Its 7:00am when you first smell that fresh coffee brewing.  Half asleep and groggy eyed, you quietly pour the first cup of piping hot goodness.  As the mug warms your hands, you give a long morning stretch, and lazily open your laptop.  The calm peacefulness of early morning is soothing like crawling in fresh sheets after a hot shower.  Quiet, serene, the morning is yours.  Now it’s time to wake up, sleepyheads!

Like most Americans, your first morning task is to check email, delete spam, and cipher what really matters.  Without fail, there is a coupon in your inbox offering 53% off at your favorite local restaurant.

Hook, line, and sinker you’re sold.  Is this really a good thing?  Are we turning restaurants into department stores?

The Department Store Effect:

When do you buy new clothes?  Do you wait for sales/coupons or pay full price?  The logical argument is to wait for the sale, and that’s not our fault.  We love getting deals…it’s hard wired into the human psyche.

By bombarding us with coupons, department stores have brainwashed us to only buy during sales.  Talk about the biggest marketing backfire of all time!

Are Restaurants The Next Department Stores?

I hear more and more people saying “I’ll just wait for the Groupon.”  Here is a quick lesson in Marketing 101:

“As consumers slowly adapt to deep discounts, it begins to change expectations.  Once our expectations change, so do our buying habits…which is difficult to reverse.”

The idea “why would I ever pay full price” is dangerous.  Are these newly cropping up coupon sites creating this expectation in diners?

Happy Hour is Different

It’s no secret, restaurants and bars have been promoting happy hour specials for years.  Until the recent rise in group buying, this was a widely acceptable form of marketing (that keeps regulars coming back daily!).  Happy hour will never die, but the shift to deep discounts is flat out scary from a marketing standpoint.

The Smart Alternative

The smart alternative is to focus on specials you already run like daily happy hour.  Use online tools to create awareness of current specials and invite customers in.  Get creative.  Why not create daily specials on the fly?  Focus on creating a loyal customer base, and not customers looking for a one-time discount.

In my opinion, I fear if we continue to offer deep discounts, consumers will quit eating out unless they can find 53% off.  Our buying habits shift with expectations.  This could be devastating for mom and pop restaurants that lack the budget of large chains.

What do you guys think as customers?  As restaurant owners?  Please leave your comments below, I am intrigued by this conversation!

photo credit

Across from St. Louis, in the small river town of Alton, IL resides a legendary bar called Fast Eddies Bon Air.  Some gather for the drinks, most come for the food.  The scene resembles “The Double Deuce” from the movie Roadhouse, hosting everything from bikers to attorneys.  The only difference is Patrick Swayze isn’t ripping out throats, and Fast Eddies clientele is MUCH friendlier.

The dark interior of Fast Eddies is lit up with neon beer signs, old memorabilia, and glowing flat screens covering the days sporting events.  At first glance, it’s not a place to take your mother.  Only to find out, your mom loves Fast Eddies!

So why does Fast Eddies draw such a crowd?  I’ve seen Sundays where they ring 500+ food orders by 2pm.  That’s just warm up!  What is their secret?  How do they do it?  Here are the 5 reasons why Fast Eddie’s Bon Air sells:

1.  Keep the Menu Simple, Stupid…

What does Fast Eddies Menu consist of?

-Peel n’ Eat Shrimp…29 cents

-Fat Eddie ½lb Burger…99 cents

-Basket of Fries…99 cents

-Bratwurst…99 cents

-Red Hots…99 cents

-Pork Kabob…$1.99

-Hot Chick on a Stick…$2.99

-Big Elwood (steak kabob)…$2.99

What you see is what you get.  We are huge advocates of keeping things simple.  Ever open a Cheesecake Factory Menu?  Keep it simple, and make it awesome!  (perfect what you do best)

2.  Cheap Eats = Tons of Drinks

Look at The Fast Eddie’s Menu, its cheap…dirt cheap.  It’s the main reason people keep coming back.  How much profit do you think Eddie clears on food?  My guess is slim to none…

In a sense, Eddie is like the blogger of the restaurant industry.  He offers free content (food), and sells drinks.  Just like a blogger who writes about saving on insurance and sells insurance polices.  Teach a man to fish, and he will buy the fishing poles from you.

Cracker Barrel is great example of this!  They make 23% of profit from retail sales.  What about gas stations?  They sell gas just to get you in the store.  Most of their profit comes from retail sales, not fuel.

