Are Restaurants Spamming Facebook?
Its official, we are full blown Vayniacs at UrbanBacon. Can you blame us? The guy is flat out awesome! Yesterday Gary Vaynerchuk posted a video calling out spammers on Facebook. You can watch the video here. One particular winery directly posted blatant spam on Wine Library TV’s Facebook Page. They even had the audacity to link emails and offer a discount to customers. Gary was not impressed by this marketing fail…
According to Vaynerchuk, this is happening more on Facebook. As his example proves, the food and hospitality industry are also among the spammers. Which brings up a logical argument. Are restaurants more likely to spam? A unique battle restaurants have is the constant need to get the word out about daily specials. Typically, unless people are actively looking for specials, they consider pushing them spammy. Just like Gary implies, it’s time to stop spamming your customers.
Let’s face it, a large amount of restaurants are new to social media and online marketing. Social media not like buying ads in your local newspaper. It’s not a quick 30 second radio bit falling on deaf ears. It’s not a television commercial that runs thousands of dollars per minute. What is it than?
It’s a Conversation…Listen to Your Customers
That’s it. You can’t post directly on other people’s walls and sell your business. The old idea of exposure doesn’t work with the internet. When you spam another user’s wall, you are slapping them directly in the face. They don’t walk into your restaurant selling steaks do they?
I feel that owners want to treat social platforms like traditional media. They think more tweets, more wall posts, and more comments will bring in business. On the internet, that’s just more spam.
Focus on talking to other restaurants and users. Leave valuable comments on their fan pages that praise their restaurant. Get to know these people. Make friends. Then ask them to help promote your restaurant. You can talk about yourself all day, but nobody listens until others are talking about you.
The main reason behind this post is that I don’t want to see restaurants spamming on Facebook. Gary is 100% right. In the long run, you’re only hurting yourself and your brand. Focus on using social platforms to meet local people, and then make them customers.
What do you guys think about the video? Is Gary spot on? Do you think restaurants spam more? Leave your comments below!
Tags: advertising, Facebook, gary vaynerchuk, Restaurant Marketing, restaurants, spamming