Category Archives: Twitter Marketing

Blue Sky Local-Marketing Solution For Your Restaurant Via eMail, Text and Twitter

Posted on March 8, 2010 by Nash Sherchan| 4 Comments

It is a normal day during the week. Suddenly rain starts pouring right before the lunch hour.The restaurant should have been full during the lunch time. But it is not. The business is slow.Have you ever experienced that?

Weather does affect the restaurant business. Have you ever thought of any marketing strategy to attract those customers who might have decided not to come to your restaurant just because of the rain. Well, there might be an affordable solution for you.

I had a chance to see the video demo of the Blue Sky Local, a company that specializes in smart coupon marketing solution for the restaurants.They empower the restaurants to boost the customer traffic during the slow sales times especially when the weather condition is not so good. Thanks Matt Ackerson for the video. It was quick.

The main feature that I like about Blue Sky Local is that it is web based. Any restaurant owner or manager can do it online from any where. They have an access to dashboard where they can manage their customers. It is permission based which means that the mobile customers who have subscribed for the coupons will have to confirm to receive the coupons from your restaurant. The customers also have an option to unsubscribe by themselves if they choose to do so.

The other feature that I like is that the coupons have an option to be distributed via three different channels-email, text and twitter at the same time. This ensures that your mobile marketing campaign has a maximum effect.

If you are interested to check out this service you can find more information at their site http://www.blueskylocal.com

They even have a 30 days Free trial offer. So you got nothing to lose. Give it a try. If you think it is effective for your restaurant you can then upgrade it.

Once you try it and get some results please do share your thoughts with us about the service. If some one has already used it, I would appreciate your feedback so it would be helpful to other restaurant owners or managers to understand about the smart coupon marketing solution provided by Blue Sky Local. Thanks!

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Posted in Email Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Twitter Marketing

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Starbucks VIA instant taste Challenge Day- Brilliant Marketing Strategy on Social Media by Starbucks.

Posted on October 5, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| 2 Comments

How Starbucks attracted me into the Sales funnel and finally into their Store persuading me to buy their VIA instant coffee.

Starbucks VIA Instant coffee was the buzz last week every where from radio to Facebook, Twitter and every possible medias. I have to admit that I am impressed by their social media marketing strategy funneling a potential customer into buying the VIA instant coffee. Despite being a marketing guy and knowing how they were attracting me to their fish net, I was persuaded to finally buy their VIA instant coffee. Now allow me to share the process how they did it to me so it gives you an idea how a brilliant marketing can work. Please feel free to use some of their ideas for a similar product launch of your restaurant.

On Thursday October 1st I heard the buzz about Starbucks VIA instant coffee on the radio. They were talking so highly about it in a local radio that I even made a Facebook update wondering if it was really that good. What I essentially did was viral marketing for them at a push of an update on my Facebook informing all my friends about their new product VIA instant coffee. That is what I call a word of mouse advertising. It was purely on a voluntary basis. No one forced me to do that. I just did it because I like the coffee and I wanted to share with my friends. As this buzz was lingering in my mind, the next day when I opened Facebook, I saw the ads from Starbucks on my right hand side of the screen enticing me to RSVP. Sure enough I did it.

Now it was Saturday morning yesterday. I woke up and the first thing I wanted was a coffee. I would have gone to Dunkin Donuts or other Coffee place that morning. Since Starbucks was successful in engaging my mind with their new coffee product VIA instant coffee right from the middle of the week, I could not forget it and it just automatically prompted my mind to go to Starbucks yesterday morning.

I went to the Starbucks. Saw their promotional displays and also the sample of VIA instant coffee with two flavors- Columbia and Italian. I tried Columbia right away. Later I went to the cashier to buy a regular coffee but never had a desire to really buy the VIA instant coffee. She explained me in more details about the promotion and that I could buy the VIA instant coffee for $1.50 with $1 OFF on the 3 packets Italian flavor instant coffee.On top of that I would get my grande regular freshly brewed coffee for FREE. Now who would not want to take that offer. That is brilliant to me. Here is why? If that offer was not there then I would not have bought the VIA instant coffee. Their main strategy was to hand over the VIA instant coffee to every customers that walked into the store with the same FREE cup of coffee offer. Though they lost their money on that FREE cup of coffee I think they won in a long run. Now just take an example of me. Just because of that offer I got those VIA instant coffee. Now I will be trying that coffee. I might like it. The chances of me telling to my other friends is more as I enjoy the coffee. The chance of me buying more also increased dramatically. See how with one simple strategy Starbucks got me hooked into their sales funnel.