Give incentive to your customers.  Offer something at a great price, and then focus on up-selling.

3.  Cash Only = Unbelievable Service

Yes, you heard correct, Fast Eddie’s is CASH ONLY.  While most of us move forward into new payment systems with our iPhone like Square, they keep it old school.  Waitresses never wait to run tabs.  Splitting tabs is out of the question.  They enter drinks, pay the bartender cash, and on to the next customer.  It almost seems like waitresses roam without sections, although I am sure that’s not the case.

Now I am not suggesting you switch to cash only.  It works for Fast Eddies because they focus on volume.  I am pointing out how much smoother the wait staff operates.  They are fast and efficient.  Are there ways to simplify how you accept payments?  Make things faster?  Streamline?  These are all questions to help both your customers and FOH.

4.  Patios Sell Themselves

One of the greatest features is Fast Eddie’s Patio.  It’s GINORMOUS!  To give you an idea, they bought the street next door to expand it, put a retractable roof over it, added space heaters, and made it open year round.  Most call it awesome, I call it genius!

People love to be outside, especially in the summertime.  If your restaurant has the room, make a patio.  Sidewalk patios work also if you can get the license.  It is worth giving customers the option to sit outside, patios keep customers drinking all summer!

5.  “This Place Rocks My Face Off”

Atmosphere is everything.  Fast Eddies is a unique experience.  When you first walk into Fast Eddies, you feel the vibe.  This place is different.  This place rocks my face off!  Focus on making your restaurant/bar unique for every experience.  Man vs Food is an example of how to make your restaurant unique.  Entertain people with live music, let the food smells permeate, and be friendly.  That’s how you keep people coming back.

Disclaimer:  In no way is UrbanBacon affiliated with Fast Eddies, I just happen to love that place!

Won’t you be, my neighbor?  This was the theme song to a long airing PBS show called Mister Rodgers Neighborhood.  The lovable character, Mister Rodgers, asked this of American children for close to 33 years.  He believed in community and crossing the fence to meet your neighbors.  You know what?  Fred Rodgers would have made an excellent restaurateur!

Running a restaurant involves an engine of working parts.  If the engine starts locking up, marketing gets quickly pushed aside.  In reality, marketing is the oil that keeps the engine running.  Starting locally within your community is a powerful marketing tactic…Mister Rodgers understood this principle.

I was recently reading the three part series at Jaw Dropping Marketing titled Restaurant Marketing:  Be a Good Neighbor…and the wheels started cranking.  The article talks about being involved in your community as a form of marketing.  Car washes, charity events, and church picnics are all ways to get involved.  These people are the customer base of your restaurant.  Don’t sit back waiting…offer to help with community events, and they will thank you by becoming a patron.

Who are your neighbors in a three mile radius?  ESPECIALLY the office buildings, they can help double your lunch crowd.  You need to get out within this community and make friends.  Go door to door and introduce yourself.  Offer a coupon or just shake hands.  Tell them about your restaurant.  These are the people who are most likely to become repeat business, just because they live next door.  You need to meet your neighbors, it worked for Mister Rodgers, and it will work for you!

An easier way to scale these relationships are online.  Scour Facebook and Twitter looking for people who live in your community.   Friend or follow them up and introduce yourself.  Tell them about your restaurant and invite them in.  Don’t push specials on them, that would be spamming.  Take the time and get to know them.  If they are part of church group on Facebook, ask if you can cater a picnic.  Get creative, the business is in your backyard.

We both know that Mister Rodgers wasn’t a restaurateur, but he would have been awesome.  Getting involved within your community is a way to give back, and run a successful business.  The people within your community are the people who pay your bills.  Take the time to meet, show you care, and they will support you.  It is the ultimate “THANK YOU.”  Now step over the fence and start meeting your neighbors!

We have all seen Man vs Food on the Travel Channel.  A heavyweight eater by the name of Adam Richman tours the country battling the mightiest of food challenges.  Season 1 aired in St. Louis at the World Famous Crown Candy Kitchen:

The Challenge:  Dominate 5-24oz Milkshakes in 30 minutes.

The thought of slurping down 5 ice cold malt milkshakes is enough to make any man shudder.  Many brave warriors have battled, and only around 30 people have tasted sweet victory since 1913 (according to wiki).  That’s a food legacy!  Let’s just say food won this battle of Man vs Food.

