This post is by SmartBlog on Restaurants and Restaurant SmartBrief contributor Janet Forgrieve.
Despite a deluge of media stories this year touting a slew of social media campaigns by eateries large and small, almost half of restaurant owners and managers responding to a recent survey said they’re not using social media in their marketing efforts, either because they don’t have the time or budget to devote to it or they don’t believe tweeting, Facebook posting or doing Groupon deals will boost their business.
Big chains are getting press for some of the innovative ways they’re using social media tools to build brand buzz, although it’s not always clear whether the efforts translate into more business. Recent examples include KFC’s “Tweet to win a $20,000 college scholarship” contest for high school seniors, Genghis Grill’s local band tour that gets music fans involved via tweets, Foursquare check-ins and Facebook “likes,” and McDonald’s nine-city McCafe scavenger hunt in which fans comb tweeted clues to track down coffee cups hidden around town. The technology and the instant communication it provides also gets credit for helping the current crop of food trucks flourish and bringing foodie fans and pop-up eateries together.
But for large numbers of independent brick-and-mortar restaurants around the country, the jury is still apparently out on whether it makes sense for owners and managers whose to-do lists never seem to get any shorter and marketing budgets never seem to get any bigger to take the time to craft and carry out an effective social media strategy or spend the money to hire someone else to handle it.
Take Groupon and other daily deal sites as a case in point — by now you’ve no doubt read at least one of the stories pondering the question of whether offering deep discounts to bring in big groups of potential new customers is more trouble than it’s worth, especially if the new customers simply come in for the freebies and you never see them again.
Still, even restaurants that haven’t yet jumped into social media are likely pondering it and maybe even wondering how to get started. Several sites offer wisdom on that front. Serious Eats blog creator Adam Kuban wrote recent pieces specifically for restaurants on what works (tweet the daily specials, post contests, promotions and tons of pictures) and what doesn’t (spamming influencers and serving up all your messages at once). Branding expert and marketing exec Dennis Franczak penned a column this week aimed more generally at small businesses. Titled “5 tips for avoiding social media pitfalls,” the piece advises business owners to take their time, despite the seeming way social media moves at warp speed. “Remember, while your posts should be timely, no one is really rushing you,” he writes. “Think about your approach and collect the feedback that you receive from your fans and followers.”
Are you using social media to promote your business? If not, why not? If so, have your efforts boosted traffic and sales?
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Whether restaurant owners get social media or not is no longer relevant. Their customers get it, they spend most of their online time using social networks and they trust peer recommendations from their friends and contacts.
The reason bars and restaurants currently advertise in newspapers and magazines is because they believe that this is where their potential customers are, but advertising AT your customers instead of engaging WITH customers is increasingly more futile. More and more customers adopting social media means a shift in how hospitality businesses attract them is essential. Ignore at your peril.
Cheers
Barry Chandler
TheBarBlogger.com
My recent post Great social media strategies for bars & restaurants
Barry hits on a critical point, namely the use of social media as nothing more than just another broadcast channel; the campaigns you site (Mc Donald's, Genghis Grill and KFC) are prime examples of this.
The bigger point we've been making for the longest time is that most operators should NOT get involved in social media yet, because they simply are not social businesses – which is the ultimate goal. They do not have the culture or the internal levels of engagement to support a social media presence which is critically necessary to in order to succeed with it.
However, the biggest reason operators do not yet believe in social media is because they don't see the ROI for it. This isn't helped by all the inane discussion by the industry's self-proclaimed, social media guru's, about the use of fans, friends or follows to determine success either. Until we start having serious discussions about social business leadership and the tools that can help operators actually put cash in the till, we'll be stuck in the mud like we usually are.
Great points Barry & Jeffrey. I very much agree with the biggest challenge being that the restaurateurs aren't seeing the ROI in uitilizing these tactics, yet. The shift in the way people communicate on a fundamental level is completely different than it was in 2001 and the sooner a business operator embraces it the easier this transition will be in the long term. One challenge I find with restaurants is not so much that they are avoiding social media but they have managed to avoid utilizing internet tools entirely. Reasons being everything from not having the time or money to not seeing it as a viable marketing tactic.
Personally I am busy helping clients develop a simple understanding of what the internet is and how it is currently affecting their bottom line.These folks are stuck in the dark ages and have had it a little too easy thusfar but business is becoming more competitive and the best and most current companies will thrive.
Joel
My recent post Excited to be here
While I agree with most of what you say Joel, remember this is an industry that has an average profit margin of less than a nickel on every dollar. So I don't think they have it "too easy".
