Archive for the “Social Media Marketing Articles” Category

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Word of Mouth Marketing Program Uses Proprietary Blend Of Social Media Tools To Engage Hidden Influencers

In every social group, there is one stand out individual who can wax poetic about the intricate details of a narrow topic.  They are entrepreneurs, doctors, lawyers and moms by day; and chefs, foodies, and wine aficionados by night.  Their friends, family and co-workers actively seek them out for trusted brand recommendations in their area of passion.

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What is Word of Mouth Marketing?

By Krista Finigan

A co-worker comes into the office raving about the new restaurant down the street and its “to-die-for” wild mushroom risotto. One mother can’t stop prattling on about the all-natural baby shampoo that she started using that doesn’t sting her child’s eyes. The beaming bride swears that the florist she found downtown does the best flower arrangements at the most affordable prices.

These are all examples of word-of-mouth marketing.  The trick is giving people a reason to talk about a product and/or service and making it easier for that influential conversation to happen.

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Your Restaurant Doesn’t Serve Spam, Why Should Your Facebook Page?

By Carina Ost

Your restaurant’s Facebook page is an extension of your brand and a great way to interact with your guests outside of the dining room.  This social media dos and don’ts article will help keep your restaurant’s Facebook page a spam-free zone. Your fans deserve better than that!

Here are the five things that you must avoid on your restaurant’s Facebook page.

Do You Make These 5 Facebook Mistakes?

1. Feeding your Twitter posts onto your Wall. Twitter is a great tool to promote your restaurant, but Twitter and Facebook require radically different approaches.  Ideally you want your patrons and fans to follow you on both. It’s okay to do some duplicate posting, but it can start to look really tacky, and you will lose your fans’ attention by patronizing them with second hand posts.  Make your fans “like” you by providing them with original content.

2. Bombarding peoples’ newsfeeds. 1-3 times a day for wall postings is a good number. Any more than that will increase the number of people who hide your feeds from their friends. Post your specials, new cocktails, fresh ingredients just added to the menu, and lots of photos! Fans devour photos.

3. Talking only about your restaurant. Yes, people “like” and follow your Page to get updates about your food and events, but to really position yourself as an influencer and thought leader, you should be sharing interesting things that are happening in your neighborhood, among your colleagues, and local suppliers (breweries, vineyards, farms).

Talking about food scraps and waste may not be the most scrumptious thing to post about, but Camino restaurant in Oakland posted an article on the subject on their Facebook page.  They simply wrote, “This is what happens to our leftovers!” and linked to a feature story about an Oakland machine that turns food scraps into energy. It is informative, engages the community with the restaurant, and is an excellent example of going outside yourself on your wall.

4. Ignoring the people that “like” your Page. Nothing will make people feel like they are being fed spam more than ignoring their comments. Always respond to people that legitimately post questions or comments on your wall. If you allow people to comment and they never actually hear from you, then what is the point of having a Facebook Page? One-way conversations are for your restaurant advertising, not social networks.

5. Impersonal offers, discounts, specials, coupons, and contests. Don’t get me wrong, we all like specials but when it isn’t targeted, people automatically think spam. Think your ideas through a bit. Perhaps a photo or comment contest or a trivia question. Also one special I always like is: “For every 100 “likes” we get, we will randomly give a $100 gift card to our fans.” Make them glad that they “liked” you! Show them that you care and value their patronage and loyalty. Think of your FB fans as brand ambassadors who have the power to spread great word of mouth.

By avoiding these pitfalls, people will be happy to “like” you and will be excited to try all of the wonders that you feed them!

Hopefully, you’ve read our article on How To Set Up a Restaurant’s Facebook  Page.  And let us know if you need any assistance, we’re here to help.

Share your best restaurant marketing on Facebook best practices in the comments below!

Photo Credit to Ishibakasama on Flickr

How To Create Your Winery’s Facebook Fan Page

How Safe is Your Restaurant’s Reputation on Yelp?

By Carina Ost
What is Yelp? If you look up the definition of the word, it means “a sharp short cry.” If you were to ask your fellow restaurant owners they may think, Yelp is as Yelp does.

