Deep Dish Creative

Eat Drink & Be Social Highlights

This post is a compilation of articles from my Twitter for Restaurants blog. There’s much relevance here for the entire hospitality industry.

Last week I wandered on down to Cambridge, MA for my first Eat Drink & Be Social event put on by Dialogue. The house was packed and attendees could be seen diligently taking notes and live-tweeting on their laptops and smart phones. Between the presenters and panelists, there was much to talk about for restaurants and social media.

This week I’ll break down the highlights that I think you might find valuable.

HIGHLIGHTS PART I – JUSTIN LEVY

Justin Levy, New Marketing Labs (and Partner/GM of Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse)- Justin spoke about how his already established online presence, primarily his blog, enabled him to comfortably transition into social media for his restaurant. His goal was to rank higher than behemoth Ruth’s Chris on general “steak house” searches in the Boston area – without spending any money on PPC (pay per click) web advertising. Not only does Caminito consistently rank higher, they basically own the entire first page of Google and then some.

Takeaways:

1. Build upon your already established reputation
2. Turn all those stories in your history into blog posts, loaded with keywords, yet genuine and sharable
3. Give a hoot about your customers by showing that you truly care. Listen to them, build a community and welcome them where they like to hang out online
4. Don’t dwell too much on which tool(s) you should use, but rather how to interact best with your customers. If you seem to get better response thru Facebook, focus a bigger chunk of your efforts there, smaller on other mediums

HIGHLIGHTS PART II – PANEL OF BOSTON RESTAURANTS WHO’S WHO’S

@B-Good_ @YelpBoston @CitySearchBos @EatBoston @UpstairsOnTheSq and others all had some valuable social insights from their own experiences.
Takeaways:

1. Give your customers a reason to be excited about you by sharing interesting info on your social sites
2. Customers don’t remain loyal because of your recipes, they come again and again because they feel welcome, wanted, and valued.
3. Negative reviews deserve a personal contact from the resto, not just a response on the review site
4. Control the message by putting out your own messaging – using email and social sites
5. By engaging your fans and followers in your daily online chatter, you’re giving them a stake in the business
6. Use Social Media to market your resto, blog and website, BUT tell a story and talk to people online – create community

Talking about Twitter
Panelists also discussed the fact that Twitter is good for restaurants NOW. Meaning, adding Twitter to your online marketing teaches you how to engage your audience on a light level, and to listen and act. Its the perfect starting point for getting involved with social media. Businesses familiar with how it works (and the whole point of participating) can easily segue into establishing a solid Facebook presence and will be ready for the next phase – location-based marketing.

HIGHLIGHTS PART III – FOURSQUARE AND FOODSPOTTING

This final spotlight on my takeaways from Eat Drink & Be Social include a very interesting discussion on mobile marketing with Dennis Crowley (@dens) of Foursquare, and Alexa Andrzejewski (@foodspotting) of the mobile photo submission app, Foodspotting.

Foursquare Takeaways:

Dennis Crowley is probably the most passionate geek I’ve ever met. He’s shamelessly in love with his product and its no wonder – Foursquare has attracted 1 million+ users since its inception in March 2009.

1. A recent partnership with Starbucks offered a nationwide special offer for its mayors, and increased check-ins by 50% in 10 days
2. New promotional materials for businesses include mailed and downloadable stickers and window clings (more on this here)
3. Analytical data becoming more robust for businesses with charts, check-in data and venue statistics (see details)
4. Automated user and owner verification services coming soon

Foodspotting Takeaways

Foodspotting is a foodie-powered field guide that lets users find, photograph and uploads images of their favorite restaurant dishes. It’s powered by users with the Foodspotting smart phone app, and can share food photos and expertise while building a rich collection of foods and where to find them. Launched in July 2009, at last count there were already 100,000 ‘foodspotters’ signed on.

1. Users can create their own ‘field guides’ for others to tap into and enjoy, like finding the best lobster roll, best foods for a local area.
2. Foodspotting has teamed up with San Francisco foodie magazine 7×7 to help promote local restaurants
3. Recommendations rather than reviews, the focus is only on the food – how good it looks and tastes
4. FREE advertising for restos – users take pics of your best dishes and they can become must-haves

VIDEO INTERVIEW
Dennis and Alexa chat with Robert Scoble. The audio is sketchy at times, but you’ll see their enthusiasm for these fun and popular apps for foodies and revelers – and your customers.

If you missed the symposium, you can browse the #eatdrinkbesocial tweet stream here to see what folks were talking about.