Marketing Restaurant Online

Why Restaurants must  be involved in Cyber Space and make friends before turning them into customers?

Gary Vaynerchuk is one of the great entrepreneur who has embraced the technology and taken his wine business to the height that any business man would envy. His style is straight forward and his knowledge of wisdom is so true and very helpful for any entrepreneurs including restaurateurs who want to embrace the change that internet has brought.

The one thing that I like about internet technology is that it levels the plain field. It democratize the marketing. What I mean by that is ” Marketing in the TV industrial  age used to be dictated by the amount of advertising money that a company could spend and that is usually in millions. But in information age like today, the battle of marketing is not fought solely with money but with ideas. Money does play a role in marketing but it is not the sole factor that decides the winner. It is the idea and innovation that wins today. Just take an example of You Tube. It was started by just 3 guys former employees of Pay pal with very few resources and capital. But their idea was great. It was innovation in itself considering that it paved the path to democratize the video content. No more is the video content controlled by Tv stations. In fact today any individual with a Flip video camera, internet connection can create their own mini online Tv empire that can even threaten the traditional Tv stations. Infact you as a restaurant owner or chefs have a power to start your own restaurant TV network like Emeril Live Show. No more you have to spend outrageous amount of money to traditional media like Tv which doesn’t work any more these days. In fact they don’t control my attention. I have so many choices that I don’t really have to pay the attention to them. I would rather go and view online videos that specifically suits my style and my flavour. No more they can throw the commercials at my face whether I like or not. With a push of a button I will flip the channel or with a click of a mouse I will go to other sites that will attempt to create rapport and build a relationship. I  and so do you will no  more take those  forced advertising which is irrelevant to us.

So the question is how as a restaurant business should start a new way of reaching to customers that is relevent to them and are more likely to admire your restaurant and become a Loyal Fan?

As Gary Vaynerchuk explains that so many companies know how to mix and mingle in a real world. They tend to hold back when it comes to internet. Internet is indeed like a big conference where there are different kinds of people. It is like going to the chamber of Commerce. You go there so you can connect to your local business friends. Now as a restaurant entrepreneur internet is similar to business of chamber of Commerce. But it is much bigger that Chamber of Commerce and there are more people than you can imagine. Without taking a long time to drive to your chamber of commerce, you can visit so to say the cyber chamber of commerce with a click of a mouse. You can go to different forums that is related to food industry. You can go to different blogs related to food or visit groups on face book that is non vegetarian or vegetarian or may be green revolution group. Go and get involved in these blogs leave the comments when you like the discussion. Add value to their discussions and help where possible and make some friends in the process.Try to solve the common problems faced by the general people in the forum of your own home town. This is how you get involved in the internet world, start conversation, open your fist and give an open hand for virtual handshake on the internet.

This is how you build relationship and create loyal fans of your restaurant for years to come.