Category Archives: Face Book Marketing

Where Are Social Networking Sites Heading? How Can Your Restaurants Take Advantage Of Business Branding Opportunities Facebook Offers.

Posted on May 20, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| Leave a comment

When you look at the history of social networking sites, since 2004 there has been a tremendous growth in social networking sites. It boggles my mind to see how many new sites pop up every day revolving around the idea of social media. To name few dominant ones are Myspace, Facebook and Linked in. The interesting thing to note during this same time is that how some of them have declined while the others are rapidly growing to be an integral part of our modern social medium of communication. What I am talking about here is Myspace vs Facebook. Though Myspace was born before Facebook, it has declined it’s popularity and in a way become old school. While Facebook which came later in the scene of social media adopted a twist on Myspace social networking site model by also implementing the business aspect.I believe that has given a huge boost to Facebook popularity.

Linkedin is also another social networking site focused on business professionals.But it only attracts the business people here. Facebook where as takes personal only approach of Myspace and professional only approach of Linkedin and combines the both and make it one in Facebook. That is what it makes Facebook more dynamic than Myspace or Linkedin. Though they have their own strengths in their own right, what I find it problem to us as a restaurant business owners is that it doesn’t serve a purpose of participating and engaging with the customers. It is like having only young customers in Myspace and restaurant business in Linkedin. So when customers and business are in separate social networking site how on earth are we going to communicate with our customers and engage with them, most probably inform and entertain them to win their loyalty and encourage them to visit our restaurants. Facebook takes this opportunity of filling the vacum that was created by this two social networking sites. Now since Facebook allows a business like your restaurant to create Fan page or Groups in Facebook, you can virtually communicate two ways with your customers, also who have become fans of your restaurant. Business and customers have come to a single social networking platform Facebook. Now only then it makes your restaurant and customer relationship a business sense.

Facebook has definitely been a blessing for small businesses like small independent restaurants. It offers an opportunity to small restaurants to even compete with big chain restaurants. No more can a chain restaurants sit on a heap of extra cash they have and laugh at small restaurants which they have been doing in the pretelevision age. The days of fighting the battle of marketing on the televisions are over. In fact if you are smart enough to execute the Facebook marketing with  targeted advertising, despite being a small independent restaurant and with a less marketing budget,Facebook now levels the battle field plain for you to even win the Goliath.

Facebook by any means is not a magic.It is not something you turn it on and it works wonders automatically. Obviously work and patience is required. You have to have a strong presence. Engage with the fans. Entertain them. This is how you build a relationship and create your loyal fans.

But if you don’t have a patience to wait too long and you are willing to pay money for targeted traffic then there is a service offered by Facebook called Facebook Ad. Basically it allows you to advertise your restaurant to a targeted group of people lets say people residing only in your town or city. Facebook with it’s algorithm it will display those ads to only people that you have targetted specifically. That way you have a more chance of your marketing money worth well spent. It is not like shot gun approach on televisions, radio or newspaper. Facebook Ad  hits right on the target and produces astounding results that is unheard of. Sometimes it might lead you to scratch the head and make you think why one would spent so much on other traditional medium of marketing that doesn’t work any more. This is even better than pay per click advertising on Google because Facebook already has a data of a people living in your area that you are targeting. That means the advertising of your restaurant would not be thrown at the face of a random people like the tv does to annoy them. Rather with it’s unique algorithm it would learn about your customers social profile and only would display the ad on his face. This time you are sure that the customer is more likely to respond because it is more relevant.It is not like the ad from a tv or radio where you see or hear an ad about a restaurant that is located on the other side of the town or city and there is no way you would be driving that distance just to have your dinner.

The main advantage of Facebook Ad to your restaurant is targetted advertising.You can virtually laser target the customers with in your town or city with their targeted advertising and attract to your restaurant.This is how Facebook Ad brings a value proposition to all small businesses including your restaurants.

Hope all of the small independent restaurants see the opportunity that Facebook offers and take advantage of it.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Face Book Marketing, Social Media Marketing

Tagged , ,

4 Tips On Facebook Marketing That Can Be Effective For Your Restaurant Business.

Posted on May 18, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| 4 Comments

Facebook is a platform that you as a restaurant owner should use it as a networking tool to build a tribe of your own that would become your customers and eventually your loyal fan.Some of the restaurants might think that just creating a Fan page on Facebook is enough. Well that is just a start. There are other things that a restaurant has to do in order to be successful in promoting your restaurant on Facebook. Below are the 4 tips on how your restaurant can use Facebook to market your restaurant.