Not ALL restaurant need or want to invest the time to utilize social media the way the chains do. First, they don't use this form of communication to offer giveawys, coupons and incentives. Once you devalue your product, it is hard to dig out of that hole.
Despite the clamor about social media, customers, as a group, are not ALL using social media. In fact, if your demographic is made up of a significant number of people over the age of 25, that age group diminishes in use of social media as the average age rises.
Finally, there are much better ways to engage, involve and build client loyalty than these mass blasts. Traditional forms of advertising are slowly becoming poor investments, but social media is only a very small part of a solid independent restaurant's marketing plan. Free it is, but time effective for putting dollars to the bottom line has yet to be proven.
I'm reading that the fastest growing group of people getting into social media (fb in particular) is the 30-50 age group. I'm just sayin….
Age is just one factor and definitely not the defining one. Not everyone in a certain age group is your target market. Just because FB has 6 gazillion users doesn't mean they'll all potential guests.
Great round up of resources on this topic, Megan. I'd like to note that my company MustHaveMenus.com is the originator of the survey you. And, I'd also like to jump into this lively discussion with a few comments:
Barry makes a great point about how consumers are moving away from advertising "at" them. And, engaging customers via social channels is important. Mass blasts may be effective in getting some people in the door in the short-term, but it's long-term relationship building that gets people engaged with your business.
Yes, social marketing has limited proven ROI. But is that really a reason to ignore this channel? No, it's kind of like waiting to see what the competition does, then reacting. Listening is a good way to get started in social media and trying out one medium. Food trucks are a great example of how this tool can extend reach to customers you've never reached before.
Restaurants may be behind the curve in an online presence overall, but the ones who jump on board and innovate are the ones that will win in the end.
Amanda Brandon
Social Media Manager
MustHaveMenus.com
I got a little long winded in my last comment, so here's the second part:
Jeffrey, Don't you see restaurants as one of the most social businesses in the world? While food is our product, social is our business. People come to our establishments to eat and socialize – over business, birthdays or just because.
It seems instead of guessing whether we should or shouldn't enter the social marketing space, we should get to know our customers and ask them how they want us to communicate with them. If the manager doesn't know anything about the top 20 regulars, something's wrong.
Amanda Brandon
Social Media Manager
MustHaveMenus.com
You miss three very critical points Amanda.
1. Social Media very much has proven ROI and it is centered on actual sales and profits. But this connection has been so infrequently made (especially by those who think that # of fans, friends and followers are legitimate metrics) that operators aren't getting the message.
2. Restaurants & Hotels should be the most social businesses on the planet, but just because people gather at your place to celebrate life, doesn't make you a social business. 200%+ turnover, treating guests like customers, commodity food and hospitality, etc are all sure signs of an anti-social business.
3. If you can't deliver on the "social", having a social media presence will only serve to amplify your mediocrity, so it's best to stay away until you first fix your business or you run the risk of hastening your demise.
My recent post More Facebook Shenanigans
While I agree that the connection is infrequently made between Social Media and actual Profits ( and this should always be the goal…), even a mediocre business can improve with the use of Social Media. Take this case study as an example: http://bonfiresocialmedia.com/social-media-case-s…
If a business is in trouble, there's a very good chance that complaints have been taken online in the form of reviews, tweets or Facebook posts. A business owner needs to decide whether to get involved in the conversation that already exists about them online or whether to ignore it.
I recently worked with a bar that complained of poor business and bleak prospects. A simple 10 minutes spent online identified scathing reviews with specific problems identified, negative tweets and staff members bad mouthing their own workplace.
If you want to fix your business, it's not just about listening to the customers in your restaurant, it's about listening online and creating an action plan based on what you hear.
Once you start this process, you can begin to build community around your brand, and it's not about blasting out coupons or offers, it's about making a customer feel special. That's within every business's capabilities.
My favorite tweet from a customer recently about a client's bar: "No need for that kind of attitude from my server, so popped my glass into my purse"
Our reply: "Would love to make this right for you, but first bring back the glass!"
No social media cannot help a mediocre business. Social media is an "inside-out", not an "outside-in" process. It only serves to amplify your mediocrity. You first have to fix your business from within. The only feedback you need comes from those whose butts are already in your seats. And if you can't listen offline (which is where all relevant brand discussions start) then you cannot listen online.
As for your guest complaint. I would have said, "Keep the glass and bring it in so we can refill it and show you how we really treat our guests!"
