading called Eyes Wide Open, Wallet Half Shut (pdf). One of the underlying themes that fits to eating out is how important family and community have become.

Restaurants are local and have an opportunity to facilitate peoples social experiences and by doing this develop a loayl customer following.

It is about being passionate about creating a difference, being an experience and building a community around the business

The Balancing Act

Restaurants have had to balance offering value for money without falling into the trap of over-discounting. Generally restaurants are having to work harder to capture customers spend and that means gettting smarter at marketing.

Restaurants have to create a clear and distinct experience and use innovative ways to create customer experiences: marketing, menus, branding...and of course menus to excite them. Our recent blog focused on the idea of value: value = benefit - cost and the need to tip the balance by focusing on customer benefits rather than cost.

Restaurants can now use new and exciting  technologies as well as social networks to interact with and engage customers. By building a community they can develop more sustainable and loyal customer base - a tribe.

Some Case Studies

In the US restaurants have recognized the importance of social media and are now focusing on utlising in their marketing.

• Infographic - how social are US restaurants on Facebook


• 2011 Most Influential Restaurants in the US
  

Notable case studies:

• Flimé – The Cannibal Restaurant Case Study


• AJ Bombers and Foursquare


• How Social Media Drives New Business: Six Case Studies (4 are restaurant / food related)


• Why Buffalo Wild Wings Takes Geo-Social Seriously


• Restaurant using ipads as menus (MenuPad)

If I was a Restaurant How I Would Use Social Media

Learn

• Review how successful restaurants use social media and understand what Social Media ‘Tools they use and how


• Have a look at successful chefs/restaurants actively engage with their community with advice and resources e.g. Celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito, Rick Bayless , La Casa , UnoChicagoGrill

I would listen to my customers/community

Look and listen first: who is talking about you and what is being said?

• 9 reasons why hotels and restaurants should monitor social media and customer reviews


• The Best Free Tools For Making A Social Monitoring Dashboard


• Best Social Media Monitoring Tools to Enhance Business

Match my brand to my target audience 

• I would develop my brand and understand what experience I was offering to my customers.


• Here is an excellent review of how restaurants need to focus their websites on simplicity of design (pdf).

Get my menu into high quality digital pictures

• use high quality for show on website


• Put menu items on Flickr to share easily

Setup my social sites

• Develop a Facebook page


• I could have a Gallery of recipes and get a table booking app used directly within your Facebook  page – why because it is easy for people to connect, book a table and develop word of mouth marketing (interested in this then contact us)


• Twitter – use some tantalizing photos of your menu as background. Tweet regularly but about trends in the community, other people, new menu items, seasonal changes, get feedback…not just about the restaurant. I would also use Twitter to engage with other influencers in the community and ask them questions listen to conversations (you can use Twellow for this)


• Integrate the social network sites with my website e.g. Facebook/Twitter


• Have an email capture on your website for people to subscribe to a newsletter. Create a monthly email-Newsletter with the latest happenings, announcements, new menu items, entertainment news, recipe of the month etc.

Blog

• I would develop a blog. As a start point I would identify a series of articles I could write about e.g. ideas on menus for my target client audience - e.g. I could focus on quick healthy and convenient ideas for moms.


• I would hold an event and invite some people in for lessons on new menu items/recipes. Take photos and blog about the experience, people locally will share and join in creating great word of mouth marketing.


• I would have an RSS feed on my blog that people could subscribe to

Local Guides

• Make sure your restaurant can be searched and reviewed through local business guides such as Yelp.com, Urbanspoon.com, TripAdvisor.com and FoodSpotting.

Be Mobile

• Increasingly people are using their mobiles to find out information and contact restaurants. If they come across a difficult to navigate website then the chances are they will click away. Remember that Google takes into account locality on mobile searches. Get a mobile website.


• Pizza Express recently launched a mobile app that allows customers to pay directly from their phone


• Capture peoples mobile numbers for mobile marketing campaigns by using competitions and prize draws

Location apps

• How diners are using smartphones


• Foursquare - run a promotion based on Foursquare that offers discounts for checking in. For example, any bill over £25 receives an automatic £5 discount if the customer checks into Foursquare.


• Facebook deals - Facebook deals allows users to check-in to receive special offers/promotions

Build relationships with your audience/followers:

• Respond promptly to people


• Ask questions


• Develop conversations


• Host Tweetups for your Twitter community and Meetups for those that gather around topics via meetup.com

• Use Video…build a story
  
  
  
  • Video is the most natural and friendly way to promote the personality of your business. People like to connect with the thoughts and ideas that are part of how you create your meals – it becomes a story and a narrative that they tell to others
  
  
  • Use video to show people some freshly made dishes but don't stop their get some footage of people taking their first taste - that can tell people so much more than a static picture
  
  
  
  

Make your menu sharable or even liked

• Blend offline and online
  
  
  
  • Use tools like Facebook events to promote any specials/promotional events you have. Write a short piece on launch of a new menu people might like to come/ and try it. Twitter the event. Key is to make it sharable.
  