  1. Create a brilliant Fan page
  2. Reach out
  3. Get Active
  4. Join Groups and create events

Create a brilliant Fan page -As a restaurant business you now have an opportunity to create a Fan page and attract unlimited number of fans and create an unique brand. Some of the the singers and actors have  millions of fans on Facebook. So as a restaurant you can do the same if you choose to do so. But the key is to create rich contents that your customers would like to read. Share some relevant information that your customers would eagerly want to hear from you. It may be about healthy food, or how to remain healthy while eating good food. Add some good quality photos of your delicious food. May be make an announcement of a happy hour or a surprise wine session at your restaurant. Another important thing is to create your own branding image. It must be original and reflect what your restaurant represents. If it is casual restaurant then make it visible with the updates, the photos or videos that you share with your customers.

Reach out- Just creating a Fan page on Facebook is not enough. You have to find a creative way to attract the potential dining customers to your Fan page. Like Gary Vaynerchuk says, you have to hustle to bring those hungry customers first to your Fan page and later to your restaurant. So how do we do this? Well the most effective way first is to identify the key influential people that are related to your food industry. It could be food blogger, or healthy eating group on Facebook. You have to be creative enough to make friends by networking with them. I promise your marketing effort will be much easier leveraging their influential powers to may be thousands and millions of people at one click of a mouse. Alternatively you can also start engaging with potential customers within your town or city by engaging with ongoing updates. Though a little slower process it is worth the effort provided you do it consistently every day. Even if you can make friends with few people – a small number  that is countable on fingers, it is worth to create a momentum. The compounding effect of fans that can be generated virally over a period of some time like few months can turn out to be mind boggling.

Get Active- Now that you have reached out influential people within your restaurant and food industry and also potential customers from your town or city that are on Facebook, you need to get active with them. That means first you must share valuable contents or useful information that are relevant to them. You can do it by making a quick updates on Facebook. The frequency is also important. There is no set rules how many updates you can or can not do. The important thing is that the number of the updates has to match with relevancy and usefulness to your customers. At least one update a day is critical. Because if you don’t make any updates then it can be felt by your fans. It would be like your fans calling you on the phone but no one is picking up the phone. That displays that there is no actions going on and will be clearly visible by the fans on the fan page. So even if there were fans initially they will lose interest and start dropping from the fan page. So please don’t let this happen. The key thing to remember is engage with fans by asking questions and getting feed backs. They will comment and provide feedbacks and your job is to listen. Listen first what your fans are saying. Internalise it and respond to any or all of the comments. This way it shows that you do care about your fans. It also tells them that you do exist as a human being.

Join Groups and Create Events – There are so many groups on Facebook. You can search the type of the groups that you are interested and join the group. Not as a restaurant business but as a regular individual who has a interest on that topic. Lets say you want to attract environmental conscious customers then you can join a group which discuss about environmental impact issues that are dear to their heart. Hope before you join this group you have inclination to at least adopt some of the ways where you are contributing to the planet by just doing simple things like using paper products instead of plastics or foams. Now you can proudly  talk about how businesses, just using paper products can help in protecting the environment. You could share some of the case studies with them. You could also share some good articles that talks about the same issues with some results. Now when you prove them that you are knowledgeable person then they will start trusting you and respecting you. While you are sharing your ideas, you have a reason to display some of the results that you have achieved at your restaurant. You can share and they will listen this time because you have already gained the trust from them. You can even create an event with a theme like , “Saving the environment While enjoying the great Food.” where you are only using recyclable products and also raising money for charity programs like Saving the Planet or something similar to that. These are just some ideas that I am just throwing at you. You can be much creative and come up with your own events based on your interest but also relevant to your restaurant.

Hope you get some ideas how you can be creative and use Facebook as a networking tool and start building a qualified network of potential customers that you could turn them as your real customers at your physical restaurant and hopefully  loyal fans for years to come.

→ 4 Comments

Posted in Face Book Marketing

Tagged , ,

The Opportunity Facebook Offers To Restaurants In Marketing Their Brand.

