Tag: social media

What A 3X Increase in Check-in Services Means for Your Business

Pew Research Center just released a report on American adults and their use of mobile and social location-based services. The numbers foretell the impending future and here are some of the stats:

– Adult usage of location based check-in services rose from 4% to 12% in one year
– 1 out of 5 18-29 year olds use geosocial services
– 12% of 30-49 year olds use geosocial services
– 5% of cell phone owners use their phone to check-in to locations using apps (ie: Foursquare, Gowalla, etc)

What does this mean for the marketing department? This means that as smartphone penetration in the US increases and as location-based services grow, it is becoming more and more imperative to take notice and take action. Whether you have a Director of Social Media, hire a consulting firm or agency, or start by giving the job to an intern, it’s time to start somewhere. Continue reading What A 3X Increase in Check-in Services Means for Your Business

Can Your Restaurant Afford to Make this Mistake? (Part 1 of 2)

I once went to a presentation by the President of Blenz Coffee, George Moen. Blenz is an international coffee chain that has over 85 stores internationally and growing. George offered this piece of advice for any business: If there’s time to spare, use that spare time to market and advertise your business as much as possible.

Marketing isn’t as simple as printing up business cards, and having people handing out flyers at the door during a slow night. Marketing requires discipline and understanding the habits of your customers and their use of technology.

Great Marketing Depends on Technology Trends:

Much or marketing depends on the trends of technology and the relationships that customers have with technology. What happens is that when a restaurant grows successful is that it often becomes complacent and uses old forms of media to continue to promote the restaurant. Continue reading Can Your Restaurant Afford to Make this Mistake? (Part 1 of 2)

Innovative and Effective Uses of Social Media

What is Social Media

Social media is becoming all the rage with most businesses, especially restaurants and retail shops managing their own Facebook page and Twitter account. Five years ago, Facebook was barely mainstream, still catering primarily to the college market, and Twitter was hardly out of inception. Today, Facebook and Twitter decals adorn business’ websites and are prominently displayed on marketing collateral in hopes of having their customers connect with them through these social media channels.

Social media primarily refers to the use of web- and mobile-based technologies to share, connect, and interact with others. Through intricate and vast social networks, users are able to share and disseminate information extremely fast. The goals of successful social media campaigns are to connect with customers, reach new customers, and ultimately convert fans, followers, and loyal customers into actual sales. Some of the ways businesses are getting customers to engage with. Continue reading Innovative and Effective Uses of Social Media

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 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