First rule of social media: Listen, listen, listen. It's the same rule as running an offline business. Relying on face to face feedback alone is not sufficient. 1 in 10 of us (or some similar statistic) complains on the spot, yet the other unhappy 9 tell their friends of the bad experience. Are they telling them online? If so, you need to know, so in that case, it is also outside-in….
As for the glass, we would hate to encourage theft!!!
My recent post Great social media strategies for bars & restaurants
Nobody said to solely rely on face-to-face feedback. But as any real relationship goes, and as with any good Voice-of-the-Guest program, it starts with those who are actually sitting in your dining room and not sitting behind a computer screen. Only 1 in 10 people complain in person because no one asks at the point of experience other than "Is everything OK here?" as they meander through the dining room incoherently asking the same question to every single table, totally oblivious to any detail, all because to them "OK' is their standard.
I have a lot of respect for you Barry, but do you really consider it theft if your business pisses off a guest so bad that they feel it warranted to take the glass they just drank from? I really hope not.
I agree that good business starts IN the business, not on server in California….100% agree. I also agree that if you have bad service and push 100s of extra customers at it through ANY channel, then you are multiplying your problems.
Its a multi-pronged effort:
1) Work on your service and the WOW factor in the restaurant. Focus on what you offer uniquely that you do really well instead of a commodity item available anywhere.
2) Solicit feedback on the spot right there and then and make sure the feedback gets to the top.
3) Measure your efforts both financially and through customer sentiment. If it's only financially, you have no idea if you just served a whole bunch of first-time customers who might never come back, despite doing well financially from serving them. Getting the feedback and comparing to financial results is paramount.
4) Listen online to see what the sentiment is. What do your local review websites have to say, what are people posting? Does a search for your restaurant in Google return a 2 star review out of 5 in the first 5 results on the page?
Combine all the above, tweak and repeat…If you're acting on customer feedback, constantly improving and the prices you charge are returning a profit…then you've beaten the odds….
As for the glass (and thank you for the respect…it's mutual…), she can absolutely keep the glass…she deserves it and so does the bar…but they learned a lesson!
My recent post Great social media strategies for bars & restaurants
See? Just keep it focused on the basics and in that we agree 100%. Now who at SmartBlog gets our invoices?
My recent post More Facebook Shenanigans
Lot of free consulting put out there this afternoon…!
At least it all ended amicably!
My recent post Great social media strategies for bars & restaurants
Amazing, considering your Irish! = )
Having worked on both sides of the bar, I can tell you that bars CAN be the most social businesses on earth, but it comes down to people. Drinks are a commodity, pretty much the same selection in every bar. Its the people we return because of: the customers we have befriended and the staff who have befriended us.
Bars of old were the social hub of a town or village. You went there for the news, gossip, groceries and a pint. Social channels allow us to rebuild that sense of community and separate ourselves from the commodities we sell.
I'm much more likely to tell people about or visit a bar that interacts with me one on one, than by seeing a quarter page newspaper advert offering 2 for 1 Miller Lites….
Bars and restaurants can listen to feedback, solicit feedback on new menu items and ask their community to help spread the word about upcoming events while featuring photos and videos of past events.
The bars that do it well reap the rewards in terms of sales, not just the number of fans.
My recent post Great social media strategies for bars & restaurants
Jeffrey, good points on the ROI. I agree that it's not about numbers of fans and friends. However, those numbers should not be discounted. These fans or followers are typically people (we hope) and like your business for some reason. Now, if it's to just get discounts, you're sending the wrong message. But, the real power of these "fans" is that you are extending your word of mouth marketing.
My recent post The Fresh Sheet- 2011 Restaurant Trends – Which Trends Will You Embrace
The only numbers that matter are the numbers of butts in your seats, the number of dollars they spend and the number of people they rave to about your business. The rest is semantics.
I have to disagree with you on the social aspect. Let's think about it from a customer's perspective. I'm going to the restaurants that know my name or at least my face. I'm probably going to church with the owners or managers or their kids are in school with my kids. I'm thinking about the restaurant I take my family to as a place where the waiters will treat us kindly, ask us how we've been and offer great service.
If we're running our businesses this way as owners or managers, why shouldn't we think of it as a social business? Turnover is high, but if you are doing the right things for your staff – training, offering them a flexible schedule, growth opportunity – your customers are going to come to you instead of heading to a chain down the street.
My recent post The Fresh Sheet- 2011 Restaurant Trends – Which Trends Will You Embrace
Knowing your name or your face doesn't much matter if nothing is done to build the relationship.