Posted on May 5, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| Leave a comment

Facebook has become one of the most integral part of our social communication medium. Without it it must be hard to live as a social human beings where we like to communicate with each other whether it is with our friends or loved ones. My self would be a great example who use Facebook more than email or even phone call if I want to communicate with my friends whether in States or other countries. Every day I see new lost friends joining Facebook. That indicates to me that there is more and more people joining  Facebook. It has become a digital home to all of us no matter which part of the world we live in. Before we decide to visit to any new restaurant we ask our friends on Facebook. Some times while visiting restaurants we send Facebook updates right from there inviting our friends. When these new breeds of customers are living and breathing Facebook, it would be a mistake any restaurants would overlook the opportunity it offers.

I was doing a research on the internet and I came across a video presentation about social media by Reggie Bradford . I got more interested as he was talking about restaurants and new way of social media marketing. To my surprise he is from Atlanta. He was talking about local brands like Moe’s South West Grill, Willy’s Mexicana Grill. Even better. I knew then that writing a blog post would be even more fun.

“In the downturn, I think the only way to keep a brand in front of customers and the message relevant is to use social media.Marketing dollars work at dramatically higher multiples when consumers help create your message and pass it along.” Reggie Bradford

Reggie Bradford, ceo, Vitrue, Inc., a social-media marketing firm, explains why it has been more important than ever to businesses to adopt social media marketing in this new age of digital world. He shares his experience about how iHop is successful in tying up the marketing effort using Facebook and was able to even attract a marketer like himself.When he was checking out his facebook, he noticed that his friends had RSVPed to attend IHOP’s National Pancake Day which benefits the Children’s Miracle Network. He then left facebook and headed to iHop’s website. He located the nearest iHop restaurant and went there with his family for the breakfast. This is a classic example how a restaurant can tie in a  great marketing with great cause on Facebook. With out the social networks like Facebook and presence of his friends transparent digital footprints he would not be able to know about IHOP’s National Pancake Day which benefits the Children’s Miracle Network. Attending then would be out of question.  See how all these marketing ties into a network effect. So I would highly urge all the restaurants to have a presence at Facebook and engage with customers interacting, answering their questions, and entertaining with promotions and may be freebees like Denny’s and iHop.

The other thing that I liked about iHop’s promotion is that they have tied up with social cause. They were giving Free Pancakes but also raising the money for Children’s Miracle Network. So it attracted even people like Reggie Bradford to attend the iHop promotion. The marketing is brilliant if you observe this carefully. IHop has tied up this with social cause positioning their brand who cares about their community and the children. This is one of the most powerful marketing promotion I believe there is  because it is connecting with those parents who also have their own children and have a deep feeling to support this cause. These parents are also one of the most socially aware customers there is in the entire planet. You can not sell them with those old sneaky sales techniques or those flashy fake advertisement on the television. They can smell it from a distance. So please don’t even bother trying it to these tech savvy customers. Instead connect them by engaging  and entertaining these customers via social networking sites like Facebook which is their digital home. You would be far ahead than many other restaurants who are still  hiding their heads in the sand as if nothing has changed since 2004 after the birth of Facebook.

So I would encourage to all restaurants if you haven’t used Facebook for your restaurant then start creating a presence on Facebook. Start engaging with your customers. Entertain them with great marketing promotions, events and surprises every now and then. You will win over your customers and create a loyal fan for years to come. I believe those restaurants who acknowledge that world of restaurant marketing has changed and are willing to change themselves by adopting Facebook will win ultimately.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Face Book Marketing

Tagged , , ,

What Would Yelp Integrated Into Facebook Do For Your Restaurant Business?

Posted on April 27, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| Leave a comment

It’s interesting to watch Robert Scoble’s argument Why Facebook should buy Yelp rather than Twitter. Robert Scoble is a prolific blogger, Geek enthusiast and an author.

It got my attention because he is talking about the future and the promise it holds to small businesses like restaurants. In fact he is already forecasting the future of social networking sites convergence and how it is going to affect the businesses like your restaurant. More important thing to note here as a restaurant owner, manager or operator is how as a restaurant business one can position your self to take advantage of the promise that social network sites like Facebook combined with Yelp provides in the future.

I do believe that Facebook buying Yelp makes more sense than buying Twitter. After the purchase deal that didn’t go with Twitter, Facebook in a way has started it’s own version of twitter though it is not as dynamic as twitter.

Now lets see closely why Yelp integrated into Facebook makes a powerful combination. Yelp is a social site for reviewing local businesses like restaurants by regular people like you and me who are also Facebook users.

