Monday

Social Media IS LSM

Some good advice on using social networking tools to engage your customers and develop loyalty in this article on Social Media Marketing in the Restaurant Business.

The point I take is that social media is an extension of you and your product, it's another channel of communication for your existing marketing plan.

Everyone loves to know the owner. Everyone likes to feel like they're a member of an exclusive club, or to get additional privileges.

Get feedback, engage customers, make them feel special. Do this through Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, and on discussion boards.

But you need to also do this in person, at PTA meetings, in your dining room. The author hits the nail on the head, but she only speaks to electronic communication channels. Add those channels to the real-life ones. Social media is effective because it increases frequency of message.

Social Media and Restaurant Marketing

So how are you using social media to market your restaurant? Seems like asking for advice on the matter is like asking 10 economists for their opinion on any subject: you get 12 different answers.

- Carefully plan out your branding message, or shoot from the hip?
- Engage customers and develop a relationship, or shotgun a message to drive trial?
- Social media will bring me hundreds of cusotmers, just because they can find me on their iPhones!
- My Facebook page has lots of pictures and my menu.

Maybe a social media strategy isn't the pinnacle of success. Maybe social media are simply one more way to increase your frequency of message. Maybe these tools are just one more channel through which to promote your marketing strategy.

There's a lot of advice out there, but most of it makes social media seem like just today's version of a radio commercial: it reaches a lot of people, but the clutter nullifies the message.

A social media strategy is important. But it's only one leg of an overall marketing strategy. After all, the goal isn't to create awareness. It's to create sales.