Starbucks Twitter Marketing Strategy

StarbucksVIA taste Challenge tweet

StarbucksVIA taste Challenge tweet

On Friday at 12:59 pm Starbucks tweeted about their Starbucks taste challenge day promotion with a link to their event link on Facebook. With one tweet Starbucks were able to broadcast their event to over 300 thousands followers. It was FREE. Imagine if they had to broadcast the same message on TV, it would cost them couple of thousands if not millions of dollars. Using twitter platform, it enabled Starbucks to inform about it’s VIA instant coffee product launch to potentially to everyone who ever were interested in Starbucks coffee. Once people got that tweet they were further drawn into Facebook to RSVP the  StarbucksVIA taste challenge day event.This is brilliant because when they RSVP the event then it is directing their mind subconsciously to attend that event. I am the perfect example. Saturday morning as I woke up, my subconscious mind told me to go to Starbucks.

Starbucks Facebook Ad

Starbucks Facebook Ad

Starbucks VIA Taste Challenge

I have seen Starbucks as the leader in leveraging the social media to engage it’s customers making a great brand awareness. For this particular VIA instant taste challenge event they used the Facebook to promote and in my opinion they were successful. As of writing this article there were 211, 1184 confirmed guests already and we still have time till tomorrow-Monday 5th October up to 5pm. Starbucks might have bought Facebook ad for couple of spare change out of their coffee sales. That marketing expense would be like a drop out of the ocean. However the impact it had to attract targeted potential customers was huge. That is the power of Facebook targeted ad. Any restaurants can attract their customers based on their geographic location. Your restaurant pay only when the ad gets clicked. I feel it is better than any other ad as it is targeted specific to your own local area within your own city.

I hope you got an idea how Starbucks has leveraged social media like Facebook and Twitter to attract the potential customers and more importantly how to use some of those ideas into your restaurant business. If you also want to add some ideas that I might have left please feel free to add on the comment section. I would appreciate it and also other restaurants who are trying to figure this new social media thing would also be very thankful to you.

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Posted in Blog Marketing, Face Book Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Twitter Marketing, Viral Video Marketing, Youtube Marketing

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7 Key Factors That Can Determine Your Restaurant’s Success On Twitter.

Posted on July 30, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| 4 Comments

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:

  1. Sharing
  2. Caring
  3. Retweeting
  4. Be Yourself
  5. Be Positive
  6. Touch Of a Humour
  7. 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.

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Posted in Twitter Marketing

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How Restaurant P.F. Chang’s uses Twitter to Be Awesome?

Posted on July 15, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| 2 Comments

Few days back I was going through my twitter updates and saw an update from Brian Clark at @copyblogger about restaurant P.F. Chang’s. The update was a link to a video that explains how the restaurant was able to connect with it’s customer via Twitter and had a chance to be awesome. I watched the video and liked it for the fact that it is a true twitter success story about a restaurant. I thought it would be cool to share with you as it acts as a case study of how restaurants like P.F. Chang’s across the country are using Twitter to connect with their customers in a deeper level and be a remarkable.

Kelly from P.F Chang’s explains in the video that despite the coastal distance apart how they were able to connect with their customer only because of Twitter. Twitter has made it possible to have an access to their customer’s mind on a real time basis. As this customer a young woman was making an update talking highly about the Chicken lettuce Wrap, the other young lady at Scottsdale, Arizona P. F Chang’s’ headquarter was able to see it on a real time. Thrilled with the compliment about P.F. Chang’s and it’s Chicken Lettuce Wrap, she called the franchise restaurant which was on the other side of the coast. Now after knowing about this greatest fan of the restaurant, the franchisee went ahead and served her favorite Chicken Lettuce Wrap and the dessert on the house. Obviously it was a BIG surprise as she never expected it and never knew that some one from P.F. Chang’s was following her particular update on a real time while she was in the same restaurant. Now this is going beyond the average level of service. I call it being awesome. In their own restaurant term they call it “Trigger with the Guest”.

To be successful first of all your restaurant has to be remarkable and do awesome thing like P.F. Chang’s to your customers. You have to use twitter as a tool to achieve it. You have to WOW your customer and blow their mind with exceptional service that their eyes are not accustomed to and that their mind has never imagined of. Twitter has made it possible. All you have to do is use it to it’s full potential.Literally it has empowered restaurant owners to go into the mind of their customers and see what they are thinking about on a real time. It could be that they are thinking about their favorite salad or dessert like she did it while at restaurant P.F. Chang’s. It could be that some customers from a different state or even different country is updating on Twitter and looking for Italian restaurant in San Francisco lets say for example. When you have that kind of real time information you could directly connect with that particular customer and help him or her with the information and possibly persuade to dine in your restaurant. You have a huge advantage to get the customers right away. The only trick is that you have to be ready to get updated on Twitter and respond to any queries that might pop up on Twitter and gain your customers on the fly.