Why shouldn't we think of it as a social business? Because you have to be engaging on both sides of the table as well as in your community. Without engaging your staff to build relationships, you'll never have a social business. It doesn't work one way and anything less makes you a commodity. I'm sure you'd understand this if you had ever owned or operated your own restaurant.
As for your 2nd paragraph, I think you need to re-read my comments and maybe my blog because it sounds like to me you're arguing just for the sake of arguing.
A personal observation of numbers specifically involving hospitality businesses on social media. I work with a number of restaurants and lodging and the amount of followers and fans is totally meaningless for ROI or ROTI, Anyone can "buy" or use automated tools or promos to "get" more fans. But it's about engagement just like engagement in person.
A restaurant that runs a facebook ad to "get" more fans will not get more return if they have 1500 fans that like their page, most who have never been there. A restaurant that has 100 organic "engaged" fans will see more business and more engagement. Same with twitter.
If you look at many of the small business twitter accounts with thousands of followers that used an autofollow program to get follows, most if not all of those followers have no interest, and don't really care about the businesses tweets, It's a meaningless number and they are not really listening, so the number of followers itself is meaningless.
I think even if restaurants are not yet using social media, they should at least be using it to monitor their reputation and I agree there is something that can be gleaned about comments. On Yelp for example. To reiterate one of my own posts, if 20 people complained about your fries being undercooked in the last month………….
I do have to agree with Jeffrey and Barry on the majority of their points, but I think we all lose sight of the fact that while most restaurateurs just do not have the time to make for social media and many do not yet see the value, they WILL have to find the time and fairly soon, because its not going away.
Aside from the basic marketing and customer retention and conversion aspects, it is having a huge effect on SEO, so even if a restaurant is tweeting (and doing it badly) and their neighboring competitor is not, its going to have and seems to be having, more of an effect every day, on search.
Who needs an organized panel for intelligent discussion, when we have Jeffrey, Joel, Barry and Amanda? Thanks for the great chat today — our whole office was riveted. Seriously. Every day when we're combing through news we come up with articles on both sides of the social media issue. It's definitely a divisive issue. The truth of the matter is that it's a consumer-driven world out there, and they're going to play the largest role in how the relationship between social media, consumers and restaurants/small businesses interact. Still, many restaurants are going to have to decide if they want to be reacting to consumers' social media behavior or if they want to be more proactive about their social media strategies.
I'm curious to see what kind of conversation we'll be having on this topic at the end of 2011 or even six months from now.
My recent post Does social media make sense for your restaurant
[...] by Smart blogs Does social media make sense for your [...]
I think you you guys are missing the point here.
The leisure industry has always been a relationship industry, particularly restaurants, pubs and bars. This relationship has been grown and maintained by front of house activities.
Social media is a relationship growing business, so it makes complete sense to incorporate social media into your front of house activities.
If you fail to do that, then you fail to take advantage of the most revolutionary opportunity for 100 years.
My recent post Restaurant Marketing Strategies
Sorry Baz but there's no missed point. We all agree that social media can help build better business relationships with consumers, what we don't agree with you on, is that it is 100% necessary – yet. We also believe that a business shouldn't just "dive into" social media if you have not yet built a social business or understand what your goals and objectives for doing so, are. As to your other points, Social Media is not a "relationship growing business" for restaurant & hospitality businesses. It is a facilitator. It can add value to the relationship, but it cannot create one just as no marketing tool can. This is the domain of real people serving real people. It is also certainly not the most revolutionary opportunity in the last 100 years. While the tools are relatively new, word-of-mouth and relationship marketing have been around as long as the industries that rely on them. Hype like that does nothing to engage the minds of operators, looking at how social media can impact their marketing efforts.
The other (bigger) problem is that the business community and marketing professionals (as well as marketing amateurs) see social media as a marketing function. It is not. It is a business function. Until we recognize that, we won't be seeing much more than coupons, specials and contests anytime soon.
Brian Solis says "Engage or Die" and you have just mentioned that companies using social media well are getting the press coverage, the blog posts written about them and tweet after tweet of mentions and free advertising. The time issue is a cop out. If you have the right device it take 30 seconds to take a pic and tweet a comment about whats happening. Restaurants also have the ability to add social media to their POS terminals so waiters and other staff can engage in between serving or in quite periods.
Social media enables the smallest business to have just as loud a voice as the chains, to have just as much influence with their area than anyone else.
If you are NOT fishing where the fish are will you have a business in 3 years time? I doubt it
The time issue is not a cop out because to be effective you have to plan, create and measure the impact of the content you create and the context for the audience which you intend it. Otherwise, it's just doing a bunch of stuff just for the sake of doing a bunch of stuff.
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