The website Yelp is a user generated site for reviews on anything and everything. If you are a restaurant owner Yelp reviews may be your top fear. You may let out a sharp short cry yourself with the idea of one Yelper writing a bad review and ruining your restaurant’s reputation forever.

That is a legitimate fear but Yelp does not control your restaurant, you do! You can monitor, respond, post offers, events, and photos for free but you can’t edit what people say.

Also, and this is a big no-no, you can’t post positive reviews from fake Yelp accounts nor can you ask your employees or your public relations agency to do so. Not only are fake posts unethical and against FTC Guidelines on Adequate Disclosure but it is also desperate, pathetic, and the readers will know right away.

According to Yelp, 83% of users rate a business 3 stars or higher. That is not bad odds. As a Yelper, experienced food blogger, and professional restaurant reviewer, those statistics mimic my review history.

It pays off for Yelpers to write a lot of reviews, it helps their chances of achieving Yelp Elite status which includes private invitations to parties with free food and booze. Also, it can be gratifying for some Yelpers to write a negative review to an untouchable and perfect restaurant; call it human nature.

You must understand that negative reviews come with the territory and if it is genuine feedback take it and learn from it. If it is something completely absurd like, “I hate this restaurant because the waitress looks exactly like my ex girlfriend….zero stars” Just laugh. There is nothing you can do. A smart Yelper will read a positive review, a negative review, and the most recent and read them all with a grain of Kosher salt.

A San Francisco restaurant, Pizzeria Delfina, has been very smart about utilizing its negative reviews and turning them into positives.  As quoted from the New York Times article Restaurants to Yelp Reviewers: Bring It On:

Pizzeria Delfina, a Mission District institution, is flaunting Yelp reviewers’ mean-spirited, one-star reviews with pride. The restaurant made T-shirts quoting bad reviews and gave them to employees to wear on the job.

Obviously, this may not be the right public relations strategy for every restaurant but the point is that a negative Yelp review is one person’s opinion and it is not the end all be all.

Yelp is only part of your marketing communications mix that helps to build your restaurant’s reputation. If you tweet and treat your customers well, engage with them on Facebook, have a great website, restaurant, and food, then a few bad Yelp reviews really won’t matter.

8 Great Ways To Treat & Tweet Your Food & Wine Followers

By Carina Ost

As a longtime twEATer, I live to both eat and tweet. Most of the people who I communicate with on Twitter are other foodies, restaurants, food and wine bloggers, wine enthusiasts, and wineries. After years of successful Twitter engagement, I know what types of activities will help your restaurant or winery  build an engaged Twitter following.

Now that your restaurant or winery has a Twitter account, what’s next?

Hot tip for building great Twitter relationships:  You must communicate consistently to make a big impact with those you follow and those who follow you all in 140 characters or less!

Here are the 8 Best Tweeting Tips to build a rabid fan base of food and wine followers:

8. Retweeting (RT) is the easiest way to communicate on Twitter because you do not have to think up content. You can either copy and paste or simply click the Retweet button. Look for things that are newsworthy or useful to your followers. If you have a winery perhaps retweet a news story about how the weather is affecting the vines this season. Use this technique often, but not too often. It should supplement your original tweets, not be the only information you push out.

7. Participate in Follow Fridays (#FF), this is another easy tactic that requires very little effort. Simply make a tweet of your favorite tweeters and tell your other followers to follow them. A little description with only a select few is more valuable then just a list of people. For example:

#FF our favorites of the week that made us laugh: @Foodie1 @Foodie2

6. Involve other local business in your tweets, especially if they are complementary. If you are a winery, mention (@) the bed and breakfast down the street in your tweet and recommend them. The B&B will then, most likely, mention you and you will become a twitter team and an unofficial strategic alliance.

5. Post pictures on Twitter of what you are working on: a new dish in the kitchen or a glass of wine you just opened up. Write a short description to accompany it so people know what they are opening. TwitPic and Plixi are the 2 big photo uploaders for Twitter.