The affect of being remarkable and providing awesome service to your customers is the BUZZ that spreads so fast on Twitter. It is a viral marketing. It can spread so far and wide in a matter of few clicks on computers or few touches on  mobile phones. The fact that this story was so awesome I am writing about it. No body forced me but I just felt it was cool and felt like sharing with everyone. It is voluntary. See this is the power of being awesome. It spreads itself without having to force someone to do it. Unlike advertising on tv, radio or newspaper doesn’t work because most of them are boring and not at all awesome.It feels as if you are forced to listen or watch or read. No wonder people flip the channel on the tv or radio as soon as there is some kind of forced advertising. It doesn’t work any more. Did you notice how Kelly herself was so excited about the news that she herself came on to the video to tell about it to the whole world. She even told to her dad. In turn the CEO talked about the P.F Chang’s Twitter Success story in his business meeting with about 200 people. I also retweeted it. There were others who  retweeted the same awesome updates. Can you imagine now  how much buzz it might have created among his dad’s business circle and also in twitter universe.

So the key for your restaurant to be successful using Twitter is to be awesome first of all. Then using Twitter to it’s full potential and spreading the word about your restaurant and the products. So if you try to learn at least something from P.F. Chang’s'  twitter success story and implement the strategies, your restaurant would be far ahead than so many that are still trying to figure out how to use Twitter.

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Posted in Twitter Marketing

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Seesmic Desktop-That Can Help You Manage Your Restaurant Twitter Updates More Effectively And Efficiently.

Posted on April 15, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| 6 Comments

Just downloaded the Seesmic Desktop. It is another desktop application for Twitter updates that is competing with TweetDeck which has been favourite of mine so far. But when I saw Seesmic Desktop application lately in their video, it looks more promising with more cool features.

One of the first thing that I liked is that you can create multiple accounts and monitor simultaneously different Twitter accounts from the same window. It is so simple that you just drag and drop. If you had one account for your restaurant and the other for your personal use you can manage the twitter updates from the same window without changing the accounts. You can reply, search and do virtually everything with all your multiple accounts.

Grouping or I should say segmenting can be done for whom you are following. Say if you want to just get the updates from certain number of people then you can segment it and get the twitter updates just from them. This way you will not lose the important tweets coming from those individuals or companies. They don’t get lost in the loads of millions of twitter updates that stream through your regular twitter updates. This alone might be great use for your restaurant or any business or individual.

Another cool feature that I liked is to take the picture right from your webcam  and post the picture to Twitter. Since Seesmic is more towards video micro blogging, this is where they shine the most and obviously do the best job I believe.

There are other so many features that they have built into it and also adding new features at every new upgrades. So it worth checking out.

It might help your twitter chaos to be little more organised and more efficient with this application. Speed is critical in any business whether it is to reply your hungry customers query or general questions from your vendors and joint venture business partners. So to accomplish that speed Seesmic desktop looks promising.

You can download and see for yourself the magic it can do for your restaurant business. Please do share your thoughts how you liked the application so it might help other individuals and restaurant business who might want to use this application.

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Posted in Marketing-General, Twitter Marketing

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“Do Something Awesome”-Advise From Twitter CEO Evan Williams

Posted on April 13, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| Leave a comment

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.”

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Posted in Marketing-General, Twitter Marketing

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7 Tips For Restaurants To Attract More Twitter Followers.

Posted on April 7, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| 7 Comments

Well for the past few weeks I have been busy tweeting and learning the right strategies to tweet in order to increase the number of followers and more importantly building a solid network based on shared interests on the same subject topics. I must admit that after this 2-3 weeks of experimentation, twitter is addictive once you get hooked. It is like a suspense movie that you never know what is coming next and keep you hooked on the seat for hours and makes you keep on tweeting.

I just wanted to let my self free and dive into the twitter world and experience for myself what it is really like. It was kind of short vacation from my blogging world. I feel so relaxed and energized to write this article not just based on reading an ebook and blog post about twitter but in fact experimenting those Twitter strategies myself and then sharing it with my audience.

I feel there is a difference between education and learning. Education to me is when you study or get information from an ebook or from some experts. But learning is when you apply those education that you studied in to practise to get the results. So with all the education I got from all different ebooks, and twitter experts I tried to put them in to practise and these were the following lessons that I learnt.

Again, I would highly recommend you to take this real life experimentation of Twitter education and put it into practise. That is when learning begins and improve upon one tweet at a time, understanding that learning never stops and keeps continuing for a life time to come.

Lessons Learnt from my  Twitter Experiment.

