The adoption of social media as a marketing channel by restaurants emphasises the gap between the masters of the art and the dabblers or those that ignore it, at their peril. The gap is wide and those that need it least, being already very successful, seem to be the best practitioners.
Twitter accounts we particularly enjoy following include Michel Roux Jr, Raymond Blanc and Cyrus Todiwala. All inject their unique personalities into their tweets and this makes for an enjoyable and engaging experience for their followers. None need to do this to fill their restaurants or build their profiles, they choose to embrace a communication channel that their customers and target audience relish using engage with them there.
So what for those that are still not sure about social media or simply don’t make time to understand?
Like any project it needs to start somewhere and we know from many interviews we have conducted that is best addressed through training. The approach of trying to learn through trial and error can be an expensive one. Firstly in terms of the time cost of the person attempting this and secondly in the effects of getting it wrong.
TheMarketingblog read many of the marketing websites and follow many of their contributors, one of which is Vikki O’Neil who writes for Marketing magazine. Her article Meet the new generation of restaurant brands outsmarting the establishment is well worth a read.
Vikki is now working with a website we follow Hospitality & Catering News who seem to always have their finger on the pulse of their industry.
Having researched the use of social media in hotels, restaurants and other foodservice venues and finding that many want and need social media training they are now providing it. Details of the training can be seen here and we look forward to learning how it will be received. Their social media roundtable events have been oversubscribed and we suspect this training will be too.
