Marketing Restaurant Online

Recently Evan Williams CEO of Twitter was interviewed at Tekzilla. There were several questions asked by Twitter followers direct to him via twitter. The first question was regarding an advice what he would give to someone trying to build their own startup. His answer was very obvious:

The core thing would be “just do something awesome”. Try not to get caught up in the echo chamber. That is probably the toughest thing when you are trying to break out and do something original.

A lot of things are evolutionary, and it is easy to get caught up on what the geek subculture thinks. There’s lots of valuable businesses that can be built there, but I think that is where a lot of people tend to spin their wheels, and I’ve been caught up there before. When I’ve had more successful things, I’ve thought, “Back to basics. What do I want? What do I want to see in the world?” And create that.

Later during the interview when asked,what he thinks about Facebook’s Twitter-like redesign. He joked by saying “Did they redesign?”  Then he goes on to say that he is impressed and hints that some of the things Facebook did is on Twitter’s own design roadmap. (Maybe Facebook got some ideas from their acquisition discussions with Twitter which fell apart). One thing that Twitter plans to do better is make it easier to share videos and photos, perhaps with inline viewing. Now, that would be awesome. Williams says:

Yeah, I think we should support images and video better than we do today, it does not mean we should host them, maybe viewing in line. I don’t want to get into competition with YouTube. Twitter is lubricant for Web content.

Even though his answer was for tech start up company, his message is to all types of companies regardless of what business they are in. It applies to even restaurant business. Evan William is a smart entrepreneurs who has built so many successful companies including the recent one Twitter. So it is worth listening to him and internalising his core messages.If he was talking to the restaurant owners, operators and managers, then I would interpret his messages as follows:

1. Build Something Awesome
2. Look beyond your business and have a  long term vision to reach out the wider world.
3. Plan and create a road map to success and have fun along the journey.
4. Always plan and make your product or service better

Build Something Awesome-This is the main message that he gives to all businesses including your restaurant business. You have to build something awesome so that people would want to have it, admire it and make a remark about  that is worth making a remark about and spreading the idea. The perfect example of an awesome product is an iPhone which is admired by millions around the world. It is so dear that they would never leave them alone. Most probably they would  held them closer more than their own  girl friend or boyfriend. Another example of awesome service is Twitter itself. The fact that you are able to tweet right now and communicate with thousands of people is amazing. It has empowered even a small restaurants to compete with 800 pound gorilla companies. No wonder you and I get hooked on Twitter for hours and love every day. That is how a product or service should be or at least aimed towards that level of perfection. Well you might think you are in a restaurant business  and how can we be awesome. Well Kogi Korean BBQ restaurant has built a cool brand with in few months because they had a unique concept. They have mouth watering delicious Korean Mexican fusion food. Instead of selling it from a traditional stand alone building they sold their food in a mobile truck by marketing online via twitter and blogs. Your restaurant doesn’t have to be mobile but please, you have to create some thing different and not boring products that people are used to. Please don’t create  the same boring sandwich that I can make better at my own office or home.

Look beyond your business and have a  long term vision to reach out the wider world - Twitter though was popularized by a hard core techie culture they didn’t focus only to serve those people. In fact they have a vision to take it to a broader main stream and reaching to the whole world one day. So here the message is to have a long term vision and look your restaurant  beyond just as a food business. Look at doing some thing different like building Green Restaurant. Install energy efficient equipments at your restaurant. Promote using only paper products with the aim to protect the environment. In the process you might lead a revolution in the restaurant industry by saving on energy cost and more importantly saving a planet that your grand children might thank you for. You might be able to create another business in conjunction to the restaurant business. Never know it could bring you fortune. Can you see the picture of doing some thing different and some thing bold.

Plan and create a road map to success and have fun along the journey - Even though he is a great entrepreneur with lots of pressures he is cool and take it easy with fun. It seems he is enjoying his entrepreneural journey  though sometimes it can be bumpy and scary. You have to be passionate and enjoy what you are doing. If you don’t then you might be in a wrong business. Great business have a road map for success. It is a step by step plan to get to the destination. Your business should have a road map plan to do your restaurant marketing. You should have some sort of plans on how to market your restaurant in this complicated digital world. You should know which road to take whether it is Facebook, Twitter or blog.

Always plan to make your product or service better - Twitter is already in plans to make it easier and faster to tweet even pictures, videos in their later releases. They are putting their effort to improve every day. So you should also plan to make your service better and faster. Have you planned on making the service at lunch hour faster? Have you thought about making your pizza delivery time less than 30 minutes? Recently Chipotle released their iPhone mobile app to let their customer order via iPhone and have them pick up at the counter without having them to wait in the line. Have you thought of similar ideas to stream line your ordering process? Have you thought of creating a live band show on the weekends and letting those happy moments of your customers to be shared  with their loved ones world wide by streaming a live tv show via Ustream.tv ? There are so many things one can improve to make your customers experience easier. See if you plan and work on it even if it seems impossible you can make it happen. Now since internet has leveled the marketing field so plain that you can even compete and win even the big companies with big marketing budgets if you plan, learn and execute all those ideas.

Well these are just the ideas that I am throwing at you. There are so many other things that you can come up with and make your restaurant more unique and fun place to be. People  come to  a restaurant not just only to eat. They come there because it is a cool place to be where there are lots of happy people with full of fun and  joy. So if you want to create a successful restaurant business or any business just remember What Evan Williams CEO of Twitter said, “Just Do Something Awesome.”