Yelp has all the the datas about restaurant reviews-likes and dislikes from your friends about particular restaurants in their neighbourhood. Now the same friends are also in Facebook. The problem here is that since Yelp and Facebook doesn’t share the datas at least for now you don’t have the power to leverage your friends restaurant likes and dislikes at Facebook. However this dynamic could change if Facebook decided to buy Yelp.

Like Robert Scoble said, if Yelp were to be integrated into Facebook then it could be a very powerful virtual word of mouse recommendation tool. Lets say if you were walking down the Golden gate in San Francisco or Manhattan in New York, and wanted to try the restaurant that your friend would recommend you based on their review. All you would do is go to your Facebook app on your mobile phones like iPhone, android or others and type in restaurants with zip code. You would have an access to the restaurants that were rated by your friends based on likes and dislikes. This way you wouldn’t have to worry about those directories that are full of junk datas. Instead you would be getting an honest reviews and recommendation from your own friends. Obviously you would trust your close friends than some random group of people’s review about a restaurant. Can you see the power now of the Yelp combined with Facebook?

Successful people in sports or business are always on top of the future trends. In a way they can predict what is coming next and get ready before it is there. That is how they win. Take an example of Magic Johnson in the Sports of basketball. He talks about knowing where the ball is going to be before it is passed and run to that spot while the ball is being passed and NOT after the ball is passed. It is about timing and knowing where the things are headed next. Being in the right place and at the right time makes a person or business winner.

If you look at Steve Job of Apple, he is a winner with his revolutionary product iPhone. Well he didn’t succeed just because he came out with his great product over night yesterday. He predicted this couple of years before 2008-2009. He knew very well where the mobile market was headed. Even thought their main core business were computers he suddenly jumped into the bandwagon of mobile phones may be to the surprise of even NOKIA. Now he is enjoying his right predictions and actions taken well before.

So the point behind this story is to have that edge on the future where things are headed to and be able to position yourself so you can take advantage of, like Magic Johnson and Steve Job.

I see these convergence of Yelp and Facebook coming in the future. If not this two there will some sort of this. So I highly recommend all the restaurants to get ready for that. For now I would suggest that restaurants start building presence at Facebook and Yelp and other social networking sites and building reviews of cource good ones from your your online customers which can then be benifitted when Yelp is integrated into Facebook. You will be well positioned by then to take advatage of that integration.

At a push of a button on mobile devices your restaurant would be found and recommended by their friends at Facebook. I am sure they would visit your restaurant instead of the advertised restaurant that they saw on the television. Well at least I would visit your restaurant recommended by my friends because I trust my friends than the television or online directories full of junk datas about restaurants from random people whom I even don’t know.

That is the difference and power Yelp Integrated into Facebook would bring to your restaurant business. So I hope you see the possibilities what Yelp and Facebook combined can do for your restaurant business. More importantly I highly urge you to position yourself well to take advantage of the new dynamics of convergence of Yelp with Facebook or any other sites that can add value to the restaurant diners.

Do you think Facebook will buy Yelp? How about Microsoft, Apple or Google? Will they compete with each other to buy Yelp? Regardless, who ever buys Yelp, how will it impact restaurant marketing in this new age of social media where convergence of social media sites will take place and LOCAL will be the focus in the future?

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Face Book Marketing, Social Media Marketing

Tagged , ,

Learn What Do Businesses Use Facebook for?How Your Restaurant Can Use Facebook For Marketing Your Brand.

Posted on April 23, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| Leave a comment

Facebook though initially started just as a means to get reconnected with lost friends and family, it has grown to be much more than that with 200 millions users world wide. Every month they have at least 100 million visits at Facebook per month. It has made very attractive to small companies and even big companies to adopt Facebook in order to market their business in a new way in a new digital age. So what do small businesses use Facebook for? What do restaurant owners or operators use Face book for? They use Facebook for the following reasons:

  1. As a networking tool
  2. As a communication tool
  3. As a Client Management tool
  4. To prospect for new customers
  5. To target niche market

As a networking tool- Your restaurant should create a Fan page and use Facebook as a means to network with the potential customers, vendors, joint venture partners or even investors. It acts like a chamber of commerce where you go to network with the local entrepreneurs. The only difference is that it is digital and you will find not only local entrepreneurs but also international entrepreneurs, investors and also potential customers from all around the world.

