Stop Being So Self Centered

In my weekly quests to find new and different ways bars and restaurants are using social media I am constantly reading twitter posts and facebook updates. After a while my brain just goes numb. There is hardly anything out there that excites me. There is only so much I can take of “Come to Our Bar”, “Our Restaurant is great”, “Our bar has beer”, “Our Restaurant has food”. I get it, you want to promote your business, understandable. However, if all you do is talk about yourself people will get bored and stop reading what you have to say.

One point that I think all experts agree on when it come to social media is that you must talk about other people and businesses. Most bars probably don’t want to promote another bar in their area but what about tweeting praises to liquor or wine brands that your bar serves. Likewise, restaurants could tweet about food news or recipes, possibly even promote a local food blogger or farmers market. Many things that interest you and your employees will probably interest your followers to, including local news, events and sports.

Another easy way to interact on Twitter is to retweet. If you read another Tweet that you like, retweet it, easy-peasy. This is a great way to post funny and witty tweets if you are maybe not so funny or witty yourself.  I also suggest replying to other people’s tweets and tweeting at followers you know are loyal customers.

Of course I understand that at the end of the day Twitter is a promotional tool for bars and restaurants. No matter what you want to post you specials, happy hours and good press. This is my suggestion: If you decide you want to tweet 10 things a day make 5 of them about your bar or restaurant, 3 of them retweets and 2 of them responding to other users. I think that is a nice balance, we’ll call it the 50, 30, 20 rule… or maybe not.

Feature Friday- Tavern

If you want to see an example of a good Twitter feed from a restaurant check out Tavern. This Nashville restaurant, that just opened earlier this year, did not waste anytime hoping on Twitter and doing it right. You can check out their tweets at http://twitter.com/#!/TavernNashville

Tavern’s Twitter posts are the complete opposite of the bar I wrote about yesterday. They post often, every post is unique and they interact with their followers regularly. Tavern is a great example of how to really use Twitter to your restaurant’s advantage. I suggest following Tavern and other restaurants doing Twitter right in order to find inspiration for your own tweets.

 

What Not To Do- Twitter Edition

Whenever a new bar starts following me on Twitter I like to take some time to look at their posts and web page. I always enjoy seeing how different bars are using Twitter, Facebook and other social media to promote themselves. Every so often I come across a bar whose Tweets just don’t appeal to me. I don’t like to offer unsolicited advice to these bars but I would like to share what my 2 biggest problems are with some bar’s Twitters and Facebook pages.

When you are tweeting for your bar please do not only talk about yourself. This morning I was looking at a bar’s Twitter page and it was just a listing of all their specials and Happy Hours. There was absolutely no interaction with anyone else which sort of takes the “Networking” (and the “Social” for that matter) out of social networking. Even something as simple as retweeting can show that you are involved and not just promoting yourself.

Another thing to be aware of when you are tweeting is repetition. You have to walk a fine line with Twitter. There are millions of things constantly being posted on Twitter and you want to make sure yours gets seen. However, just copying and pasting the same tweets over and over again every hour makes it seem like a robot is handling your Twitter account. There’s nothing wrong with getting the same message out a few times a day but try to say it differently each time and make it personal (maybe even funny).

I’ve been on the fence all morning about posting this bar’s Twitter ID here. I would love for people to see first hand what I’m talking about.  I finally decided that posting their ID would just be too negative. I’m sure most people won’t have to look to far in to Twitter to find a bar like the one I’m talking about. Just make sure it’s not your bar.

How To Keep Up With Local Events

Do you do all you can to reach out to people visiting your city for special events or conventions? Sure, local customers who will keep coming back are great, but the fact is that out-of-town visitors will most likely be visiting bars and restaurants so why not make sure it’s your bar or restaurant.

The magic of the internet makes it easy to figure out what events or conventions are going on in your city. After finding that information I visit the official webpage for the event and look for the #OfficialHashtag.

Example:

Here in San Francisco the big convention center is the Moscone Center, so I simply go to their web page and look at the event calender. From there I can see that this week there is a Travel Writers Convention called Pow Wow in town. One minute later I have found out that their official hashtag is #ipw11 . Simple. Now as a bar or restaurant you can tweet things like

Welcome #ipw11!! Head to (your name here) tonight for late night happy hour from 9-2

This is a good tool to use for conventions, festivals, concerts, parades and any other event in your city that is bringing in out of towners who need some help deciding where to eat and drink.

Mission Monday 5/23/11- Schedule Your Tweets

I’ve noticed that many places tend to set aside a block of time each day dedicated to social networking. This isn’t a bad idea but unfortunately it results 5 different tweets appearing all at once in your followers timelines and then nothing for the rest of the day. I can’t speak for anyone else but I know when I see multiple tweets in a row from the same person I usually read the first one and then just sort of scan through the rest.

Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean you have to set a notification on you phone for every 2 hours to remind you to tweet.

The solution: I recommend HootSuite. HootSuite has many useful features to help you manage all your social media needs. Right now I just want to focus on scheduling your tweets. After you sign up it is pretty self explanatory. You can use the same time you set aside for social networking before but instead of posting your 5 tweets for the day all at once you can schedule them at different times throughout the day.

Here’s an example of how a bar or restaurant can schedule tweets for the day.

12:00- Tweet Lunch Special

3:00- Tweet Happy Hour Special

4:00- Tweet Dinner Special

5:00- Tweet About Any Sports or Special Events

8:00- Tweet Late Night Specials

Once you have your basic tweets scheduled for the day you or your employees can add anything else that comes up throughout the day in real-time.