  
  • Invite local bloggers to your events
  
  
  
  


• Keywords and Hashtags
  
  
  
  • Identify keywords relvant to your target customer and restaurant
  
  
  • Use hashtags in Tweets
  
  
  
  

The Personality

Food is a social experience and the more you help and facilitate others experiences the more you will be remembered by your customers. There is a lot more I could cover but I hope this gives your a flavour (pun intended!) for what can be achieved. Of course it is important to tie it together and ensure that you do not attempt too much, spread yourself too thinly and miss out on building the relationships. Co-ordinating and developing your strategy first is time well spent.

 

Social Media: Value equals Benefit minus Cost

What is Value?

Often on blogs, in marketing spiel and in conversations we hear people talking about value. IT becomes one of those words we simply accept without question that we are all on the same page with it. In particular social media relies on producing content that is relevant and adds value to your customers. But how do we know and prioritize what is of value to our customers?

Have a look at the presentation below by Laurent Francois who tackles this brilliantly in his presentation.

 

Although it is a complex proposition let's just simplify it to illustrate some points:



The common ground is saving money and time. So why not investigate what are ways that you can create value for your customers. If you don't want to be perceived as discounting then look for the value of saving people time.

Two examples of organisations using Twitter to add 'value':

• BtoB - Caterpillar uses Twitter to connecting with current and potential customers, and addressing service issues.


• BtoC - Zappos uses Twitter to keep customers informed of relevant company and product information, events and promotional offers

Value = Benefits - Cost

To your customers ask yourself why they should invest their time (Cost) in coming to your website, Facebook page, Linkedin Group, Twitter...if you haven't identified the value proposition and content strategy then you are unlikely to succeed.

Take a look at what your are doing: What content is most popular with your target audience? Is the content you share via social media resonating with your target audience or a random audience?

Understand your Target Audience

As we often mention to our clients it all starts with understanding the customer and NOT assuming that you know their needs. Research even done simply is better than none at all and will provide you with some ways to be relevant to them.

Here is a some articles on social monitoring and management tools that can help you do this:

• 8 Methods + Lots of Tools for Getting to Know Your Audience


• 5 New Social Media Management Platforms


• 20 free, awesome social media monitoring tools

Alternatively select some clients or customers to free lunch, prepare some questions and get their views.

• Focus Group research


• DIY: Research on a shoestring budget

This is reinforced by some research into why people 'Like' brands:

A study of 1,500 Facebook users, ExactTarget concluded that 38% of online U.S. consumers “Like” (formerly “Fan”) a brand on the social networking site.

• 40% to receive discounts and promotions


• 39% to show my support for the company to others


• 36% to get a “freebie”


• 34% to stay informed about the activities of the company

Conversely we can also see that different channels will require different strategies for brands and businesses:

• Plain and simple - Social Media: Top 10 Reasons Why Your Audience Doesn’t Like You


• Top Reasons Why Consumers Unsubscribe Via E-Mail, Facebook & Twitter (Mashable)


• Reasons people ‘Unfollow’ Brands on Twitter

Key takeouts:

• It is important to attract and gain new customers (as well as reward loyal customers) develop a clear integrated strategy that includes how you can use social media to promote your products or services strategy


• 'Freebies' can create a lot of word of mouth and provide added value to potential and existing customers. This could be information that saves people time or you could provide a mobile app e.g. in BtoB a utlity app or for a consumer brand an app that people find entertaining. This develops your brand awareness as well as provide valuable interaction and data.


• Consistently producing content that focuses on your customers needs and is relevant. In your strategy vary the reasons so that you are not repetitive in how you add value or your content strategy. Social monitoring and customer research is not a one off event - it needs to be embedded into your marketing processes and used to adapt your strategy.


• Be obsessive about understanding your customers and you will create competitive advantage. If you understand your customers better than your competition and then act on this by producing content that is right for them and adds value (promotions, articles, blogs, posts...) you will gain market share.

Some interesting reports

In the spirit of this post I have read some interesting reports lately and they are listed below for you to take a look at and download:

A report by HootSuite on social media measurement

The Global Social Media and CSR Report by Wolfstar

If you come across any good reports about marketing in the digital age and/or social media then let us know

 

 

 

Social Media - The Story of the Three Little Pigs

The Story So Far

We have all grown up with the famous story of the three little pigs (although I like the alternative 3 little wolfs variation as well). The moral of the story is obvious people who work hard, work smart, save money, think ahead, and help other people, will come out on top.