So what gives?  Are we such an obese country that we get off watching a guy devour 8000 calories?  My first reaction is to say “hells yes!”  But that’s half of it…The other side is watching what food challenges restaurants dream up.  Is your restaurant a legacy?

The idea of a food challenge is fantastic marketing.  They made a hit cable television show just based around it!  Here are 5 reasons why the concept works:

1.  Elements of a Successful Food Challenge

For unknown reasons, the challenge of devouring massive amounts of food is appealing.  It’s a sense of accomplishment, and freaking impressive.  Here are the main elements:

1.  Time constraints

2.  Free food for winners

3.  Winners = free t-shirt + spot on the wall of fame

Use these 3 elements, and watch customers start lining up!

2.  Braggin’ Rights

Every food challenge awards the winners with a spot on the wall of fame.  That’s braggin’ rights, and yes it motivates competition.  The winners keep braggin’ for years to come (free word of mouth, duh).

3.  A Shot at FREE!

How many times have you sized up a large plate of food?  How many times have you heard of a food challenge, and guessed you could probably beat it?  After all, if you win the meal is free, right?  Hook, line, and sinker.  It’s like playing the lottery…yes it’s only a dollar, but if you win the payout is huge!  Hence many keep trying, but most will fail.  That means you continue to collect payment for large meals.

4.  Free Publicity

Media covers big news, especially local media.  Start creating buzz by offering a ridiculous food challenge and watch the media take interest.  Include it into your marketing budget.  If the media covers your challenge, the business can be worth weight in gold.  It will draw more attention than spamming Facebook.

5.  Losses Cover Costs

The challenge should be difficult.  Not impossible, but less than 20% of people should finish.  This creates word-of-mouth legacy among diners.  They want to be the next contender and prove their eating dominance.  Since most fail, you will profit heavily off the losses.  These profits can go into t-shirts and marketing for future challengers.

BONUS – Ultimate Food Challenge Example:

The Big Texan FREE 72oz Steak Challenge is the best food challenge known to man.  Its copywriting genius mixed with a marketing know-how.  Here are the key elements:

1. The steak is labeled FREE.  This convinces consumers they have a free shot.  Which The Big Texan takes payment upfront and then refunds the winners…genius?

2. 4.5lbs of steak is massive!  48,000 have tried, roughly 8,000 have conquered.  Hence many try, most will fail.

3. The 72oz steak is so legendary, that Adam Richman accepted the challenge.  He dominated, and The Big Texan landed a spot on The Travel Channel.  That’s marketing genius!

While they are nothing new, Prix Fixe Menus are a hot trend right now.  At least in St. Louis, they are cropping up everywhere!  In a downward economy people still want to eat out, but are looking to save cash.  Prix Fixe Menus bring in business and help your customers out.  Here are some quick reasons why:

The Menu is Limited

A limited menu helps you scale your costs.  Each meal costs the same…each meal has a set margin.  You can assure to make a specific margin off each meal, and that’s piece of mind.

Customers Want Limited Choices

When developing web-based software like UrbanBacon, it’s best to limit choices for users.  Keeping things simple is why we built UrbanBacon.  For example, I personally get lost when using Microsoft Office 2007.  There are unlimited options, buttons, formulas, and formatting that is flat out confusing.  Most of the time, simple is better.

The same goes for a menu.  Unlimited choices confuse people.  It’s overwhelming.  Have you ever opened The Cheesecake Factory Menu?  By limiting choices you take out the guesswork.  This is what you get, for this price.  That’s attractive to people because they don’t have to think.  In today’s society, we prefer streamlined options that eliminate our thinking, whether it’s technology or menus.

Perfect a Few Items

When doing self-evaluations, most people focus on strengthening their weaknesses.  To me, that’s completely backwards.  Focus on your strengths and become a Rockstar, forget your weaknesses.  What does Kat Vitale do REALLY well?  Tattoos.  How about The Cake Boss?  Cakes.  They are Rockstars in their skill sets and do it better than anyone else.

If you are bad-ass at grilling pork chops, than by all means put that on your limited menu.  If your customers constantly rave about your Shrimp Diane, than guess what?  It’s going on the limited menu.  Focus on your most popular dishes, perfect them, and make a limited menu.

Offer Deals without Affecting Image

In the minds of customers, deep discounts are perceived as desperate.

“They must be hurting for business, they’re practically giving them away!”

Don’t get me wrong, customers will jump all over a chance to get something ½ off.  It’s a no-brainer.  From a branding and business standpoint, it’s a bad move.  You deflate your product and value by offering deep discounts.  Trust me, people are paying attention.