  1. Build a relationship  with your followers and also one who you follow as well like @SocialNetworkTV
  2. Study before following any body and make the first tweet very personalised like @iRestaurant
  3. Try to inject humour with your twitter to give a different flavour like @PopeyesChicken
  4. Ask questions rather than just tweeting a plain statement like @mikefilsaime
  5. Tweet in relation to your subject topics and also other occasional personal tweets like@geekpreneur
  6. Don’t try to promote only your blog or your product or service in every tweets. Recommends @sethgodin
  7. Humanise your tweets like @chrisbrogan

Build a relationship  with your followers and also one who you follow as well like @SocialNetworkTV

William Lark @SocialNetworkTV gave me this great tip on twitter that any one can overlook. Infact I also overlooked this in some way. I started building a strong relationship with those who followed me first because it is natural that when some one followed you, that means they liked some thing about your profile or tweets that was of similar interest to them. If not all at least the genuine followers believed that principle.But I used to think that the big guys with thousands of twitter followers whom we initially started following would not even care about little guys. That is still true but it doesn’t mean that you can not start building relationship with them too. Persistence wins their heart and quality tweets wins their mind. Even if they don’t return your tweets and DMs keep trying with great powerful tweets. Let me tell you one thing eventually you will get response.I know it because I have got response from John Jantsch @ducttape

Study before following any body and make the first tweet very personalised like @iRestaurant

Oh boy! I should not credit my self. But you know what there are something you learn on your own in the process of learning. So at times you can get credit for your self , that is ok. I wouldn’t mind if you learn something of your own and share with me. I would be happy to put it in my next blog post and give you your credit for that too. I read in some articles that Boeing Company before it initiate it’s talks with potential buyers they find out every detail about the buyer. This is very important because it is not a $1000 dollar deal. We are talking about multi million and billion dollar transaction in one sale. I feel you should treat your first tweet to your follower in the same manner. You will be surprised how reactive they would be. It is human nature. No body wants to be generalised as sir or madam especially in Twitter world. They would prefer ” Hi John or Hi Marianda”. Once you understand their core interest, I would recommend you to follow back and start building relationship based on their interest and not yours starting with very personalized tweets.

Try to inject humour with your twitter to give a different flavour like @PopeyesChicken

This is another great tip that I learnt from @PopeyesChicken. The reason people come on Twitter is not just because they want to talk about their daily life but also because it is a fun place to be with full of interesting people. Life in physical world and especially at the corporate world is so boring and dull that people love coming to Twitter to meet with cool people full of fun and joy. Just think about it as a party. When you go to a party nobody want to hang around a guy or a girl who is talking simply boring stuff. Most often you see more people hanging around a person who is full of energy, passion and most importantly full of funny jokes while presenting his views what ever it might be. Have you ever heard a burst of laughter coming from a corner of a party and made you think what on earth is going with that crowd. It creates curiosity in your mind to find out what really that laughter  was about. Even if you were talking with some one,you want to join that group to share that joy and fun. Well this is what exactly what happens in Twitter. So it is very important to be that guy in the party who creates that excitement and curiosity to not only group he is talking to but people far away from him.This principle is very well displayed by Popeyes Chicken. Every now and then I get their funny tweet. If you want to get the taste of humorous tweet, you can do so by following them at @PopeyesChicken

Ask questions rather than just tweeting a plain statement like @mikefilsaime

A great tip that many people on Twitter miss and  I learnt it from Mike Filsaime while I was watching his interview with Joel Comm at Twitter A Thon. Twitter is a place where you break the ice with other people that you have never seen and never met but have a common interest on the same subjects. It is like a real life where you you start a conversation when you meet a new people. But  how do you do to make it natural and reactive. You could say some thing like this. “It is cold out side. I am craving for some soup today.The restaurant has tomato basil and chicken noodle soup. Which one would you recommend?”  See here instead of  throwing just a plain statement you ended with a question. This enables human mind to react to the question because they are looking for an answer. If you had said just It is cold out side and craving for some soup today.The restaurant has tomato basil and chicken noodle soup. It looks so plain and old statement that the other person at the other end would not know what to say or do. In fact it might confuse him and make him feel awkward. I wouldn’t be surprised if he or she would run away just because he or she didn’t feel comfortable around. Also don’t make it look like  if it is coming from a nerd with his dark specs not knowing how to start a conversation with a beautiful girl. Even if she had attracted to him to begin with she would be the first person to run far away from that person because of the boring stuffs he talks about and the style he presents. So please don’t be that boring guy in Twitter. This might be my biggest advise.

Tweet in relation to your subject topics and also other occasional personal tweets like @geekpreneur

This is the tip that I got from reading the ebook titled “A Geek’s Guide To Promoting Yourself And Your Online Business On Twitter”. I highly recommend it. Though it says for online business it is also applicable for offline business like restaurants. When you enter to the world of Twitter you go with a strategy. You have a mission to accomplish whether it is to sell your product or service. It is always good to make most of your tweets in regards to that specific subject topics with the niche target market in your mind. You just don’t tweet random thoughts right and left. Every tweet is very carefully scripted not only to inform your target audience but also leaving a net for others to find you when they are searching for that term on search.twitter.com Every now and then you can tweet about your own personal thing that you find relevant to your audience. That way this gives them a sense of surprise tweet rather than assuming you are the same old tweeterer who tweets only about your blogs or the same old same old topics.

