Twitter and Restaurants

Books will be written about Twitter... The Tweet is the "sound bite" of todays' age.. you can say anything you want as long as you keep it under 140 characters.. People ridicule Twitter saying why should I be tweeting about the minutia in my life?

If you are just starting out it can seem a bit daunting but Twitter is very easy to use and it makes a lot of sense. But there is a lot of learn.

BUT FIRST, what can you do with Twitter? Regular customers have lots of questions and always seem to want to know the inside scoop on what's going on or going into the kitchen. With Twitter consider tweets about the following:

1. Who is on the floor
2. Up coming specials/nightly specials
3. Specials available only via Twitter
4. Updates about personnel (weddings, marriages,  etc.)
5. New Suppliers
6.  Alters about menu changes

Here is all you need to know about Twitter in 60 seconds:

1. Posts are 140 characters or less
2. Posts are totally free form; you can put anything any where
3. When you want to send a public message to someone you but an @ in front of there USER name; to message me publically on twitter put @hhawk ANY place in the message.
4. If you put a "#" in front of any work, that means it's
   "topic" or a key word. Twitter tracks the most popular keywords; if your topic is trending on Twitter its a big deal these days.
5. You can search Twitter for all public messages by keyword (e.g., #steak) or by user name e.g., @hhawk ; you can search on any thing
6. If you put in a URL, you will need to shorten it with products like bit.ly and ow.ly

Finally:

1. On Twitter anyone can see all public messages (by searching for them)
2. But if you follow someone, you can see directly what they tweet
3. If they follow you, they can see your tweets
4. It's a status symbol to see who is following who and who has more followers 
5. If someone follows you, you can send them a direct message (private message) within Twitter; you are still limited to 140 characters.

Let your customers know you are on Twitter and let them follow your every tweet..

Check in Trio

Three Big Check-in Services:
There are three very popular check-in services. Foursquare was one of the first. Then there is Yelp with all it's many restaurant, bar and club reviews. Finally with a reported nearly 600 million members and 42% of the US population there is Facebook with its Facebook Places.

Should you use these services? which one(s)? and what should you do with it?

Where are your customers:
That is a really big question but check-in services answer that question 24 hours a day. The real question is are your customers checking-in?  If their is any significant segment of your customers using any one or all of these services than you should be as well.

No Half Measures:
If you are going use these services and social networks in general, i would avoid doing it in half measures. I would suggest you budget out the time (and money) needed to get started and stay with in for at least 3 months. Like any facet of your business it can take several quarters, several seasons or even several years to build up to a workable model that will engage your customers and enhance your bottom line.

Growth-> Friends seek out Friends:
If you in the hospitality business you know that means you hope you customers and many of their friends come to your venue or establishment on a frequent basis. Check-ins let friends see where their chums, mates, and pals are.  If your business is just gaining awareness people see that people they are connected with are spending time and money with you encourages them to do so as well.

In Decline? -> Friends follow friends:
On the other hand if your a former hot spot now in decline, a lack of check-ins can send a signal that all of the regulars or the hip or cool crowd is some place else. But the point here is your customers are already on these services, they are already seeing where their friends are spending their time and money. If you are in decline what are you going to do about that?

Befriend and stay in touch:
Join up with these services and connect with your customers by "friending" them. Watch where they are going and see when they come to you and when they go some place else. If you see a lot of regulars abandon ship, you can ask why ONLY if you are prepared to do something about it.

Offers?:
Services like Yelp allow you to make announcements and also special offers for those who "check-in." I am weary about training customers to come in for discounted services. I feel that can harm many brands. But there can be offers that enhance the brand. You can offer an extended happy hour, special bottles if you offer bottle service, food items that are only available to checked-in guests or special portions of food, like an extra large size of wings for those who check-in during a big game. A rose on Valentines Day if the couple both check in and "friend" the establishment.

If your customers are here, you need to be here too. Don't be shy and do not be scared of the technology; kids are doing it, there is not reason you and your management staff cannot also be doing it.

HYPER Local Ads

The local ad market is continuing to heat up. The buzzword here is "hyper" local.. Let us assume that means not just in your town but near your street..


Facebook is a great way to reach people by location. Today they announced the purchase of Rel8tion a 8 month old start up "stealth" hyper local advertising company (based in Seattle). 


When your buying local ads, you tell them "specific locations, specific demographics or specific times" and they will "show you your potential audience"


A problem is that FB users don't always tell FB where they are; if Rel8tion works with mobile users, typically the phone shares location details with the Apps; which means they can see where you are and reach you when and where they want to.


Inside Facebook has the story.  Mashable also picked up the story and you can read it directly on the Rel8tion web site here (when the site is back up).


IF BCRs can engage customers when they are near by or entering their establishment this opens up a whole raft of possibilities. Automatic offers and automatic check-ins can help BCRs not only find customers and reward those who check them, the right technology will allow them to also reward there best customers: the ones who repeat often and bring their friends. 


When you combine this with existing socialized coupon systems like Groupon, Facebook Deals and even Yelp Check-In offers it's can exciting time to be in local marketing.


The value that Social Media presents is that much like PR, while you can hire a team to do it, you can also DIY. If successful can eliminate $$ for your ad budget; of course rising awareness will help your ads break through by warming your audience to your message.


A problem we always had a Schnack was given the cost of being in the nations largest media market, we couldn't afford much and when we could we over reached out audience and really under delivered.

Photos, more photos and Video

There are lots of things happening today in SM but I wanted to reach back to something that happened a few years ago. Can you type in your business name on YouTube or Flickr and get good results?

Since we know the power of photos. When I was growing Water Taxi Beach we were able to crowd sourced photographs. 100's of photos where uploaded to Flickr and we even got permission to use some for promotional purposes. We also had a photo contest which we did on Flickr as well.

(Note: I used generic search on YouTube and Flickr so not all of the images are ours, and some are newer than others...)

Here are many of the images taken by our crowd sourcing customers via Flickr Harry's @ Water Taxi Beach Flickr Photos

Here are videos from YouTube  Video from Harry's @ Water Taxi Beach

Social Media for Hospitality

My name is Harry Hawk. Please join me as I explore how to use Social Media to turn  Bars, Clubs and Restaurants (BCRs) into a success through greater awareness, stronger online branding, photography and video, social media outreach and online promotions.

Bars, Clubs and Restaurants (BCRs) have always reached out warmly to their guests (yes, even Peter Lugers). Thinking back to the dawn of restaurants and bars 100's if not a 1000 or more years ago, they were always The localized social network. They still are, if you have local bar scene near your home or office there a good chance most everyone knows each other, friends and friends of friends. Tip the bartender or wait staff  a little bit extra and and that is gold; you get better service, a friendlier smile, and introductions all around; it's much like a paid ad on a social network (e.g., Facebook).

In the past years since 2002 I have worked at several restaurants and bars and s  tarted a burger joint, a beach bar that at night turned into a happening club scene. With the help of PR and lots of social media each one became well known in what is the most competitive media market in the US; New York City.

This blog is about my journey, past and present. I certainly do not have all the answers about how to turn BCRs into a wild success but I certainly have many great ideas.