Prix Fixe Menus present a few awesome options at a reasonable price.  3 Courses for $25 doesn’t kill your brand.  It says:

“We know you still love to eat out, and the economy is tough, so we are offering a few limited options at a reasonable price.”

At UrbanBacon we believe you should offer specials without devaluing your brand and product.  Prix Fixe Menus are the perfect compliment to both!

Location is EVERYTHING, right?  Of course it is!  Will you always be slammed?  Not necessarily.  The Field of Dreams idea “if you build it they will come” doesn’t really pertain to real life.  Mondays, cold rain, lack of exposure, and poor marketing are all factors that can kill a business.  Therefore “location is everything” doesn’t always hold true.

Let’s say you’re in a relatively high traffic area and you normally do well.  Today just happens to be one of those days, and you’re abnormally slow.  How can you increase street business?  Google Favorite Places may be one way, but I am a bit skeptical.  Let’s ditch advanced technology for a second, and get back to our roots.  Below are 5 tips for hustling street traffic:

1.  Send out the Canadian Mounted Police

My Grandfather used to have a saying:  “If you get lost, I’ll send out the Canadian Mounted Police.”  He was neither Canadian or ever lived in Canada.  It was originally just a hilarious joke that my Grandfather loved to keep going.  In reality he meant:  “If you get lost, we will hit the streets and find you.”  Some times you gotta hit the streets…

Is the restaurant dead?  See a server standing around?  Send them to the streets!  Servers are naturally friendly, or can at least fake it.  Have them stand if front and invite people inside.  Better than standing around arguing who is getting cut first.  Tell them to engage, make friends, invite people inside.  In the end, it benefits their tips to pull in customers.

2.  Video Billboards

Remember back in the 50’s when television was first introduced?  Stores would line 50 different televisions facing the street all programmed on the same channel.  It was mesmerizing to watch the pictures dance around through the windows.  A small boy staring through the window with white eyes lit up usually outlined the Hallmark Moment of this period.  We say take the same approach!

Invest in 3-4 small LCD Flat-screen Panels and strategically hang from your storefront.  An alternative is wireless picture frames, which also work well in bathrooms.  Face them onto the streets to attract your customer’s eye.  Set up a slide show and rotate all your specials from the house computer.  This will be sure to catch the attention of people passing by.  Take a hint from Vegas and start drawing them in like flies!

3.  Old School Chalk Boards

I know what you’re thinking…a freaking tech site for restaurants and I’m talking about chalk boards?  Yes I am, before blogs there where chalkboards.  Chalkboards are cheap and mandatory.  They are simple to update daily and place in front of your restaurant.  Buy the double sided board to attract customers walking in both directions.  I know its old school, but very cost effective.  Update your specials daily and set it on the street, think of it as your daily blog post!  Best of all, servers can do it easily.

4.  Hand Out Free Drink Tickets

It’s no secret, people love free drinks.  Have some coupons on hand and hit the streets.  Invite people in for a free drink on the house.

1 Drink = 2 Drinks = Full out Dinner

Tell your servers to say “Stop in right now and get 1 free drink.”  This way you bank on the spontaneous factor, and who would pass up a free drink anyways?  Your customers are swimming by, now go fishing and land them in the boat.

5.  Take the Chinese Approach – Free Samples

You know what I am talking about, Mall Chinese Food.  The bourbon chicken sample kills it!  How many customers do they pluck daily with one free sample?  Your restaurant should take notes.

The Chinese know one thing, people can be swayed with free food.  You may have been craving a hot Sbarro’s Calzone until that spicy bourbon chicken came along.  Five minutes later you’re elbows deep in fried rice and crushing Crab Rangoon.  The free sample prevails once again.

Cut up some of your best sammies/apps.  Hit the streets and offer small sample sizes.  Once the customer is baited, hook them with a special inside.  Guarantee you will begin to pull customers off the streets like the Chinese do in malls.

These are some non-tech ways to get more customers.  Can you guys think of other clever marketing ideas?  How about restaurant owners, any of these techniques work for you?  Share your comments below!

Office buildings are freaking hilarious (at least mine is).  It’s not uncommon for the question “What’s for lunch” to spring up around 8am.  That sounds ridiculous, but if you forget lunch at home then you’re eating out.  It’s a great idea to get that ball rolling early.

