Marketing Restaurant Online

Over the past few years I have been closely watching the game played on the web. It’s interesting to watch the race especially between Google and Facebook.

Google has been there for over a decade now. They have been dominating the web since then. But the interesting thing that is happening right now is that Facebook is taking over the web. Facebook comes along in 2004. A baby in front of Google few years ago has grown so big so fast that Google is already starting to feel the heat. In fact Facebook is a threat to their dominance on the web. No wonder Google is scrambling to release product after product like Wave and Buzz just to counter defend themselves. I am not sure how effective they have been.

In the video Thomas Power of ecademy.com presents his insight about Facebook and the future.It is intriguing. I agree with him that  Facebook will take over Google as a number one site on the web by this year 2010. He makes a prediction that Facebook might have a BILLION users by 2012. I wouldn’t be surprised if Facebook grows that big with the growth rate that I see at present. So for any businesses including restaurants it is the best time to get in and take advantage of the opportunity it offers.

They are so good at taking a simple concept and delivering it to the masses that it has become so popular and thus powerful force on the web. Just take an example of Fan Page. When it just got started it was static. Once they realized that it has to be more interactive, they made the status updates on Fan Page appear on personal profile page of the fan. Now look at all the businesses and may be even your restaurant has adopted Facebook simply because of this reason.

The biggest advantage that I see for your restaurant is the friend to friend recommendation of your restaurant on Facebook. We all know when we want to visit a new restaurant we tend to ask our friends for their recommendation. In a real life scenario you might be able to ask to a very few friends in person or on the phone. But the problem with this method is that recommendation is limited, as you can ask only few people. But with Facebook at a click you have an access to hundreds and even thousands of friends who might have recommendations for the restaurant that you are intending to visit. It would be like going to a restaurant review site like Yelp. But instead of reading review from random strangers you would be reading reviews from your own friends from your network. I’m sure you would trust your friends than the strangers recommendation. If Facebook buys Yelp or comes up with similar product then restaurants are winners here. Even the small restaurants with no brand name will have a chance to rise to the top just based on the good recommendations of your customers who are fans of your restaurant. So please treat your customers right and start gaining the great testimonials from now. Your restaurant will be far ahead when Facebook will integrate product something like that.

The race between Google and Facebook is not complete yet. It is still on. But as a restaurant entrepreneur I think you should be able to figure out who is going to be a winner and try to incorporate your present and future restaurant marketing based on that analysis.

So do you know who is going to be the winner. Who do you think is going to win the race?

As Thomas Power said that the winner of the race is the one with all the names. You know who has all the names now including your name and probably thousands of your customers name.

Your answer might give you a reason why your restaurant should really care about Facebook?