As a communication tool- Facebook is a home to 200 million people around the world. More and more people are joining every day. So it makes very logical for any business including your restaurant to use Facebook as a communication tool. Best of all it is FREE. You could use it to broadcast your events in restaurant. Let say if you want to announce happy hour you can do it by simply making an update on Facebook. Instead of writing an email and getting buried in email inbox or sending those printed postcards, you can on a realtime send invitation to your wine tasting session that you are going to held in your restaurant. Interested customers would response to your updates and let you know if they are coming. Now on a realtime you have an information of how many people are coming to your happy hour or winetasting session. Now that is powerful information that you would not be able to get it from tv, newspaper or radio. I hope you can see the power of Facebook communication.

As a client management tool-Since Facebook is a digital home to many people around the world, your customers live and breathe there. Most of the business have even shifted their entire client management into Facebook.It does make sense because now at a click of a mouse you can connect to your customers no matter which part of the world they are.So I would highly recommend you to use Facebook as a client management tool for your restaurant business even if you have your website or blog of your restaurant.

To prospect for a new customers- You can use Facebook as a means to communicate with your customers whether it is to share information about your restaurant or anything relevant to your customers. Since there is 200 million people from all around the world, I am sure you would be able to target at least enough customers to flood your restaurant if you execute your Facebook marketing well with right strategies.

Target a niche market-Try to target a tight focus group of people from your local area at Facebook since your restaurant can serve mostly to your local customers in your neighbourhood. Lets say if you want to target eco friendly customers then you might want to go to niche group like Green Technology Lovers group for example in Facebook group. You can engage in the discussions and input your knowledge and build relationship from there not as a restaurant business owner but just as a regular guy who just love the subject.

Apart from local customers you can also target people from other parts of the States or around the world. It is wise to do so especially when they plan to visit your city or town. If you have relationship already built on Facebook, it is more likely that they will choose your restaurant over your competitor’s.

Hope you will recognize the power of establishing your presence at Facebook and start building relationship with your potential customers.This will enable you to attract all those online customers into your restaurants and with your delicious food and excellent service, convert them into loyal customers. With all these tips I am sure if you haven’t started your presence on Facebook, you can start doing so by using it for marketing your restaurant brand.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Face Book Marketing

Tagged ,

Facebook Marketing Secrets From The Experts That You Can Use To Promote Your Restaurant Business.

Posted on April 16, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| Leave a comment

Facebook is one of the most popular social site in the world with 200 million users so far as confirmed by Facebook recently. Started on college campus and popularized by high school kids it is a digital home to many around the world. It has been a trend where the mums and dads of those high school kids have out numbered them. These mums and dads and baby boomers are one of the population segment that has the most purchasing power. So starting to build relationship with this segment of population and Y Generation customers should be of great interest to your restaurant for your business.

There are so many restaurants that have already made it to Facebook Profile Pages popularly known as Fan Page. Some of the biggest brand on Facebook that I have seen so far are PizzaHut, Dominos, and PapaJohn. You can check them out for your self to see how many loyal fans they have in Facebook.

Now that we know Facebook should be an integral part of our restaurant marketing strategy, the question arises how do we start? What are the best practices on Facebook to be successful.

To answer all these questions, I recommend you to watch the video and learn the secrets to effective brand building tips and techniques on Facebook from the experts around the world.

Four Tips on Facebook Marketing for Restaurants

1. Be Yourself
2. How much is too much personal information
3. Don’t be too Salesy
4. Talk business the right way

Be Your Self- When you create a profile you have to create your personal profile and then on top of that you can create a fan page for your restaurant. But when you start building relationship create your unique style and voice to your restaurant. If you like being funny and bring some smiles to your customers then make your updates with some fresh, unique updates  with a twist of  humour. It might bring a smile on your customers face and brighten the whole day. Share some of the relevant information with your customers and occasional personal thing like what you are doing for  to improve your business or express simply some opinions about some popular chef’s interview that you might have seen on some foodnetwork tv.

How much is too much personal information- Since your personal profile page and business public profile page is lumped up on the same page, you have to draw the line how much personal information to share. It is totally up to you to create that boundary line and make sure that there is a line between personal and business life and therefore it essential to maintain that balance. Just make sure that what ever updates you make on your facebook that should not hurt you in your business. So before you make any updates just make a careful decision on what words you are using.