If you work in a restaurant, you might not understand the politics behind a lunch break.  It’s the highlight of the day!  Everyone has to eat, and you’ve got one hour to do it.  The power is that offices order food in groups.  Do most restaurants understand this culture?  It amazes me that local restaurants never stop by our office to offer incentives.  They could be killing it!  Here are 4 quick office promo tips:

Take a Groupon Approach

Two key features why Groupon works:

1.  Sense of Urgency

2.  Fear of Loss

Basically, this offer is only good today, buy now or risk losing it forever.  QVC uses the same sales techniques, and so can you.

Put together a special offer that includes group buying.  Most offices order lunch in group orders anyways.  Drop it by an office building and tell them “If you get 10 people together to place an order in the next 2 days, we will offer you $5 sandwiches.”  Or whatever your most popular dish may be.  Just make the deal worth doing.  People will fight to sign up for $5 sandwiches when it comes to lunch. The key is to make the special worth doing, limit the time, and only make the offer valid if X number of people sign up.

Party Trays

People like free food.  Ok, people LOVE free food!  Drop off a sampler tray by an office next to your restaurant.  Include some of your favorite menu items.  Make sure to leave lunch menus and even a small incentive.  For example “Receive 10% off when 10+ people place an order.”  Bait them with the incentive, hook them with the free food, and land 10+ orders.

Exclusive Twitter offers.

If you are a restaurant on Twitter, than you probably have a follower who works in an office.  Send them a DM that morning saying “Hey, get 10 orders together and we will give you 25% off for lunch today.”  That sets a spark within the office early.  That person will start asking around if anyone is interested in ordering.  DM ten followers daily and you’re likely to get at least one large lunch order.  Make sure you have good relations with these people so they don’t see the offer as spam.  This goes back to basic principles of how your restaurant should be tweeting.

Group Happy Hour

Ok, this one doesn’t pertain to the lunch crowd, but it’s worth noting.  Office employees love happy hour, especially if it’s close.  The key is getting in touch with someone within the office.  Have them pick a date and offer a group happy hour.   These specials are exclusive to the people that attend.  This spreads like wildfire as people constantly ask each other if they are coming to happy hour tonight.  Whoever you set up the happy hour with is now your spokesperson.  Put them to work on getting a large group together.  Numbers baby!

What are some other ideas for office promotions?  We have tons, UrbanBacon being one of them!  Let’s start the discussion below, its lunchtime!

Remember the movie “Field of Dreams?”  It’s about a middle-aged guy named Ray Kinsella living with his family among the vast cornfields of Iowa.  While farming the yellow fields one day…Ray hears a voice.  The voice softly whispers “If you build it, he will come.”  Taken by surprise, he continues laboring and tending his precious crops to feed his family.  As time passes, the voice starts booming louder and louder – “If you build it, he will come” – “If you build it, he will come.”  This sparks relentless ambition into Ray as he realizes what the voice is telling him:  Build a baseball diamond.  Thus starting the worst movie ever made…

Ok, it’s not a bad movie…I will admit that.  It’s touching to watch his drive and dedication in building something he knows nothing about. When was the last time you listened this deep?

Just Because You Build It, Doesn’t Mean Customers Will Come

So he built it, and they came.  This is why I feel it’s the worst movie ever.  “If you build it, he (they) will come” is the biggest line of crap ever rattled off, at least from an entrepreneurial standpoint.  Yet tons of entrepreneurs think with this mentality.  Setup shop, sit back, and watch the cash roll in.  Even worse, spend thousands of dollars in advertising and wait for customers to show up.  What happens when nobody shows up?

Building a business takes hustle, patience, and perseverance.  Just setting up shop doesn’t guarantee customers.  This is true in any business, not just the food and service industry.  Your customers are there, you have to actively seek them out.  Hit the streets, make phone calls, network, and scrap for every last customer you can find.  Get relentless and don’t settle…because the second you stop hustling, is the second your restaurant loses.

Social Media Makes Life Easy

Back in the day, people had to hustle much harder than us.  Even Ray in The Field of Dreams had to drop all his chores and work to build a baseball diamond.  That takes physical work.  Can you imagine being an entrepreneur before computers?  We have life easy.  Our work is scalable.  We have instant access to thousands of potential customers’ right through this screen.  All it takes is hustle.  If you own a restaurant, your time is now.  Learn what it takes to succeed with social media and hustle everyday.  Because just building physical walls doesn’t guarantee success.