Mission Monday 5/16/11

With all this focus on online social networking it is important not to forget to actually talk to your customers face to face.

Recently I helped a bar set up a Twitter page. After signing them up I wrote “Follow Us on Twitter” with their Twitter ID on the most prominent Specials board in the bar. However, a month later they were having some difficulties attracting followers for their Twitter page.  I posted a contest on Twitter for followers to win a free lunch and was barely able to get 5 people to enter. So I awarded all 5 people the free lunch, tweeted them congratulations and hung a “Free Lunch Winners” sign up in the bar with the winners’ Twitter IDs listed.

Not even an hour after hanging the sign I overheard one of the bar regulars say “Man, I’ve been coming here almost everyday for 5 years and I’ve never won lunch.” I went over to him and told him he would have to follow the bar on Twitter. He then told me he didn’t even know the bar had a Twitter and immediately got out his phone and followed the bar. I asked how he could come in everyday and not notice the huge “Follow us on Twitter” sign. He told me that he orders the same thing everyday so has no need to look around at the specials boards. Well, duh.

After that morning I had all the bartenders engage with people and ask if they were on Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare (and not in an annoying would you like to sign up for a Best Buy card sort of way.) Turns out there were a lot of customers who had never seen the Twitter sign or had no idea they had a foursquare special and once they were told about these things they jumped right on board.

Spend this week engaging your customers in real life and see what kind of difference it can make in your social media life.

My New Obsession For Bars

Barspace.TV, where have you been my whole life?   An entire social networking site devoted to bars and bar patrons. Like Facebook you can post your bar’s info and specials, unlike Facebook everyone on Barspace.tv is specifically looking for a bar. In their own words:

Barspace.tv is a complete social networking site featuring LIVE WEBCAMS in our venues. Along with these bar cams, you will have access to printable vouchers, text messages specials and a full list of events in your area. And don’t forget to check out the Barspace iPhone App, allowing you to check out all our live feeds on the go

The first thing you will notice on this site are the live bar cams but there is so much more to it. Last night I set up my own profile with picture, age, location and favorite drink. This morning I decided to see what information I can find out about bars in my area.

First I was able to see all the Barspace.tv bars in San Francisco then I narrowed it down to just the bars that had their live cams on. Here is what I was able to find out about The Blue Light just by spending one minute looking at their page on Barspace.tv.

1. There are 3 men watching the Kentucky Derby
2. The address, phone number and map to the bar
3. They have 18 TVs and a pool table
4. The Daily Deal is $1 off any full priced drink
5. Weekday happy hour is 4pm-9pm, weekend is 10am-1:45 am
6. What their menu looks like
7. Of course profiles of their patrons

 As far as I can tell the only negative about this site might be making sure your patrons are aware that they are being broadcast live to the internet so they don’t come in with their secretary or some other cliché. Luckily you don’t have to have a live feed all day, you can choose what times your bar will broadcast and those hours will also be listed on Barspace.tv

On Barspace.tv you can find bars in San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Los Angeles, Boston, New York . They recently signed up their 200th bar and it is such a specific marketing tool I’m sure many more bars will be signing up soon.

9 Companies Doing Social Media Right and Why

Today’s Expert Tuesday comes from socialmediaexaminer.com (again). This is a great list of companies getting the most out of social media. Of course they are not all food and beverage (#8 is though so pay close attention) but they all are great examples of what any company should aspire to.

Check out the article here.

Mission Monday 5/2/11

Beginner

Start a Twitter account for your bar or restaurant. I know what you’re going to say: “Twitter is stupid, I don’t need to know what everyone had for dinner and I don’t want people knowing everything I do.” So go ahead and get that out of your system. I have heard it over and over again and to me it is just a clear sign that you don’t know what you’re talking about and you hate new business. So let’s talk about what you are actually going to do with your Twitter.

1. You are going to follow other bars and restaurants in your area
2. You are going to follow people who tweet about food and drinks
3. You are going to tweet about your specials, happy hour, featured cocktails, deserts etc.
4. You are going to let people who come into your bar or restaurant know that they can follow you on Twitter
5. You are going to let your facebook fans know about your new Twitter
6. Do not text about what you had for dinner…unless it was something delicious from your restaurant that you would like to promote

Advanced

Get your Twitter out there by encouraging your followers to tweet @YourBarOrRestaurantHere. For example, post a tweet like:

Tweet “I Want a Free Lunch” to @MyRestaurant for a chance to win a free lunch 

or

Tweet “I Love Beer!” to @MyBar for a chance to win a free beer*

*Check your local liquor laws about giving away free beer first

Now keep track of who Tweets at you, pick a winner and tweet at them to let them know they won. If possible you should also post their Twitter names at your place showing that they won. Other people will want to follow you on Twitter if they know there is a chance of winning a free lunch or beer.

Feature Friday- Idle Hands, NY

A bar that uses Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare has an updated blog and website with interactive calendar of special events and promotions.  I just died and went to social networking heaven.  Some off the best online promoting I’ve seen, oh, and did I mention they’ve only been open for 7 months.

Check out Idle Hands Webpage

This is what every bar should aspire to.  Not only to they have great events such as a “Single’s Night” where all single barrel whiskeys and single malt scotches are $2 off but they also offer check in specials on Foursquare (my obsession for bars and restaurants) and are constantly updating their Facebook page.

What do you think of Idle Hands Webpage?