Don’t try to promote only your blog or your product or service in every tweets.Recommends @sethgodin

This is one of the most “out of the box” kind of  tips that I learnt from Seth Godin-one of the most  reknowned marketers of our times who has seen the fundamental changes in the marketing world with the birth of internet and with his Squidoo lens. Seth Godin doesn’t promotes his book on any podcast that I have listened to. Infact he doesn’t want to even mention about it. I call it “Reverse Marketing.” He makes a subtle sales by bringing the insights into the subject of marketing. People get so intrigued that he doesn’t have to really sell his book. It sell by itself. People are more curious why he doesn’t shout loud like others trying to sell their books.It makes people to find out about it more organically and naturally than him trying to forcefully convince people to buy his books. I have taken this to my heart. I fully believe this strategy. I would recommend you to use this strategy if you want to win the hearts and mind of your target audience or customers for a life time and not just when you are tweeting just for the sake of the sales.

Humanise your tweets like @chrisbrogan

Last but not the least please, the tip that is probably the most important tip and that is  humanise your tweets. This is a tip that I got from Chris Brogan when I listened to his podcast interview with John Jantsch from Duct Tape Marketing. Don’t make it look like some computer robots throwing those tweets. Chris Brogan says in his own words that “Twitter is full of human beings but computer robots.” A person  likes to talk to another person. So when you communicate with your followers or new prospects try to make a real life conversation may be with little touch of passion, excitement and obviously not to forget the humour. Thought there are some automated tools to make our life easier, Chris Brogan seems not a great fan of automated tools as it takes away the charm of human to human connection that is meant to be established by Twitter.

These tips that I have learnt over the course of last 2-3 weeks are just the basics of Twitter practises and there are still more to be learnt. So keep your eyes and ear open to different ideas and you will learn fast to attract more followers and convert them into your customers for a life time to come.

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7 Rules On Twitter That Restaurants Can Follow To Attract More Followers And Then Turn Them Into Customers.

Posted on March 16, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| 4 Comments

Though I had seen Twitter long time ago when Rick Sanchez was using it on CNN for instant feedback from his viewers I had never thought of using it. Little did I know then how effective it was to multi communicate with like minded people that you have never seen and known. But similar thinking and viewpoints of common people bring them  closer in a virtual world thought they are physically distance  apart. The tool that is this dynamic and versatile is Twitter. I believe after using for couple of months and seeing it’s effectiveness with my own eyes, I believe it is one of the best invention in communication  that we have seen so far. It is far better than  telephones the greatest invention of our times. I say this because telephone is confined to a limited number of people at a time  that allows limited communication. The biggest hurdle in sharing ideas with this communication channel is the cost. The cost is so high not only in terms of money but the time that few people would dare using this channel to share their ideas with common people. On the contrary, with Twitter it is open communication platform where unlimited number of people can communicate at once  and the cost of communication is virtually zero when one has internet connection. This opens a door to even a regular common people who doesn’t have money but has ideas in their head that they want to discuss with the like minded people and collaborate with them and have a joint venture partnership or form a company to build a company based on their common ideas.

Twitter doesn’t care if some one,be it a person or a company have money or not. All it cares is whether they have ideas that is worth spreading. So as a restaurant business Twitter has levelled the plain field for marketing. It means that you as a small restaurant have a chance to battle even a big chain restaurant with big marketing budgets. It is not about how much money you can spend on mass media marketing now but it is how effective you can be using social media like Twitter and that is available for FREE.

Over a period of few months I have experienced myself how to engage in a conversation in Twitter and also tried to follow some of the top 7 restaurant brands on Twitter to get an idea how they are using Twitter. Combining both my experience and traits of 7 successful restaurant brands on Twitter I have found seven rules that is effective on Twitter to be successful in creating tons of followers. They are as follows:

  1. Start a conversation. Be an authentic voice of your restaurant
  2. Be Polite with Reply and thankful for Retweet.
  3. Follow who followed you
  4. Don’t block any one with Direct Message
  5. Try to blend humour with the message
  6. Don’t over do it. Go with a natural flow when it  is relevant.
  7. Twitter is not magic but when used correctly you can make it appear like a magic to your competitor.