In marketing you wouldn't recommend a business to build their marketing solely on social media - it is just not good advice. Social media is just one part of the marketing mix.

Likewise the idea of solely being digital is not right for every business, it is important to recognise and use offline marketing (if it fits to your target customers). Again as a stand alone focus it will deliver results but be limited. Like the 3 little pigs using the right materials are vital to a solid marketing strategy.

Jeff Bullas wrote a good piece Social Media Marketing’s Biggest Myth that quite rightly argues the need to focus on being relevant and informative:

"The reality is that “social media” is based on self-interest. People on social sites are looking for materials which are useful to them.

Content defines the value to your customer - why people will either ignore it or share it. Content strategy is then a defining part of any online strategy. Here is a great presentation that drums home the importance of content for online marketing.

Content Strategy: The Future of Marketing

Mixing the Bricks and Mortar and Working Together

So if we return to the three little pigs story - our marketing should consist of mixing our marketing to produce a solid foundation and the people we invite to help us are our customers; because if they help you (and more importantly want to) you may develop a community.

We can't cover everything so I have focused on email - some people see email as an enemy of social media i.e. email vs. social media. The truth is, done well they should compliment each other (but it also depends on market/customers...).

Email Facts

• 72% of companies rate email as 'excellent' or 'good' for return on investment (EConsultancy)


• Email adoption high but lacking in best practice - the relevance, context and targetting (download pdf - Forrester) also support by MarketingSherpa 2011 Email Marketing Benchmark Report (download here)

Email is getting Social

• 6 Smart & Effective Email Marketing Tactics (Mashable)


• 7 Steps to Improve Your Email Marketing (Practical Commerce)


• Integrating the Facebook like Button into Mailchimp campaigns (Mailchimp)

Both Constant Contact and ExactTarget acquired businesses in the social arena, namely, NutshellMail and CoTweet. Why - well they recognise the value of social data and are looking to use this to build more precise targeting methods based on social data.

Putting the Story back into Marketing

So what is the role of social media within the marketing mix? Again this is big subject but here are a few reasons why it is an important part of any business now:

• people trust people (Source Nielsen) and therefore we look for what are friends or others say about brands/products and services


• brand communities can provide an ongoing development of a relationship with brand as opposed to a start stop approach (see blog post by Olivier Blanchard)


• brands can understand (and quickly) what their customers are saying - a dynamic feedback loop providing ways to improve your product or service


• researching customers (you can understand their online/offline behaviours and refine your marketing and provide value to them (this comes back then, to your content strategy)


• using tools to linkin with Facebooks open graph you can use the data to understand your 'followers'


• it is where you customers are spending their time online and hence where you can help them e.g. customer service

This is by no means an exhaustive list, it just meant to illustrate the opportunities and relevance of being social. In todays world we want the human connection as well. We can never underestimate the power of the human story, the connection we feel with it and the emotions that they evoke. Look at some of the highest ranked video's onYouTube and you will understand what I mean. When done well, social media builds as the brands facilitate the story of others as well as solving problems, communicating relevant messages and adding value it can also tell the stories of its people.

Social Business = technology, culture and behaviours

What is a social business?

There are probably many different definitions and variations on what a social business is. I don't want to get bogged down in semantics. What I am passionate about is the way people can can come together to share, learn, collaborate and benefit from embracing the principles of social business. It is the transformative impact it can have both culturally as well as operationally.

When I listen to people and views on the net there are people that talk about changing behaviors - focusing on how people's habits have changed, how they interact, where and how they spend their time, that people are sharing information socially, how they buy, who they trust, how they find information, how they interact...Others seem to focus on how the technology is changing people's behaviors enabling new ways to interact, collaborate, communicate, share, connect...and a few even mention culture.

We need to recognize that Social business is about people, technology and culture and one without the other doesn't work. Organisations that just embrace the technology of an enterprise 2.0 vendor selling them a community platform will not work. Neither will someone developing a strategy for cultural change without the guidance on how to implement and manage the change process. Equally overlaying a social business strategy on a culture of fear and hierarchical management control will fail.

Some articles that reinforce these are:

• 7 Ways That Social Business Advice is Wrong for Your Organization


• Workers not as loyal as companies think


• Social Business Strategy: The CIO Shortlist

Learning to Change

The idea of having to adapt and change is as old as business itself but the need to change rapidly is now a necessity and a source of competitive advantage. Customers are changing and new business models are emerging thanks to flexible and social and scalable technology solutions.

Organisations are now tackling how to integrate social technologies into their business beyond the use of marketing or customer service. However transitioning to new working practices is not easy for many as they move from old legacy systems to new (often requiring intermediary stages),  aligning goals and objectives, aligning roles and responsibilities, changing processes as well as leading the change.