What do you think?  Are we too conditioned for instant gratification?  Can meeting people through social media gain restaurant patrons?  Comment below friends:)

The majority of my life I grew up fishing private ponds, streams, and rivers in Missouri.  There is nothing like the serene stillness and peace of a bright summer day on the crystal water.  This is my element, at least as a kid it was.  I remember tying neon green and construction orange lures in hopes of landing that monster 8lb large mouth bass.  Constant casting and reeling while my lure danced across clear water taught me a great deal of patience.  In a way, fishing is like social media.  Are your customers biting your lures?

The Game is Patience

My father taught me the importance of patience.  He is honestly the most patient man I have ever met.  This transferred well into fishing for me.  When you’re bass fishing, you are constantly casting and retrieving different lures in efforts to attract fish.  Bass have instincts to strike what they haven’t seen before.  Therefore you should constantly change and adapt to water color, temperature, time of year, time of day, and what everyone else is fishing with.  This takes patience.  Learn that you won’t always land tons of fish until you find the right technique. Social media is the same way for your restaurant.  You have to offer different specials and react differently given the timing.  You are building an online customer base, and that takes time.  The most deadly mistake your restaurant can make is believing things happen over night.  You have to learn, try new things, and be patient with your customer base.

Push vs Pull Marketing

There are both push and pull strategies in fishing.  Buzz-baits make an awful buzzing sound that annoys fish to the point of striking out of frustration.  Are they effective?  You bet.  Spinner-baits use shiny metals to attract fish so they strike out of curiosity, also highly effective.  In essence: Buzz-baits = Push Marketing Spinner-baits = Pull Marketing Most social media platforms use a pull marketing technique.  Twitter is a perfect example of this.  90-95% of your tweets should be engaging (Pull Technique), and the rest to push your specials on followers.  Twitter followers consider specials as spam, so it’s best not to over tweet them.  Instead, you should focus on creating compelling content around your restaurant that pulls followers in.  Here are some tips on using Twitter like a double edged sword. UrbanBacon is more of a push marketing example.  Here you directly post your specials, and then work on pulling them in through comments/interaction.  UrbanBacon users are actively looking for specials, so you can get away with pushing specials upon them. Ideally you should use a combination of Push vs Pull according to Mike Atkinson from FOHBOH.  Play with your customer base and see which platform/strategy is more effective for your restaurant.

What Are You Fishing For?

In my eyes, there are 2 types of fishing:  Bass fishing and Cat fishing, and both use very different techniques.  For bass you typically use fake lures to constantly cast and retrieve.  Bass are aggressive and hunt their prey, so you must be aggressive.  Catfish are bottom dwellers meaning they sift through the pond floor for food. They rely on sense of smell, therefore stink bait smells like a steak dinner to them.  Let your bait hit the bottom, pull the line tight, and wait for a bite.  Are your customer’s bass or catfish? You should know what customers you’re fishing for.  Are you a trendy college bar?  Than why in the hell would you advertise in The Wall Street Journal?   Focus on producing content your customers will consume and revolve it around your restaurant.  For example, if you are a dive bar, than start a blog about dive bars across the country.  This will attract people who love dive bars.  Once they’re hooked, it’s up to you to land them into “the boat” a.k.a. your bar.  The foundation of content marketing is knowing what you’re fishing for.

Fish Different Spots, But Stick to Your Honey Hole

Anglers learn to try different spots.  There are plenty of fish, just some places are more abundant.  Through trial and error you can find these spots.  The main key is to get fishing, just remember your honey spot. There are tons of social media sites:  Facebook, Twitter, UrbanBacon, Yelp, etc where people are daily.  Which spot works best for you?  If your Facebook fans are extremely loyal, than this is your honey spot.  But don’t be scared to fish other social media sites.  They may just have the customers you’re looking for!

Fishing Takes Time

You want to start catching fish?  Start fishing!  Simple as that.  The more you fish, the more you catch.  You have to invest the time it takes to learn techniques, scout spots, tie lures, wait for bites, set hooks, and ultimately land fish.  If you want more fish it’s time to take action. Social media is exactly the same.  Want more followers?  Then you need to start connecting with people online.  There are multiple social media platforms already built, you have to invest the time.  It takes time to build a customer base online, and nothing happens overnight.  The customers are there, are you ready to invest the time? What do you guys think as restaurant owners?  As customers?  Is social media worth the time?  Leave your comments below!

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!