Start a conversation. Be an authentic voice of your restaurant.Twitter is full of human but robots. Human beings like to communicate with humans and not with computers. So try to create your own authentic voice of the restaurant you represent. And most importantly start conversation not with plain statements but ending with question type statement like ” Today is cold outside. We have tomato basil or Chicken Noodle soup. Which one would make you feel warmer? ” See you are trying to engage your customer with some thing to say. In the contrary if you said only ” Today is cold outside. We have tomato basil or Chicken Noodlesoup”. You are not engaing people. You are just plain talking to your self. It is like a boring lecturer lecturing his classroom full of intellectual students who don’t want to listen to him.

Be Polite with Reply and thankfulfor Retweet. Try to reply any questions that your potential customers might have even if they have never visited your restaurant. You never know when that customer is going to come and visit your restaurant even if he leaves in different state. He or she might visit your town and come looking for your restaurant. Even when you get some stones thrown at you, be diplomatic when answering those replies. Always thank for the person that retweet your message. It is a courtesy. They  liked your message and took a time to share with their followers so you owe a thank. They will be pleased and will remember that you are a courteous person who is polite and thankful.

Follow who follow you . Well some people might not agree with this point to follow every one who follows you. That is ok as every individual has different priorities and goals. But as a restaurant business our goal is to attract as many potential customers as possible. So when some one is following you that means they liked your message or what your restaurant has to offer. Following them back is like saying that yes we are open to talking with you too. It is like cyber handshake in a digital world. If you don’t want to open your closed fist for cyber handshake how can you expect to build a relationship with a strangers you just met on Twitter. Without a relationship there is no business too. After all business is built around relationship based on mutual trust. The perfect example of a company who follows this principle is Zappos. It is one of the most customer centric company online. They understand the value of potential customers who could be a customer of life time.There fore they leave their door open to even a stranger that they meet on Twitter and follow them back as a gesture of cyber handshake. If you want to check out with your own eyes you can see then at www.twitter.com/zappos

Don’t Block any one with direct message. Again this is another area where people have different views. But as a restaurant you want to open your direct message to every one that follows you. I have seen so many people block this. With due respect to their own priorities, I feel opening this lets a chance to communicate their perspective on any issues. After all  we decided to communicate via twitter to know the unknown. So if we close the door then we are always unknown. Especially to the restaurant business this applies. Because there might be some customers desperately wanting to connect with you or simply trying  to tell about a service problem to you and if this is blocked then how on earth would you know about it. You miss a chance to build a strong relationship with this customer who could have helped your restaurant in correcting all the weakness and make improvement upon them.

Try to blend the humour with your tweets. People come to twitter not only to communicate. They come there because it is a fun place to hang out. If you are talking about the same boring stuff that they are used to in the physical world then they might not follow you. In fact they would unfollow you even if they had followed you to begin with. So make your effort to be little more interesting than regular folks out there in the bushes with some jokes or humorous comments that gives your twitter message a style with a difference when it appears in Twitter. Popeyes Chicken does this best with their tweets. If you want to have a taste of humour tweets you can do it by following them at www.twitter.com/PopeyesChicken

Don’t over do it. Go with a natural flow when it  is relevant. Some time it can get tempted to tweet many times a day especially when you are starting new. You might have nothing to say and this might cause you pressure to say something when your twitter has only few updates. That’s ok in the beginning. But don’t push your self to be what you are not. It has to come natural from you and do it only when you feel it is appropriate and right time for tweet.  Don’t try to bombard with useless information to your followers. Try to add value to your followers with rich information that is useful to them.

Twitter is not magic but when used correctly you can make it appear like a magic to your competitor. Restaurants should look Twitter as another powerful communication tool. If you use this tool effectively and correctly then you will gain tons of benefit that your restaurant might not be able to handle. Well that is a good problem to have that any restaurant would gladly accept. But if you use it incorrectly then you will hit the axe on your own foot. It is like a loaded gun. If you use it correctly you will kill lots of birds at one shot and if you aim incorrectly there is a chance that you might shoot at your self. So I caution you to use it with proper guidance. You will be amazed how this simple free tool called Twitter can be so effective in attracting so many customers to your restaurants that it will lead your competitor scratch his head thinking it is a magic.

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Top 7 Restaurant Brands That Are Worth Following On Twitter.

Posted on March 8, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| 5 Comments

Restaurant is a part of a service industry where service might be equally or may be more important than any other aspects of the business while delivering the food that the customers buy. In the past, when customers received a bad service or not so good quality food, they used to write comment cards and drop them into a suggestion box or send complain letters. It used to take days before they reached to the company. More often they used to get lost in those piles of other files on the desk without reaching to the main person in the company. No matter how mad the customers were, all they could do was tell bad things about the restaurant to certain number of people that you could probably count in your fingers. But today that is not the case.

