Not using Twitter yet?

Not using Twitter yet? You should be. In today's economy, uncertainty is the only thing you can count on. Pub and restaurant companies are closely watching their bottom line, and cutting costs accordingly. But even as budgets shrink, operators can't afford to lose market share in a competitive marketplace with an increasing number of businesses gunning for a shrinking pool of customer spend. You have to spend smarter. Redirect pounds to initiatives with greater return on investment potential and embrace the direction your consumers are headed online: digital marketing and social networking, which is a catch-all phrase that includes all the ways consumers interact with each other in a media-rich online community, including blogs, forums, video/audio/image sharing, and so on. “Social networking” is a category of internet traffic that did not exist 3-years ago. Today, social networking represents 16% of global internet traffic. Operators are leveraging the expansive power of social networking to engage in an interactive dialogue with their customers; driving sales, profits and loyalty. It’s true, a plastic card doesn’t go nearly as far in garnering loyalty as a two-way conversation with customers. Social networking has made that conversation easier than ever before in human history. Wikipedia says that social networking is: “a social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services. “Social networking has created new ways to communicate and share information. Social networking websites are being used regularly by millions of people, and it now seems that social networking will be an enduring part of everyday life. “The main types of social networking services are those that contain directories of some categories (such as former classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-description pages), and recommender systems linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with MySpace and Facebook being the most widely used.” Social networking communities enable you to have a conversation with your customers; tell them what’s going on with events, specials, new menu introductions, new openings, staff needs, and to listen to what they have to say about it Micro-blogging service Twitter enables its users to send and read other users' updates (so called tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. Twitter is perhaps the easiest tool for getting in on the social networking phenomenon. It is quick to get set-up and doesn’t require as much time to maintain as other services such as Facebook and MySpace. Don’t take our word for how twitter can put lines out the door of your restaurant. If you need a solid example of how Twitter can help your business then check out this story of how it helped transformed a tiny taco stand in California: http://video.newsweek.com/#?t=14657820001&l=1825927394 It is the story of Kogi, a Korean barbecue-to-go concept, that has developed a cult following through Twitter. Kogi uses “tweets” to let people know when its van is in the neighbourhood. The result is queues around the block within minutes. You can follow me at: www.twitter.com/aarondallen We will begin sending out actionable ideas for restaurant marketing from this account. Please feel free to direct message any questions you may have. Don’t have a Twitter account? It takes about two minutes to set one up at www.twitter.com Want more digital marketing tips and insights? Aaron Allen is to lead a very special event this summer organised By M&C Report in London, called The Digital Revolution. Supported by event partners Brulines, iTradeNetwork and Zonal, the event will explore how a raft of different technologies are transforming the customer experience and the way pub and restaurant companies operate. This high-level seminar will reveal how companies can use technology to drive their top line – and transform their profits. For more information, call Rita Cottrell on 01293 610433