Social Media Strategy for Restaurants.

1. 7 Keys For Your Restaurant's 2010 Social Media Strategy
By Jaime Oikle, Owner & Founder of RunningRestaurants.com
Did you get social media in 2009? It certainly blasted onto the scene full force with the
emergence of Twitter in the media. That, plus the proliferation of other online sites and
mobile tools have made social media more prominent in consumers daily lives.
Don’t fret if your restaurant has just begun to test the waters or hasn’t had a chance to get
involved in social media yet.
The New Year is a great time for new initiatives and arguably social media should be an
integral part of your marketing strategy for 2010.
So what can make the most difference for you restaurant? Here are 7 keys to help you
maximize social media for your business in the upcoming year.
1. Focus on the Big Three First – Time is a precious commodity as a restaurant owner.
You need to get the most bang for your buck and you’ll do that by focusing your efforts
on the three biggies of social media: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Each has an
enormous user base already familiar with and actively participating with their site. Make
sure you get an account on each of these services, or in the case of Facebook, a Fan Page.
Between sharing videos on YouTube, posting updates on Facbook, and sending tweets on
Twitter, the majority of your social media time and effort should be concentrated on these
three sites.
2. Create a Personality & Be Worth Talking About – As you’re setting up your
accounts you need to really think about the “personality” you’ll be putting forth with your
social media efforts. If you’re a serious person, then stick with a serious tone and
approach in your posts and language. If you’re fun and irreverent, then let that come
through.
The point is with social media there is no wall to hide behind. In fact, the true allure of
social media is that it can offer an inside peek at people (and businesses) that isn’t
available in any other form of media. This affords a tremendous opportunity to
independent operators to let their uniqueness and differences set them apart from bigger
competitors in their marketplace that may have to stick to a corporate script.
To really make social media work for your restaurant business you need to be willing to
put yourself out there – your face, your name, your personality and your brand – that is

2. what will make you worth talking about and make your followers and fans want to share
your messages with their friends.
3. Show Pictures & Tell Stories – A common first question from operators is “what will
I post to these social media sites?” Owners can be overwhelmed with this question until
they start to break down their business and what they do on a daily basis. Do you have
daily specials? Tweet about them on Twitter. Post a picture of your best special item on
Facebook. Are you having a Super Bowl party? Shot a short video about it and post it to
YouTube. Share the highlights on Twitter and Facebook. Celebrating a special event?
Offer a wedding venue? Chef like to ham it up on the camera? Staff members have a
joke or funny story to share? What ends up being the case once you get the hang of it is
with so many potential items to share, which are the best ones to share with your
audiences, when and how often.
A key point is not to have your social media posts be 100% promotional in nautre. You
need to balance your communication between sharing, selling, listening and having
conversations. To tell the truth, this balancing act is probably the most difficult skill of
managing your social media efforts. Social media is radically different from traditional
forms of advertising and marketing, so take great care with your communicating style and
messaging.
4. Integrate Into Your Marketing – Marketing is a big and important bucket for your
restaurant. Social media should only be a slice of your overall marketing efforts. Just
how big a slice will depend on your particular operation and budget considerations. The
key is that all of your marketing should be integrated. Your table tents should talk about
your Facebook and Twitter accounts and invite customers to follow and talk about you
there. Your takeout menus and business cards should do this as well. You should also
use your social media accounts to drive other marketing goals of your restaurant such as
growing your customer email list or birthday database. Don’t forget to cross
communicate messages across the web, in the restaurant, via social media, and any
external ads or promotions that you do.
5. Test Marketing Offers – Social media is a great place to test a marketing program or
idea. For example, a special happy hour promo can be posted at 4pm on Facebook and
Twitter for all of your followers and fans to contemplate. Or what about a Twitter
Tuesday promo with a secret word to receive a special promo. Make the promo
interesting. Have fun with it. It doesn’t have to be a huge discount as much as it has to be
special and/or unique for your customers. Compare those sorts of instant results with the
more traditional cycle of preparing a postcard campaign. It just shifts everything on its
head.
6. Social Media Events – This can be interesting because of what technology people call
the “network effect”, which states that the more people connected to a network the more
valuable and powerful that network becomes.

3. Take Facebook for example – once you have your Facebook Fan page going, what if you
hosted a Monday night Facebook Fan Only Dinner Promotion. First, your current fans
are going to feel excited about it. Second, you’ll likely get new fans as your current fans
talk about it to friends. Thirdly, and most importantly, after the event (assuming you put
together a great night) a large number of those Facebook Fans are going to share stories,
pictures and news about your event. And the average Facebook user has 130 friends tied
to his or her account. The social leverage of such an event can be quite powerful. And
we all know the impact of positive word of mouth, right?
7. Listen to Your Customers and Interact – Another gigantic differentiator of social
media is the ability to easily talk, listen and interact with your customers. John posts a
complaint about dinner on Friday night via Twitter. Well, you’ve got a chance to
respond and recover the relationship. Sally’s hosting a bridal shower and checking out
venues. Nice opportunity to informally talk about your place. You want to find out what
beers are the local favorites. You post the question on Twitter and Facebook and start a
conversation. Brad and Jim are chatting about the best place to watch the big game. You
don’t even have a TV in your place, but you recommend your favorite spot. You can
bond and create relationships in this manner via social media. You can create the kinds
of loyalty and recognition that wasn’t quite possible before.
Social media offers an opportunity for your restaurant to reach out and connect with both
new and existing customers in a powerful way in 2010. Make social media an important
part of your overall marketing efforts for the year and maximize the best that social
media has to offer to drive business for your restaurant.
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RunningRestaurants.com, the ORA's Social Media Expert, is a "how-to-get-results-now”
website for restaurant owners and managers focused on content to help make restaurant
operators more profitable and successful. Through the "Members Only" section of the
ORA web site, members can view other helpful Social Media articles and also purchase a
recording of a seminar "Social Media For Restaurants" at a discount price of $19. Just
log in to the "Members Only" section at www.ohiorestaurant.org and click on the ORA
Social Media Expert logo.
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Potential callout box for story:
What is social media?
Social media is an umbrella term for websites (or mobile apps) that are based on user
participation and user generated content where people share opinions, insights, and
experiences with each other. Popular examples include Facebook, MySpace, Twitter,
YouTube, Flickr and blogs.
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4. Potential call out box for story:
Is social media just a fad?
Most definitely no. While social media will continue to evolve in how people and
businesses best utilize it, the technology and concept behind user-shared content is here
to stay.