Don’t be too Salesy – Facebook is a platform to make connection with new people and building a relationship. It is not a place where you pitch your sales for your business. If even some one has already connected with you and if you start off with a salesy pitch  it will turn off that relationship and might be over even before it get started. So BIG WARNING ! Don’t come across as Salesy.

Talk the business right way- Well you might think then when should you do business on Facebook. At certain point of the relationship you do have to propose right. Other wise there is no date and no marriage. You are right but you just don’t ask for a date and straight marriage just the night you meet a girl. You take time to understand each other well before you make any move. You tell right thing at right time while both are on the same mood. Same thing applies at Facebook while you are proposing your business deal. If you are passionate about restaurant, talk about the different foods you like or the popular chef’s interview that you listened to provided both you and your fans like food. Demonstrate your self very knowledgeable in the eyes of your fans by sharing great information or articles on Facebook updates and making a subtle sales which I like to call Presell. When you sniff a sale, take to them to an appropriate place like email or phone to talk the business on private. So this way you balance the Facebook presence with out being salesy and yet doing the business and making the deal as intended well before getting into Facebook.

Please feel free to share your own opinions on how to balance your personal and business profile at Facebook. I would appreciate if your thoughts and experience can benefit other fellow restaurant owners, operators, managers or any interested individual.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Face Book Marketing, Marketing-General, Mobile Marketing

Tagged , ,

How Kogi-Korean BBQ Restaurant is leveraging Blog, Flickr,Twitter And Facebook to effectively market their Restaurant.

Posted on March 2, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| Leave a comment

The video  is inspirational to many especially restaurant entrepreneurs who come to America with a dream to make it big in restaurant industry. Though it might seem overnight success, it is not. There is years of dedication in the art of food, passion for what Mark Manguera and Roy Choi believed in. Nothing derailed their conviction. Few months ago, when they were just starting, no body would want to try their food let alone buy the food. Mark even had to beg people to try the food. This was a humble begining unwilling to take “no” for answer. They were persistent and kept on moving ahead pushing hard. They introduced their food to new customers one at a time. Once they ate the food, they couldn’t believe it was that delicious. They couldn’t help but spread the words and  become their die hard fans.

Kogi Korean BBQ restaurant  is not a new thing in LA restaurant market space. After all there are so many similar restaurants all around LA. So the question is what did Kogi Korean BBQ do to  get so much attention from the media, press to die hard fans who would keep on chasing for the truck in the middle of the night. The answer to that is they stood out from the rest of the average restaurants to be one of the coolest mobile restaurant. They set the trend by being different and taking the restaurant to their customers and not the other way around.  They also had a remarkable product-fresh juicy burritos and tacos with unique authentic Korean and Mexican flavour. Once people ate it, people felt as if they died and gone to heaven. They couldn’t help but keep on talking to their friends and to every one they met. This started spreading like wild fire and even reached to the halls of LA times and many other Los Angeles media press.

In my opinion the most important factor to its quick success and  popularity is social media like blogs,Flickr and Twitter to name few. These new media has made it possible to any body  to spread their ideas quickly and gain success provided they understand the social media and use it effectively to their restaurant marketing advantage. Kogi  Korean BBQ has maintained a blog and within the blog they have incorporated Flickr  and also Twitter. Never before was it this easy for any small independent restaurant like Kogi to engage with it’s customer this closely sharing photos, videos and comments. Blog has made it possible for restaurants like Kogi to communicate back and forth with it’s customers and understand exactly what they like and dislike. They also have used Flickr to share the happy moments and may be some funny ones too with their  customers. Customers are given an opportunity to express their love of food. Once they capture them in their lenses they make  it available on their blog so they can cherish the moment even days, weeks, years later. They have taken this one step further. If picture is worth 1000 words then video is million words worth. They have used video to share some of their road trips with their die hard fans and displaying those mouth watering tacos and burritos not just to people in Los Angeles but virtually to the whole world. The fact that it was in LA times I also watched the video though I am not in the vicinity.However since the video has a great impact on me, when I visit LA I will definitely be one of them chasing Kogi Korean BBQ in the middle of the night after my night club social time.

Lastly the most powerful tool they have leveraged in communicating with their customers is Twitter and Facebook. Considering that it has to fight all the heavy traffic through LA while moving from one place to another, the timings can be off from the schedules. This is the time when Twitter and Facebook come in handy. They can tweet on Twitter or make an updates on Facebook about their situation whether they are in traffic or anything that is causing delay. That way at least customers can be well informed and wait there for the juicy tacos even if the wait is for 2 hours. Twitter and Facebook also allow them to broadcast the specials of the day or any new menu updates. Twitter and Facebook is freely available tool on the internet and they have used it effectively to their advantage.