4. Post specials and promotions. This is something simple that you can and should do everyday. If someone wanted to know your specials in the past perhaps they would walk in and look at your chalkboard or wait for the waiter to remember to tell them. Not anymore: post it on Twitter.

3. Let your followers be part of the restaurant and winery process. Most people are not entrepreneurs or restaurateurs but they would like to be; they are curious about the life. Post things about the kitchen meals, working on getting your liquor license, or any of the other behind-the-scene processes. Also ask your followers for help, but only if you are willing to accept it, don’t use it as a marketing ploy.  For example:

What would you love to see on the menu this season?

2. Have real conversations with people on Twitter. Read the Timeline and participate. If someone asks a question in the Twitterverse, you should be the person to an answer it. When someone asks a question about wine pairings, consider it your golden opportunity to shine. Answer the question. Mention them (@) and don’t be the first to end the conversation. If they say “thank you” then you should respond:

You’re welcome @winequestions, let me know if you ever have any more wine pairing questions.

1. Provide  real contests for your followers with prizes. Bridge the connection from a virtual relationship to an in person relationship. Tweet something like this:

The first 10 people to come in the winery and say the word “Riesling” get a specially crafted Riesling flight on us.

If you tweet it, the food and wine tweeters will follow!

Side note: You should be sending a minimum of 10 tweets a day, trust me, once you start you will become addicted and want to do more. The more you do, the better! Remember, you are still a business so only use abbreviations when you are in a character crunch and  try to make these wink and happy face free tweets.

Photo Credit: Webtreats on Flickr

Good Bedfellows: Why SEO and Public Relations Should Marry

By Carin Galletta

In many organizations the search engine optimization and the public relations teams don’t work together. And this is a huge missed opportunity since 75 percent of search results are due to the activity that happens off your website. Public relations tactics such as press releases, blogger engagement, guest blogging, forum commenting and other external communications efforts can, if strategically executed, dramatically impact your organic search rank.

The first introduction consumers and media have to your company are your Google search results. Generally, searchers are not typing in the name of your company, they are searching for terms such as “steakhouse”, “restaurant”, “Great Napa wine tasting room” and other category keywords. If your competitor comes up ahead of you, most likely the click will go to them and not your company.

According to recent research from the Chitika, an advertising data analytics firm, the first page, first position result is worth double the traffic of the number two spot.

But don’t despair, even small search rank improvements can make a big difference: moving from the first position on the second page to the last position on the first page will see a 143 percent jump in traffic. For a highly competitive industry like fine dining restaurants, this could make the difference between staying in business and having to close your doors.

In addition to helping with your search rank results, search optimization can drive referrals, word of mouth recommendations and establish your company’s expert status in a category, as well as, provide many other benefits.

PHOTO CREDITS: Google photo – ManFrys; Despair Finger - Juliana Coutinho

How To Set Up A Restaurant’s Facebook Fan Page

By Rachel Tolle

A Facebook fan page for your restaurant can dramatically increase your ability to reach and engage with your biggest fans as well as connect with their friends. This How-To is a simple tutorial that will guide you through the set up process like you are an old pro!

We will follow up with a social media marketing for restaurant series on the best practices, helpful case studies and some pitfalls to avoid, so check back every week or so.

A few tips before creating your restaurant’s Facebook page:

1. Gather all of your assets in one place on your computer (logos, photos, etc.).
2. Make sure to set up the Fan Page on an email that your restaurant controls.  Do not let the part-time employee set up the Facebook account with his/her gmail account.
3. Take some time to write your restaurant description.  Spell check it, re-read it and then post it.

Creating Your Restaurant’s Facebook Fan Page

1. Go to http://facebook.com/pages.
2. Click the “Create Page” button.

   
   



3. Because you are a restaurant, and your business comes from a fairly small radius (in comparison to the whole Facebook world), select “local business.”
4. Name your page – WARNING: You will not be able to change the name of your page, so make sure you’re okay with the name you choose.  HINT:  Make it the EXACT name of your restaurant.
5. Make sure you have permission to create the page from the restaurant (hey, if you own the restaurant, then I guess you have permission) before checking the box, clarifying that you have permission to create the page.
6. Click “Create Official Page.”
   
