Restaurants Change the Game with Social Strategies
Looking at the restaurant businesses - there seems to have been a recovery from the crisis and dining out is back at its boom phase. You only have to look around to see that lots of new cafes, restaurants, bars and deli’s have opened up in the past year or so and even by owners who have never run restaurants before. The culture of dinning out has also changed. At the same time the development of new digital platforms have given more opportunities for restaurant owners to reach an audience.
One of the biggest opportunities available to businesses is the rapidly growing mobile and internet audience. Whereas previously restaurants relied on walk-in trade off the street and reviews, there are now even better ways to reach out to your potential clientele. The most obvious and probably simple tool is a website. However the real purpose of a website is not for the sake of having one, a website that is not well though-out with its concept, or does not give real value to your clientele will never give your business any real business impact. Most importantly a website should reflect the atmosphere of your place, make users want to visit your establishment and spread the word about it; that’s why it’s very important to think over the design, content and usability.
A very important aspect of your website is the interaction users can have on your website itself and in social networks. Very simply you can start a direct conversation with your clientele by adding a forum, comments area, a request form or a chat feature to your website. And this is only the tip of the iceberg, today with the growth of social media and the rise in influence of recommendations through these channels there are even more ways to enhance the interactive element on your website. Website interaction with popular social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare all offer access to a big audience, whose interest in your restaurant, preferences and opinions can be tracked rather precisely. You can obtain more efficient integration with all the social networks through custom tools on your website which allow you to contributing regularly to groups, pages, applications, likes, tweets, check-ins and friends recommendations. These are all ways that were never available before to learn directly about your clientele and to establish a strong relationship with them. Not only can you gain new clients but you also have the option to react quickly to the changes in their preferences.
A website integrated with social networks is an immense marketing tool and if done creatively is invaluable in generating a buzz about you. A successful example is a restaurant chain in New York 4Food which took a very creative approach to social media integration. 4Food turned buying a hamburger into a game where customers could brand their own burger creations and even get credits against future purchases every-time another customer orders their burger. These burger creations were shared by customers on Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare giving other people an opportunity to vote for their favorite burger. This social media event proved to be a huge success and spread the word about the new business very quickly. It’s even more interesting to see that now David Yan (owner of ABBYY), plans to create a special social network targeted on restaurants and other places to eat out.
Now with mobile reach growing phenomenally this is one area of your digital campaign that should not be missed. Now its even more vital that there is a mobile version of your website and its not simply enough to assume your current website is suitable for a mobile phone. The logical approach is to adapt your website to a version that is compatible and easy to use on a mobile phone. As the number of mobile internet users grows globally, this segment is one that will really generate you a major business impact if they are considered early on.
One of the more interesting opportunities that many businesses are now capitalising on are branded mobile applications. Due to in-built GPS, a mobile application can notify users of the nearest restaurants to them and show them directions on how to get there, pop-up information can be pushed to them about special events all based on a mobile users current location. The opportunities to catch customers in your vicinity are so vital and siimilar to a website a mobile application can give you objective and precise results on frequency and time of visits, orders, money spent and the most favourite dishes, etc.
Today there are some very exciting opportunities available to both businesses and consumers. Communication between restaurant owners and their clients should be a simple process and an all-in-one solution offered to make your presence known to web and mobile users is possible. This solution can assist you to establish strong relationships, surpass competitors, and finally bring more profit.