Today with Y2 generations and baby boomers who are into Twitter, the first thing they do when they are unhappy with the quality of food or service is, they tweet about it in 140 or less characters and tell all his or her followers that could be in thousands. In one push of a button on their mobile phones or at a click of mouse on their computers they could literally expose it to the whole world. There was a fine example when Tony CEO of Zappos few weeks ago tweeted about a restaurant that didn’t have a Swiss cheese for him while he went for a lunch at that restaurant. The restaurant is supposed to have cheese right. Since they didn’t have one he made a joke about it by saying that it is like staying at a hotel and not having a towel for the guest. Well hotels are supposed to have the towels right. The point here is that single tweet went to thousands of his followers and they again retweeted to their followers. So the compounding effect was enormous that gave a bad public relation to that restaurant. Had they maintained Twitter account and monitored this in a real time then they would have been able to put the fire off by instantly providing Swiss Cheese even if they would had to borrow or buy from their neighbours. Infact it would have been a great chance to turn that negative into positive by providing Swiss Cheese right away and proving to the world that they are fast at solving problems that might arise to their customers, via Twitter.

There are couple of top restaurant brands who have understood the importance of real time customer service. Some of the brands were listed in Mashable. But there are few other new ones that I have added by analysing their twitter success so far. All the 7 restaurants have been able to use Twitter as an effective tool to communicate directly with their customers and help them with anything from directions, contact information, to customer complains on a real time.Out of many restaurants there are seven top restaurant brands that are worth following. The 7 top restaurant brands are:

  1. Starbucks
  2. Dunkin Donuts
  3. Kogi Korean BBQ
  4. Coffee Groundz
  5. Burger King
  6. Popeyes Chicken
  7. Jasons Deli

Starbucks is the top brand by far in any catogories of restaurants that holds number one position with the most number of followers. At the time of writing this article they had 72936 followers. The number of their total followers alone should prove that other restaurants should be on Twitter. It is worth their time and investment that could not be measured may be in dollar amount but definitely in number of happy customers. Brad Nelson is the guy behind Starbucks twitter success. With a coffee back ground it has helped him to understand Starbucks customers very closely and reply every direct messages he get on his Tweet Deck. Tweet Deck that he is using to manage his tweets has enabled him to manage direct messages, topic trends and monitor Starbucks reputation and many more useful information.You can follow Starbucks at www.twitter.com/starbucks

Dunkin Donuts with 9186 followers at the time of writing this article is in the second place of top restaurant brands that is using twitter effectively. Joe to David aka “Dunkin Dave” is the the guy who is behind Dunkin Donuts twitter success. One of the thing that I like about Dunkin Donuts is that they have been successful in engaging their customers and creating a great relationship with them. They have used You tube video channel to reach their loyal customers that they would not not able to otherwise with the traditional televisions. With the use of Twitter Dunkin Donuts have indicated that their company is for deeper relationship with their customers and to help them in every way they can.You can follow them at www.twitter.com/DunkinDonuts

Kogi Korean BBQ is the best example as a proof how Twitter can quickly create the restaurant brand in the shortest period of time. Kogi BBQ which started last November in 2008, has gained it’s popularity not only in LA but in the whole United States and virtually in the world because of Twitter. They have used Twitter so effectively that they have created a great brand which did not existed even before 6 months. With in this short period of time, they have been able to grab 7607 loyal followers. Some of them are so food fanatic that they even chase for their truck in the middle of the night and wait for 2 hours to get a burrito or taco.You can follow them at www.twitter.com/kogibbq

Coffee Groundz is another independent coffee shop based out of Houston,Texas that has adopted social media like Twitter which enables them to stand out from the crowded coffee shops and restaurants. J.R. Cohen, operation manager of Coffee Groundz is the man behind it’s Twitter Success. With 3567 followers at the time of writing this article, they are on the fourth place. One of the cool things that I like about this coffee shop is that they are so responsive to every tweet even if it is from an unknown person who has never visited their coffee shop. I know it because I have tweeted and they had responded to my queries. I asked them about their ustream live concert show they were having in their coffee shop as this was a great interest to me. They were very responsive. Though I have not visited their Coffee shop, I will make every effort to visit them when I am in Houston,Texas. I am saying this not because I am writing this article but because they have connected with me via Twitter. So as a human being I feel I have already built a relationship with their coffee shop. This is a perfect example how using Twitter can be successful in attracting even an unknown person like me to their business by extending a cyber handshake. Only one online tool that is this dynamic that enables is Twitter. You can follow them at www.twitter.com/coffeegroundz

Burger King-the famous burger chain has taken the fifth place with 2102 followers at the time of this writing. Burger King is experimenting with Twitter right now to see how effective it can be to communicate well with its customers and create a friendly brand.They use Tweetdeck to manage their day to day tweets answering questions and putting the fires off right and left. Tweet deck is a great application for them to monitor their brand by searching “Burger King and “theBKlounge” in the twitter search. You can follow them at www.twitter.com/theBKlounge