When you look at it’s history, it is barely 4-5 months now and they are so popular with in this short period of time. We would be pondering how on earth is this possible to a new concept restaurant which didn’t have any brand recognition at all. Well this is possible due to power of internet technology and social media tools. Never in the history it has been this easier and faster for any restaurant to spread their ideas and create a great brand which would take years with the traditional medias.

Hope you realize the potential of social media and use it to your advantage. Have you tried using social media for your business marketing. Please share your experience below and any questions you have. So we all can help each other. Thanks.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Blog Marketing, Face Book Marketing, Twitter Marketing, Youtube Marketing

Tagged , , ,

Face Book Marketing – What Is A Restaurant Face Book Marketing?

Posted on January 4, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| Leave a comment

What is a Restaurant Face Book marketing?

Restaurant Face Book Marketing is a process of marketing your restaurant using social media networking site Face Book.

Why Face book is important to your restaurant ?

Facebook.com is one of the most popular networking site there is in the world today. Chances are that your own young  kids, nephews, or cousins might have an account with facebook. Today when I checked out the number of face book users in United States, it is 36,427,820 about 35.5 million and about 140 million users world wide. The number is growing rapidly every month.That is lot of restaurant traffic for your restaurant readily available in the cyber space. As a smart restaurant marketer, the question is, will you be able to understand the power of social networking site Face Book and tap into the great potential of attracting those new customers and converting them to  most loyal die hard fans of your restaurant brand.

Face book has changed the way we socially network and communicate. What it means to Restaurant Owners and  Operators ?

I guarantee you that most of your restaurant customers have already facebook account and if not they will be joining the bandwagon soon. Founded on 4th of 2004, in less than five years it has changed the way  how we communicate among each other. From those American Idol craze teenagers to adults working in small offices and  big corporations have decided to change their life style by adopting facebook as part of their life. As a restaurant entrepreneur and operators it is very vital to understand the changes that are
taking place with your  customers and more importantly to be able to change yourself to adopt the new emerging technology like Face Book.

Facebook is a great blessing to all the small businesses including your restaurant provided you understand its importance and great power to even battle those multi billion dollar big restaurant chain. Today the internet and application like facebook has leveled the plain field with regards to marketing. Your restaurant marketing success is no longer dictated by the big company who has the most money to spend at those mass media marketing rather any one  who is smart enough to spend their time understanding these new online marketing strategies and implementing them at  virtually free or very low cost.

On the other hand it is curse for those restaurant who are not willing  to change from their own comfort zone and trying this incredible powerful marketing tool readily available at facebook. For those restaurant professionals who still believe in those old age marketing ideas, it might shock them to wake up one day  that their customers have moved to their competitors who have adopted the facebook and similar emerging technologies.

How can your restaurant start using Face Book now ?

First go online at www.facebook.com and sign up for free account for your restaurant. Once you create account you can create a profile for your restaurant. You can use your artistic skills to decorate your restaurant profile page with great restaurant photos and also add those funny viral videos. You then can create your own group where you basically invite all your existing customers to be part of your restaurant community and make them your loyal fans to spread the word too all their friends. Now I call this word of mouse. Ravings about your  great food and vibe is advertised with a click of a mouse to thousands possibly millions if you  try hard. This is much more powerful than the word of mouth advertising I believe.

You can also post any events that are taking place in your restaurant in the future or just a simple general announcements. Above all the features, the most favourite of mine is the “Create Targeted Ad” which you can find inside Page Manager Application section. You can create an online Ad and target to specific
country, city or to certain age group and much more to your specific needs. This alone is powerful tool than all  the traditional media like newspaper, Phonebook, television combined. You also get the choice of having result oriented marketing known as cost per click ( CPC) where you only pay when some potential online users clicks at your ad. You have a control over how much you want to spend on the marketing. More importantly you will have a better idea about your online marketing effectiveness. You will bluntly know if it is either working or not working.

There is no doubt that Facebook is effective especially if you understand how it works and use the targeted ad. So it is very essential for every restaurants to use Face book marketing if you want return on investment on every dollar you spend on online marketing.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Face Book Marketing

Tagged , ,