7. A window will pop up, asking you to proceed only if you’re the official representative – click “Create Page.”
   

There are a few things Facebook is going to ask you to do, so everything you need is going to show up automatically. Just click the links/buttons next to the things it’s asking you for, and you’re good to go.  Don’t worry, most items, except the page name, can be edited later, so if you don’t like it, you can always change it.

1. Upload your logo– it is important to have a large (especially lengthwise) logo for the page’s profile picture, where you will be able to create a thumbnail that will stand out in your fans’ news feeds. Depending upon your logo, you may need a graphic artist to give you some help with this.
2. Provide basic info – make sure you fill this out completely. It adds credibility, and lets your fans know more about your company. It will ask for your website, company overview, mission, and products.   We also recommend putting your restaurant’s hours of operation on here.  Make sure your phone number is on this page, as well.
3. Aside from the “basic info,” there is also a box under your restaurant’s logo on the left. It says, “Write something about [yourpage].” Click that, and add a short description of your restaurant.  Include your webpage address and phone number.
   
4. Post status updates.
5. Add a “Like” box to your website – you can do that here http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like-box.  If you’re not particularly tech savvy, you may need some help from your web master.  They should not charge you much at all to do this. It’s an easy addition.
6. Set up your mobile phone – this is optional. If you’d rather not have your phone going off every time something happens on your restaurant’s Facebook fan page, you can just log in and check it manually.
7. Send status updates to your Twitter followers – this is also optional. If you want your Facebook status to sync with Twitter, go for it. You should definitely let your followers know about your new Facebook page, though, and encourage them to become fans.

Vanity URL

Once you have 100 fans on your restaurant’s Facebook page, you can set up a vanity URL. This is very important, and something you should look forward to doing. The URL you originally get is going to be a mess. It’s going to be entirely too long, and you will never remember it. After you have 100 fans, go to http://www.facebook.com/username/.

It’s pretty simple. You just choose your page from the drop down menu, and choose a username. You can only change it once, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Choose wisely. Your new URL will be http://facebook.com/whateverusernameyoupicked.

Like Your Page

You may think that since you created the page, Facebook will make you “like” it by default. However, this is not the case, so go ahead and click the “like” button.

Ta-Da! Now all your friends will see the page you just “liked” in their news feeds, and hopefully they’ll become fans, too. Stay tuned for other ways to gain fans and promote your new fan page!

How To Lose Reviews and Alienate Restaurant & Wine Bloggers

By Carina Ost

As a restaurant and wine blogger, I have had my fair share of public relations firms reach out to me to get their winery or restaurant reviewed.

If you’ve been trying to break into the blogosphere and aren’t finding much luck, you or your agency may be unwittingly annoying the very people you are trying to impress. But how do you properly seduce bloggers to entice them to go to your restaurant or uncork your wine? Well, I’m here to share my experience with you.

1. Get to Know Your Bloggers
If you have successfully run a restaurant or winery you understand that great customer relations is the key to turn a first time consumer into a lifelong brand advocate.

Same principle applies with bloggers. You need to develop a relationship first and nurture it along the way.

Peruse wine and restaurant blogs and listen to the writers’ digital conversations. With all of the free social media listening tools, it’s fairly easy to do. Listening to the conversation before reaching out to them will allow you to know what turns them on and off, so you can properly engage in a mutually beneficial conversation with the blogger.

Do they follow a Food Blogger Code of Ethics? Do they accept any comps? Are they Gluten Free? Do they refuse to write about Merlot? You can save yourself some embarrassing moments by doing a little bit of social media listening before contacting them.

2. First Impressions Count
After you get to know your wine and food bloggers better, send them an email, a tweet or message via their blog: introduce yourself and make them an offer. Be clear and direct.

There’s nothing more annoying to a food or wine blogger then when a person bungles the introduction and you have to go through multiple messages back and forth to figure out what they want and then are still left with millions of questions.