Popeyes Chicken the famous fried chicken restaurant of Louisiana has held the sixth place with total number of 1829 followers at the time of this writing. One of the distinct characteristics of Popeyes Chicken is that they blend the humour with their tweets. One of the early taste of humour tweets that I got from them was when I wrote an article about Restaurant Branding via Twitter. It said like @iRestaurant put a little more meat on the bone. Loving his article:http://bit.ly/Atk6M . It was referring to an article where I had added more stuffs to it to make more packed and informative. Even today I get the taste of their humour tweets every now and then even though it is directed to their customers. I am so hooked that I have even started using their humour tweet like ” I try breast to leg up all the restaurant entrepreneurs in using Twitter as an effective online marketing tool.” When asked about the person behind Popeyes Chicken Twitter success they joke it by saying that they are so chicken to even expose their identity that they don’t want to release their name. This alone makes every one start cracking to laughter. Wait till any new customers get their first tweet from Popeyes Chicken. They would probably be laughing their lungs out when they come to their stores to try their Buffalo Chicken Wrap or Cajun Spiced Fried Chicken. If you want to experience that laughter even if you can’t visit the store ,you can do that by following them at www.twitter.com/popeyeschicken

Jasons Deli is on the seventh place with 1342 followers at the time of this writing. Jasons Deli is another Restaurant brand that have been experimenting with lots of online tools in their marketing effort. One of the new tool that they are trying out right now is obviously Twitter and it seems it has been effective so far. One of the other tool that they have used very effectively is online ordering system. They have one of the robust online ordering system that they can manage their online ordering, deliveries and catering orders from one central location. In conjunction with their website, online ordering they have added the Twitter component to their communication channel to bring their already built customer relationship to more close and engage in more deeper level. You can follow them at www.twitter.com/jasonsdeli

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How Twitter Is Changing The Way We Communicate And How It Will Affect Your Restaurant Business.

Posted on March 3, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| Leave a comment

Watch the video and hear direct from Evan Williams CEO of Twitter about how his company has evolved from a small idea into a big phenomenon how we as human beings have changed our ways we communicate to each other. Never in the history, has any other medium made our human interactions faster and more interactive than Twitter. Not even telephones,the greatest invention of our time.

Twitter is new in the social media arena. So you might argue that not all of your customers are on Twitter right now . So that one doesn’t have to worry about getting into social media like Twitter. I would say that at least every restaurant should start learning about Twitter  if not use it right away to your restaurant marketing advantage.

The biggest question you need to ask your self is whether people are talking about your restaurant in Twitter or not? You can do it by searching your restaurant name in search.twitter.com . If you don’t see any thing about your restaurant. Then you have to find out why people are not talking about your restaurant on Twitter. When people find restaurants excellent they buzz about that restaurant online. If you don’t believe it, type in  @kogibbq  or Kogi korean BBQ in search.twitter.com and you will know how and why people talk about restaurants on Twitter. May be you have to look hard into your product, service and marketing to make sure that they are  remarkable so people would have something to remark about on Twitter.

On the other hand if some one is talking about your restaurant, one needs to find out what are they talking about whether it is good or bad. If it is good then you can enjoy the best pr you can get for your restaurant and keep on providing even better service and products. If someone  is talking bad about your restaurant, you need to listen what they are saying online and engage with those customers first thanking them for pointing out your restaurant’s weakness and then rectifying it with alternative solutions.

When you look at the growth rate of Twitter, it is mind blowing. It is growing like crazy at an exponential rate. Evan Williams on one of the interviews has predicted that most of the people would be on Twitter within 5 years. This means you are on head start to be the first in this band wagon and start attracting your loyal customers and other potential customers as your Twitter followers before your competitors starts picking every one. Social media and Twitter are here to stay for a long time. It is just the beginning. So there is no point waiting for any reason. So go to www.twitter.com and create your restaurant account. You will be glad you did it. You will start discovering how beneficial it is to your restaurant business.

This is Twitter Profile page of Kogi Korean BBQ restaurant

Kogi Korean BBQ restaurant in LA has proved that Twitter can be the most effective communication tool for any restaurant business. They have used twitter to relay the messages to their customer about their estimated time of arrival at the prescheduled location and delays caused by the traffic every now and then.  They also send some specials of the day via twitter for those who would like to take advantage of the savings. Every time they introduce new items on the menu, they tweet them via twitter. When they post those funny photos on Flickr or great road trip video clips on YouTube they tweet them to all their twitter followers and they would be notified with in seconds. Then all of their followers would have a chance to visit their  blog to see those photos, videos or new menu items that they introduced. The communication would be that fast and instantaneous.

I hope this gives you an idea how Twitter can be one of your most effective communication tool available for free on the internet that you could use today and start building a die hard twitter followers of your restaurant creating a great brand.

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