We can look at how Dell and other organisations have focused there efforts on taking small digestible steps, piloting projects, developing champions and building on their learning.

Keynote from Social Business Forum 2011  

One aspect though is consistent it is the pace and need to change and learn, to adapt to become flexible to the dynamics of a new and emerging era.

Focus on the application

Organisations who want to adopt a social business approach need to focus on the application and relevance to the business. There are a multitude of ways applying social solutions improve a business. However, each business is different and how and what is a priority will depend on the organisations strategy, goals, objectives, market position...What is important is to identify the opportunities prioritise them and start.



I call this the age on your imagination because you are main limitation in coming up with business ideas and solutions is no longer the technology.



 

Key take outs

• Research your market and identify how your market, customers, competitors and business models are being affected or could benefit from social business


• Identify some tangible projects


• Research your employee capabilities


• Bring together relevant stakeholders


• Scope your projects and enable your team to make decisions


• Communicate, communicate and communicate - be open

 

Don't throw marketing money away on a hunch! - Research improves your ROI

Using Research to Improve ROI

1. Define your strategy and then conduct research to understand how you can add value to your customers. This need not be hard and you can get some valuable information without it costing too much. Form many small businesses this can involve preparing a simple questionnaire and inviting existing or potential customers to meet up for breakfast, lunch... and discussing it with them. You will often be amazed at what you find out.

For larger businesses studying customers on-line can help. Digital ethnography (studying on line behaviour) now provides a wealth of information and access to customers and is often easier than offline research:

• social networks allow us to visualise relationships,


• people are more honest when they write behind a pseudonym


• respondents have control over what they share


• researchers are less obtrusive and less likely to affect the behaviour of the people they are studying

Strategies need to build sustainable communities rather than sporadic isolated campaigns

2. Too much data is no good to anyone. You need to focus on simple concepts and then build upon them to produce your creative concepts for marketing. Keep it simple, easy to understand and measurable. Test it on a small group of customers get feedback and then scale. Content then becomes relevant and of value to your customers and more importantly has a far higher chance of being shared.

Create relationships, drive conversions and deliver sustainable and profitable revenue growth.

3. Be consistent in how you deploy your communications. Reinforce your communications around your creative concept so that they reinforce your idea rather than dilute it. Make it interesting, an experience and build on the emotions; for it is the human touch that matters the most - this is what we share.

Reinforce and co-ordinate touch points to ensure the sum of the parts are greater than the whole

Linking Research to Value

Ultimately by using research the aim is to add value to a customers experience of your brand. Rory Sutherland provides some humorous insights into how advertising has traditionally gone about building intangible value. The reality for brands now is that value is being reshaped by our relationships and our networks.  (If you only watch one thing see the interviews for diamond shreddies 13mins - very funny)



Change the Perspective

The simple truth is that research allows you to make better decisions about the creative concepts and content that you use to market your brand.

However, many businesses simply throw their money away when it comes to marketing. They certainly don't intend to, but too often many make assumptions about their customers that are simply wrong.

But this is an over simplified explanation of what happens, for quite often there is a recognised need for data, but accessing it and relating to customer profiles is difficult. The reasons for this can be many, not least is the problems of knitting together data from disparate data sources (customer service, promotions, email marketing...) to form some level of customer segmentation.

From the many different views it is hard to pin point who the customer is and how their behaviours relate to your product; in short there is little available data that can form the basis for insightful decisions. The truth is the impact of a poor customer data management strategy goes beyond missed sales opportunities and links directly to the profitability of an organisation.

Taking a Bet



As a result many marketing directors gamble on assumptions that form the basis for creative ideas and concepts; which in themselves might be brilliant but simply do not bear any resemblance to the target customer.Yet most people shrewdly research and investigate suppliers before spending their own money. Why not then apply the same principal to customers.

Why does this matter so much?

Knowing your customer and understanding their needs forms the basis not only for marketing but also product development, customer service...it is at the heart of how well you serve your customers that determines how well you compete.

How and where we tell out stories has shifted, but they are the same stores. We now use our social networks not only to share these stories but to listen and participate in making them. As a result research has never been more powerful or more cost effective and can be used to improve decision making.

We must use new research technologies because technology itself is changing the way people move through life and transact their work. Part of the change involves privacy, mobility, and communications modes. People are harder to connect with, period: less use of land lines, heavy phone screening, growing perceived value of time, and more. In a word, people are more reachable and open if the marketing research technique fits with their lifestyle.

The Purpose of Research

from Tim Stock

Develop a Social Business Strategy Inside and Out

An inside-out approach to Social Business Strategy

TribalCafe Social Business Strategy

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How do you develop your Social Business Strategy?