If you are inviting someone to dinner at your restaurant be clear about the following items:

• Is it a media dinner? Will there be other bloggers present?
• Can they bring guests?
• Will the meal be comped? (There is a polite and clear way to say this: We want to invite you and your guest in for a complimentary meal.)
• If they can’t come on this particular night can they reschedule?

When reaching out to wine bloggers, Alder Yarrow from Vinography has some great tips in the article entitled, How to Send Wine Samples to Bloggers:

“The first thing to do is to reach out to the blogger via e-mail and ask them if they’d like to receive wine samples from you. Not once, but every time you’d like to ship them.”

The article then continues with instruction on how to correctly ship the wine, the information to send, and the questions to ask.

3. The Follow-Up
After the blogger experiences your restaurant or bottle of wine, you’ll be anxious and may check their blog daily. That is okay. What is not okay, is to pester. Follow-up emails beyond a thank you go too far. Asking if they liked it or if they will write about it are BIG no-nos.

Bloggers are writing about food and wine because they are passionate about it and love to share their recommendations. But many of them have day jobs and are fitting reviews into an already busy schedule, so don’t expect an immediate article to pop up on their blog. Be patient. If they’ve reviewed comped meals before or bottles of wine, then you can be assured they will write about it if they liked it. If they didn’t like it, no amount of phone calls, messages or begging, will make them run your information.

If the food or wine blogger is new to the blogosphere or not used to being seduced by restaurants, wineries, or publicists you can add in a little incentive for them. Ask if they’d like to receive a gift card for the restaurant or a bottle of wine (check your state’s liquor laws first) to give away for a contest on their blog.

Act professionally and if you have a restaurant or winery that you stand behind, then with the right outreach (without any gimmicks), it will get reviewed. Bloggers love to share so give them a great experience to write about and don’t get caught up in amateur moves. After all, this is a relationship that you are hoping to continue…so don’t turn them off!

Instant Inspiration: 25 Social Media Leaders To Watch

Social media is ubiquitous and so is the signal to noise ratio of recommendations on how best to market to consumers on those channels. Our annual list is an update from our Top 20 Social Media Leaders on Twitter from September 2009.  We’ve expanded the list slightly by adding a few people who you probably haven’t heard of but who have been no less inspirational to us over this past year.


The criteria for getting on the list is pretty simple:  Did they encourage us to achieve more; break the mold in some way that paved the path for others; or clarify an important question that helps to move the practice of social media marketing forward.


Which social media leaders inspire you?

In alphabetically order:

1. David Armano – http://twitter.com/armano
2. John Bell – http://twitter.com/jbell99
3. Diedre Breckenridge – http://twitter.com/dbreakenridge
4. Chris Brogan – http://twitter.com/chrisbrogan
5. Rod Brooks – http://twitter.com/NW_Mktg_Guy
6. Idil Cakim – http://twitter.com/idilgh
7. Walter J Carl, Ph.D – http://www.chatthreads.com/
8. Stacy DeBroff -http://twitter.com/MomCentral
9. Todd Defren – http://twitter.com/TDefren
10. Tony DiResta – http://womma.org/diresta/
11. Frank Eliason – http://twitter.com/frankeliason
12. Jason Falls – http://twitter.com/jasonfalls
13. Steve Farnsworth – http://twitter.com/Steveology
14. Maggie Fox – http://twitter.com/maggiefox
15. Shel Israel – http://twitter.com/shelisrael
16. Dave Kerpen – http://twitter.com/davekerpen
17. Peter Kim – http://twitter.com/peterkim
18. Gabriel E. Meister – http://www.linkedin.com/pub/gabe-meister/0/b60/bb7
19. Scott Monty – http://twitter.com/scottmonty
20. Jeremiah Owyang – http://www.twitter.com/jowyang
21. Robbin Phillips – http://twitter.com/robbinphillips
22. Paul Roberts – http://twitter.com/PaulRobertspar
23. Andy Sernovitz – http://www.twitter.com/sernovitz
24. Brian Solis – http://twitter.com/briansolis
25. Greg Verdino – http://twitter.com/gregverdino

PHOTO CREDIT: Webtreats My Site My Way