Social Media Marketing For Restaurants

Social Media Marketing For Restaurants

The New York Times recently featured an article about the value of Social Media to restaurants. This is great but there’s just one problem. It’s a little late. You see, now that Social Media is becoming the “in thing”, there are a lot of people talking about it, but business has been slow to grasp the concept. And I know why.

You run a business. You have a restaurant to operate. Your expertise is in making sure your customers have the best possible experience when they come to your restaurant. You don’t have time to implement a Social Media campaign. After all, you don’t cut your own hair, own a chicken farm, catch your own fish or raise cattle. But I’m betting that chicken, beef and seafood are pretty important to your restaurant.

Well, it’s no surprise that you’re not coordinating your own Social Media marketing program. It’s not your area of expertise. But it’s ours!

So what can we do for you? Well here’s what we propose to our new clients. We will design and manage a custom Social Media marketing campaign that will include a substantial presence on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more social networks that will encompass the following:

1. Facebook Business Page Customization – Simply including a link on a website or menu isn’t going to work. “Find us on Facebook” is a tired cliche. We’ll help you get found and give people something to talk about. We will design a custom page that includes;

a. a full custom profile graphic…this branding is a must have
b. we’ll work to ensure that you have a vanity Facebook URL
c. we’ll create a custom welcome tab to encourage “likes” and emphasize branding
d. we’ll create weekly reveal tabs that are based upon promotions that you want to feature
e. we’ll import your menu into your Facebook page
f. we’ll import your blog’s rss feed (if you have one) and populate it with two articles / content per week (we’ll need your input on this)
g. we’ll link your Twitter and YouTube pages via tabs
h. we’ll link your Facebook page to Twitter for easy updating

2. Twitter Profile Customization

a. we will create a Twitter background featuring your business
b. we will manage your Twitter stream and make sure a minimum of 3 updates per day are submitted to Twitter
c. we will coordinate an ongoing follower drive to generate buzz and increase your Twitter follower base
d. we will seek to concentrate on building a substantial local Twitter following
e. we will host a Twitter Meet-up once per month at your restaurant

3. Pictures and Videos (YouTube and Flickr)
Social Media is most effective with videos and pictures. We encourage you to take as many pictures (the more candid the better) and to shoot as many videos as possible. People love pictures and videos and the more you have the better.

a. we will train you how to upload your pictures to Facebook and we will create 2 candid, raw videos for you per month. Don’t think Spielberg, think reality!
b. we’ll create a branded YouTube channel for you

4. Email Newsletter Campaign

a. we will utilize our email marketing management system to coordinate a weekly email newsletter campaign.

5. Directory Submissions

a. we’ll work to keep your restaurant visible in the search engines and on various social networks by managing the submission of content to over 30 online directories and review communities, including but not limited to: Yelp!, Allmenus, Dine.com, Urbanspoon, Citysearch, MerchantCircle, and much more. This includes restaurant specific and general business review communities.

6. Online Reputation Management

a. we will monitor all commentary that takes place online regarding your business. There’s nothing worse than allowing the conversation to take place online if it’s not monitored. You are undoubtedly going to have some disgruntled customers from time to time. The key in today’s viral world is to keep the negatives from spreading and accentuating the positives.

Remember…the “average” person has 130 friends on Facebook. So the exchange above was seen by potentially thousands of people. The restaurant in question did not even respond. Why? Because they obviously don’t have anyone managing their social media conversations and as such, bad word of mouth can spread very quickly. I’ve never been to the Lobster Pit in Ormond Beach but I would now think twice before going there.

I’m not sure that’s the kind of information the owners of that restaurant want floating around out there. But now it is. After all..I saw it, and now have you!

7. Promotions & Daily Deals Inclusion

Daily deals are now all the rage. The number one reason people visit Facebook business pages is for promotions and discounts. We have you covered in this realm as well. By working with the Fort Lauderdale News we can feature your business prominently in a number of ways. From contests and sweepstakes to deal of the day offers, we’ve got you covered.

a. we will include you in one monthly promotion (contest or sweepstakes) that prominently features your restaurant. You will decide the prize to be awarded.
b. we will feature your restaurant on 8 daily deal offers per month (once per week for 2 days each). Daily deal amounts to be determined mutually

8. Custom Monthly Reports

None of this matters if you don’t have data that you can review to quantify your investment and the return thereon. We will provide you with custom reports showing everything from the growth of your Twitter followers, the number of new likes and fans on your Facebook page, how many views you receive on YouTube, how many daily deals were purchased and we will tailor future marketing to reflect the strategies that are determined as a result of the data compiled.

Your Investment:

a. we will need you to be accessible for a weekly meeting to go over strategy.
b. we will need you to get your staff pumped up. We need an energetic staff that is willing to participate in an overall social media campaign. We’ll need pictures, video inclusion and if they choose to, let’s get them involved in the conversation online
c. most of all, we need you to be an accessible and willing participant. It’s too easy to simply cut the check and sit back. Social Media is about interacting with your customers and prospective customers.

Like we have said in our promotional video, you are the star fo the show. The conversation is taking place. It’s our job to make sure you hear what’s going on and it’s our job to make sure you are a part of the conversation. But you are the voice we need to portray and as such, your character and personality are of vital importance as we move forward.

So if you’re ready, so are we. Let’s go!

Call us today at 954-616-5325

If you would like to proceed, please email me at marketing@robinashley.com and we’ll get started right away.

Thank you for your interest.

Related posts:

1. Advertising On The Fort Lauderdale News Network | Social Media Marketing In South Florida