Blog

Top 3 Social Media Tools to Market Your Restaurant (Part 1/2)

I’ve seen it happen before. It’s the mistake that many restaurant and cafe owners make. The failure to acknowledge the importance of marketing.

Marketing is what determines the survival of a good restaurant. Even when you have a three star Michelin Chef, raving reviews for your food from around the world, and some of the best service in the city, your restaurant can still close. This was the case for the now defunct, but famous restaurants, Lumiere’s and db Bistro Moderne in Vancouver, Canada which was run by world famous chef Daniel Boulud.

What was interesting was that once people knew it was closing down, people I knew were talking about it on Twitter, Facebook, and spreading the word about it virally, including local TV personalities. Strangely, they received a lot of publicity and marketing, but at too late of a stage and for the wrong reasons.

So how do you prevent yourself from getting in the same situation? What can you do to market your restaurant so that customers think of you when they want a place to eat? Here are three social media tools to help market your restaurant so that customers always think about you.

Social Media Tool Number 3: Facebook Fan Page

I’m not going to go into the details of how to create a fan page. But I will tell you the one key ingredient to Facebook marketing. Interaction with your online customers.

It’s actually possible that a customer will “Like” your restaurant and never see messages you post again on their Facebook news feed, and that’s because of EdgeRank.  Edgerank is a formula that Facebook uses to calculate how important you are to be on a Facebook user’s newsfeed when the user logs in. If EdgeRank thinks that your restaurant isn’t important to their user, then it’s not going to show up high on their news feed. Continue reading Top 3 Social Media Tools to Market Your Restaurant (Part 1/2)

The Best Way to Attract New Customers

One of the biggest issues for restaurants is getting new customers to come a restaurant.  While most restaurants will have a loyal following of customers, many of these customers will only be around for so long. Some will move to a different part of the city, others may not be able to eat out as much due to the recession, while others will go to the newest and hottest restaurants in the city.As the former manager of a cafe myself, I believe the best way to get new customers in the door is through referrals. No coupon, website, or paper advertisement can be as powerful in getting a person to try a restaurant as a close friend recommending a restaurant.

Why referrals are so valuable

Here’s the trouble with referrals: they tend to come sparingly. They either come when someone has just finished eating at a restaurant a day or two later at most or they only recommend when someone asks for a great restaurant for a special occasion. If you’re lucky, a customer that likes your restaurant will recommend it 3 or 4 times a year. Continue reading The Best Way to Attract New Customers

The Check-in Phenomenon

From Foursquare and Gowalla to Facebook and Google Places, “checking-in” is becoming second nature to millions of people nationwide. Checking-in, as it relates to consumers and technology, refers to using location based services integrated with smart phones, allowing users to “announce” where they are at based on a particular venue. Users can download from a multitude of apps to check-in using a specific platform to earn points. From the millions of Foursquare users to the hundreds of millions of Facebook users, this offers businesses a vast user base to tap into. One goal these check-in services hope to achieve is to fill the intersection between technology and brick-and-mortar businesses. Check-in services encourage consumers to visit physical storefronts to look, peruse, and buy.

Do you check-in?

People check-in for various reasons, but a ReadWriteWeb article highlights some of the top reasons including: the ability to discover where your friends are at, earning badges and virtual goods, gaining points, and even accumulating rewards for frequent visits at a particular establishment. With the onset of real-world rewards for becoming mayor, patronizing a business, and winning challenges, people are taking check-ins more seriously. Rewards can range from buy-one-get-one-free offers to $15 off a $50 purchase. Continue reading The Check-in Phenomenon

How I made a Blogpost go Viral (7 Tips)

7 Tips to make your blogpost go Viral

Everyone wants to write content that goes viral and spreads like wildfire. However, it doesn’t always happen. Mostly by luck, I was able to create some content that went viral.

The blogpost I will refer to here is: Seesmic will Destory Tweetdeck

1. Say something controversial in the title (but use the best objective and logical statements to support it)

People love controversial stuff. As long as you truly believe in what you say and can back it up, throw up a controversial posts and give people a reason to click on it. If you just say something like, “Seesmic Desktop emerges as an alternative to Tweetdeck”, people won’t care, and they won’t share it.

2. Include at least one name that people have heard of in the title

Continue reading How I made a Blogpost go Viral (7 Tips)

How restaurants attract and keep loyal customers

How much time and money do you spend attracting new customers?  How many coupons, discounts, promotions, and deals have you created just to attract a new face to your business?

Now let me ask you this more important question: What steps do you take to turn a new customer into a loyal customer?

We asked 100 restaurants and cafes in Northern California this same question.  Unanimously, the answer was the following: “Our great food and excellent customer service is what keeps our customers coming back.”

In the age of new technology and a fickle generation, great food and great customer service just doesn’t cut it anymore. Continue reading How restaurants attract and keep loyal customers

The RewardMe Loyalty Program becomes mainstream in the SF Bay Area

In a short amount of time, RewardMe has established a strong presence and has become a fan favorite for restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area. Some notable places include: Denny’s, Coupa Cafe, Posh Bagels, Cantankerous Fish, Pho Garden, Barracuda Sushi, Sweet Corner, Han’s Korean Cuisine, and more.

RewardMe aims to become the dominant Loyalty Program for Restaurants and other stores to engage their customers and increase repeat customers & referrals via mobile marketing

Our users love RewardMe too. Thousands of users are using it regularly, even weekly, at restaurants participating in RewardMe, enjoying their points and rewards. Edo Peno, a Yelp Elite for three years straight, wrote a blogpost on how much he likes RewardMe.

Since we are in the center of Silicon Valley, we’ve been getting attention on the popular Q&A site Quora too, asking about how we established our traction.

We are excited to continue to support the community and create a closer relationship between stores and their best customers. We are soon doing our big launch in Vancouver and Southern California. We are also expanding quickly to the East Coast and other cities in the US and Canada.

If you run a restaurant and want to keep up with the times as well as create better relationships with your customers, let us know!