Posted by Jennifer Grumbling
LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, You Tube, blogging, it really can turn into an endless list of social networking outlets for anyone and everyone to connect to, well, anyone and everyone. Whether you’re a business looking to spread the word about a new product or a retiree seeking out your best friend from high school, it’s amazing the reach these tools can have.
Now, I would like to talk about how you can use these tools to your benefit as a restaurant operator. This tool can be absolutely priceless. What’s interesting, many restaurants either don’t use social networking or if they do use it, they never inform their customers that they are using social networking sites. Currently, it is estimated that over 55 million adults use social network sites at least once a month, that’s double the numbers we saw in 2007 (source: mashable.com/2009/07/28/social-networking-users-us).
With that said, are you using these sites to drive business into your establishment? If you are, how do you make sure your customers know they can become a fan, follow you or request you as a friend? If you’re not using them, you might want to ask yourself, why not?
One of the biggest bonuses of social networking is that it’s free. Sure, you can advertise on these sites for a fee, like any other website, however, you have the opportunity to create your own pages, links, discussions, photos, etc. for free. When it comes to uses for chain operators, the possibilities are endless. Some operators use their social networking sites to announce new menu items, update customers on new locations, for upcoming promotions, drive traffic to your website or even to survey customers on what they think new menu items should be. In fact, some operators have even used social networking for employee recruitment! For example, Bobby Flay (@bflay) used Twitter to announce that he was recruiting for two of his new restaurants, and Qdoba Mexican Grill now uses input received via Facebook and Twitter in its research and development. (Source: http://www.rimag.com/article/CA6703164.html)
We use social networking at Answers Systems to keep in touch with clients, prospects and even employees. Answers Systems recently adopted a number of social networking practices including:
We use our social networking sites to make announcements to our users and clients, post industry blogs, and network with those in the foodservice and trade promotion management industry. There are also opportunities for discussions and idea exchanges.
So, as you can see there are many uses for social networking in the foodservice industry. Right now, it’s a nearly untapped source for our industry. Social networking has definitely become an integral part of reaching our customers and clients. Take a moment check us out, build your own page or set up an account, maybe we can be friends!
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