Why We Want Your Restaurant to Win in 2010
The doors of your new restaurant fly open. Linens freshly pressed, candles glowing, lines filled, bar stocked, and your staff is pumped to rock it out.
Embrace yourselves for an AMAZING grand opening!
Then it happens…
You turn 4 tables and chalk the opening up as defeat. The staff is bummed and the lack of customers is a buzz kill.
What went wrong? What could you have done differently?
Now I understand, this is an extreme situation. But does it happen? You bet.
The NRA (National Restaurant Association) has on record 470,445 working restaurants in the United States. Around 42,000 new restaurant licenses are issued every year. That means around 3,500 restaurants open every month!
How do you advertise? How do you get your name out? Have you embraced social media?
It’s no secret that traditional media is shifting online. Traditional media is outrageously expensive and hard to measure. It just makes sense for restaurants to expand their efforts online.
In 2007, AIS Media based out of Atlanta, GA took a poll of average consumers. They found that 89% of consumers research a restaurant online. Can you imagine that number in 2010? Your online presence matters.
The Problem with Restaurants and Social Media
It takes time…
I have spent countless hours online and started to notice trends.
Industries like airlines and hotels have all adopted online strategies. Sites like Hotels.com or Priceline.com have made these industries streamlined and highly competitive online. Why haven’t restaurants followed suit?
I believe that is a million dollar question. Hotels and Airlines are typically large corporations, where restaurants are widely independent.
It’s more difficult convincing a “Mom and Pop” operation to adopt online marketing. Not that it’s a bad thing, every marketing curve has late adapters.
Social media is a HUGE playing ground for restaurants. Since most restaurant owners tend to be social people, getting into social media is a simple transition for them. If you can “work a dining room,” than you will have no problem online.
What we Want to Accomplish.
UrbanBacon will be expanding into different cities starting right here in St. Louis. As we expand, our goal is to get every restaurant in every city to boost their online presence. We want to help in any way possible, and put every restaurant on the map.
Back to our Roots
It’s time to get back to our roots. People are now connected in ways never before possible.
The NRA recently released their “What’s Hot in 2010” list which is a compilation of 1,800 professional chefs who ranked 215 different culinary topics. What was top of the list? Locally grown produce, locally sourced meat/seafood, locally produced beer/wine.
Gary Vaynerchuk calls this the small town effect. Now that we are so connected, our business is known across town. Small businesses that are local can now compete with the big guys. The days of designing high priced ads and shoving them down consumer’s throats is dead.
It’s time to get back to our roots, step into our communities through social media, and make a name for ourselves.
What to do now?
Leave all your thoughts below and start the discussion. Are you a restaurant that uses social media? What’s working? What’s not working?
Tags: marketing, restaurants, social media, Welcome to the UrbanBacon Blog
[...] Blog « Why We Want Your Restaurant to Win in 2010 [...]
[...] we are not promoting large corporate chains. We love local restaurants and bars! Helping every local restaurant in this country is our goal. That doesn’t mean we can’t analyze chain restaurants and learn [...]