There is no doubt in my mind that Twitter is one of the most powerful marketing tool for restaurants if they can understand it well and harness it’s power to it’s full potential.
Over the last couple of months I have started to see the trends in the restaurant industry getting into the bandwagon of Twitter. Just few days ago Chik-Fil-A , Atlanta based Chicken Sandwich chain also joined Twitter. Every day there are so many restaurants joining Twitter. Two days ago I was introduced to a new restaurant who had just joined the twitter and I was the first or second follower of that restaurant. All this show me that indeed restaurants have begun realizing the importance of Twitter in their marketing effort. It is good thing that they are getting into it. That is the first part of the equation. However there is another part where most of the restaurants are missing the boats. May be because they have not understood the concept of Twitter well, they have not been able to execute it well and harness it’s power that could be mightier than television, radio or newspaper. So I will try my best to breakdown the Twitter Success concept in to 7 factors that might be able to help you see Twitter with different eyes than regular folks out there and execute it well to your advantage.
7 Key Factors To Your Restaurant Twitter Success:
- Sharing
- Caring
- Retweeting
- Be Yourself
- Be Positive
- Touch Of a Humour
- Surprise them
Sharing -
Twitter was born originally with an idea of sharing your daily updates in your life. Even on Twitter update page it says “What are you doing?” ( Earlier Version) People share simple things like ” I ate cereals and milk.” There is nothing wrong in that if a person is sharing it with his or her friends though I still believe it should be more interesting than that or at least it should be expressed in a style so that it doesn’t appear plain and boring. However as a restaurant one should think what customers are interested in. You have to share something relevant that is useful to them and that would help them in their life. Some restaurants keep promoting just the coupons or deals. Nothing wrong in sharing your restaurant’s products. But it is not what you share but how you share makes a different and make more attractive to the followers and be interested in it. Let’s say you have a buritto to promote. Don’t just say we have the best buritto in the town. Come and Enjoy! Because that is too generic and every restaurants say the same. The follower would be saying, ” Yeah right! and all those tech savvy followers would be laughing at that updates. Give them a reason why it is good and how it could make their life easier. Now the same product you could promote it by saying like ” Try our rediculously yummy, big fat buritto that will fill your tummy at less.” Not messy as Burger, u will enjoy it without dripping that red ketchup on your new shirt even while on the wheels”. I’m just giving you an example. See how the same thing is turned into catchy yet funny with a powerful relevant and useful information for potential customers. One of the targetted customers would be students or any one who would like to have good lunch or dinner at reasonably low budget and secondly the other would be drive thru customers who would like to enjoy their food without messing up their clothes while driving and eating at the same time.
Caring -
Twitter is about connecting with the like minded people and then caring for each other and helping each other in need.When one of your follower make a remarks-good or bad you have to respond. That shows that you as a owner or manager do care about your customers. If it is a good remark that they make on Twitter then thank them for such a great compliment. If the update was about service complain then you could acknowledge it right away and be by their side as soon as possible to resolve the problem. Now if you solve the guest’s problem then he or she would be so happy that the next tweet would be about how efficient you were in solving the issue. Your restaurant had a great chance of turning the same negative buzz into positive and gaining more fans out of even nearly negative publicity just because you were able to find out quickly through Twitter and resolve it.
Retweeting-
When ever you find interesting articles relevant to your customers then please retweet it acknowledging that person who originally made the twitter update. Also don’t forget to thank any one who retweet your twitter updates.Whenever you find some followers making an updates talking highly about your restaurant and the delicious food, then retweet that along with your thanks.
Be Yourself-
Presenting yourself on Twitter while Branding your your restaurant can be little confusing in the begining. Truth of the matter is that you have to create your own style and give an authentic voice to your restaurant brand. If it is a fast casual restaurant then you should present yourself casually as you would be talking to your friends. Sometimes making jokes and uplifting the spirits at times when they are little down.You should be natural while engaging with your followers. You have to use your best judgement while communicating with your followers on twitter.
Be Positive-
Try and stay positive all the time on Twitter. Though sometimes it is hard, you should make every attempt to be positive on Twitter and never be negative. People flock to Twitter because it is a place full of fun and positive people. Though sometimes you can find few people that are negative. When you are positive that is reflected on the twitter updates and your followers can sense it. That produces positive twitter updates which will attract other interested followers to you. No one one wants to be around negative people. Lets face it. Even if some one happens to be near them, they will try and run away from that person. So please don’t be that person. On the other hand you might have to deal with that kind of negative people once in a while. If that does happen, please take it easy. Respect them for whatever their comments might be and try to make a quick exit from that conversation without letting it get worst and yet leaving a positive impression about your self.
Touch of a Humour-
Life in a corporate or physical world is generally boring. People like to come to Twitter to meet with cool people.So one of the key factor to be successful in Twitter is to add that dash of a humour with your twitter updates. It is like a garnish on a main dish. It enhances the flavour of the entree. It does pretty much the same thing except it does it for the tweets. It makes the Twitter updates more exciting and fun. Some of the cool guys that you can follow with a dash of a humour are Joel Comm @joelcomm , CEO of Zappos @zappos and restaurant @PopeyesChicken
Surprise them-
Twitter is one of the cool tool that lets you go into the mind of your customers. Never in the history any other tools has enabled this. Even before lunch or dinner you have an access to your customers’ mind for what they are going to have provided they make those updates. So that means when your customers are making an updates about your restaurant you have a chance to connect with them. If you feel that the customer was so awesome while updating her tweets, may be you could surprise with their favourite dish or dessert mentioned on Twitter. The customer would be surprised and now your restaurant have a chance of connecting with the customer in a deeper level. Every now and then you could surprise your followers with one lucky winner for Free Lunch or what ever you may find appropriate. This will create a buzz among the followers to follow your restaurant as the surprise prizes create excitements.
The above guidelines are the basics for the Success for your restaurant on Twitter. However there are other so many that you will learn as you begin the journey of Twitter along the way. If you know some other key factors for successful twitter strategy please feel free to add more on the comment section. Learning is a life long process. So I hope you would keep your eyes and mind open to the most powerful tool-Twitter and continue your learning process about Twitter and most importanlty learn to connect with your followers who could be a life long customers.
Do you think twitter is a great marketing tool for restaurants? Are they using Twitter effectively to attract followers and convert them into customers? Please share your thoughts.