Parallels Between Restaurants, Social Media

When the upcoming Restaurant Week in New York is promoted via Twitter, you know the time has come for all hospitality companies, especially restaurants, to have a presence. Marketing via the social media realm is not only here, it’s powerful, easy to use and a great way to connect with your customers. Twitter and other social media outlets helped then-presidential candidate Obama reach voters and it can help restaurateurs do the same by answering  questions, sharing promotions and even hiring great staff all in real time—and it’s free.

It’s fast, and it’s simple, but working via Twitter or Facebook is no shortcut. To do it right takes as much effort, sometimes more, than maintaining a Web site. I’m struck by the amazing parallel between Twitter, in particular, and the restaurant business. It’s immediate, you have to make a big impact in a brief time, yet you can’t fly by the seat of your pants and be successful.

Protocol for the social media realm is rather tenacious. Cross the line and you will know it. On the flip side, while you cannot control conversations about you, your company or your brand, you can participate in it. This egalitarian approach lets all readers use their intellect and ultimately make their own decisions. It also means you have to produce the experience and prepare the food you promise. We recommend that our restaurants follow Yelp reviews of their restaurant closely and respond to disgruntled patrons and learn from their mistakes. It is a big part of crafting modern marketing plans and knowing where you have room to improve, especially on service or food.

Just like more traditional media, there are different echelons of communication via the social media. When opening a new restaurant, it makes sense for the opening team to include a person whose time is devoted (or mostly so) to this integral vein of promotion. At Livingston Restaurant and Bar in Atlanta, we made sure the PR firm we hired had a social media “guru,” in addition to its regular public relations staff, to help launch the restaurant. It was a complete success.

On our own internal PR team we believe in the power of social media and have been publishing style update newsletters for over a year and a half and enjoy regular posts on our Facebook pages, in addition to other efforts.

Another realm of the social media are those who dine out and then “tweet” their friends about their experience or post about their experience on their Facebook page. Everyone knows that to get a good recommendation about where to eat, check with a friend who knows food. So, just imagine the impact it will make when this food savvy friend actually cuts to the chase and sends a note their Twitter and Facebook friends about the fantastic restaurant experience they had. That is the ultimate PR.

I’ll never forget a nugget of advice the late Bill Kimpton shared with me years ago. He said, “When you are writing a note to people, never write more than two sentences because all you need to say shouldn’t take more than that.” Well, sounds like Twitter listened to that same advice. You have 140 character—now go use ‘em!