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According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 74% of U.S. adults are online; 35% use social networking sites (which has more than quadrupled in the past four years). The percentage of Americans with cell phones has topped 80%; CTIA, the wireless industry’s trade association, data indicates that Americans text more than they talk – to the tune of 2.5 billion messages per day and climbing. While the surging growth in texting is attributed largely to teenagers, and younger adults are more likely to use social networks, adults still make up the bulk of users of both and their adoption is impressive. The most significant factor may be consumers’ willingness to use these channels to engage with businesses. Some 93% of Americans believe a company should have a social-media presence; 85% believe that a company should also use social media to interact with its consumers, according to the 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study.
“In the downturn, I think the only way to keep a brand in front of customers and the message relevant is to use social media. Marketing dollars work at dramatically higher multiples when consumers help create your message and pass it along.” – Reggie Bradford, ceo, Vitrue, Inc., a social-media marketing firm
SOCIAL NETWORKING
Social media is basically Internet- and/or mobile-based sharing of opinions/ideas/information via email and instant messaging, blogs and forums, podcasts, video- and photo-sharing sites, social-networking sites, etc. “Think of social media as interactive, bi-directional, conversational word-of-mouth – taking place online and passed around at greater depth and speed,” says Kevin Chen, new media consultant specializing in restaurant marketing. These tools are now so prevalent and powerful, Kevin maintains, that in most cases they render Web sites insufficient. “Just having a Web site doesn’t differentiate restaurants anymore, and most independent operators don’t have the resources to make their site dynamic enough. It’s the difference between information and engagement – people want to communicate with you,” he explains. There are scores of social-media sites, each with their own demographics. What’s changed in recent years is that some, particularly social-networking sites, also serve business objectives, not just personal ones. Businesses – including restaurants – are rapidly joining in. “It depends on your audience, but getting started on Facebook and Twitter will cover a lot of bases,” advises Kevin.
Facebook, which started as a personal-networking site for college students in 2004, currently has about 150 million active users worldwide (45 million in the U.S.) – the fastest-growing segment being those 30 years and older. In 2007, Facebook evolved to include a presence for businesses with Facebook Pages. Pages are visible to everyone (even people who haven’t logged in), and Internet search engines will index them. But the biggest benefit may be developing relationships with users, who can add themselves to your Page as “fans,” (BR Guest Restaurants now have 1,300 fans and growing), write on your “Wall” (a public-writing space on your Page), purchase products (in the case of Pizza Hut, order pizza), read news about your business, upload photos, and join other users in discussion groups. You can send updates to your fans and respond to their posts on your Wall; Facebook’s internal metrics will track user activity, visits, demographic interest, etc. Facebook is geared to highlight new information and recent changes, so adding your own photos, videos, and links regularly encourages return visitors, which leads to more fans (who will display your logo in their individual profiles) continuing the organic networking cycle. The power of Facebook was demonstrated recently with Burger King’s “Whopper Sacrifice” promotion, which drew 82,000 users in a week and resulted in countless news stories around the world.
Above all, the goal is engagement and dialogue. The culture of Facebook is personal, so Facebook advises businesses to approach it from that angle – to showcase people, stories, and news, not to advertise. Facebook users are open to marketing, which is one of its unique values to businesses, but it has to be in the form of relevant, useful, and creative content – not ad copy. (For a good example, see Chez Melange’s Facebook page.)
“What blogging was in 2004, Twitter is in 2009,” says Kevin. Think of it as mini-blogs and/or as a public form of instant messaging – except users don’t necessarily expect a direct response. Twitter isn’t the only site of its kind, but it’s definitely the most popular; accounts are said to run in the neighborhood of three million worldwide, about half of which are in the U.S. Twitter posts – 140 characters on what users are doing/reading/thinking, etc. – can be viewed and updated on the Web, on your desktop, and on mobile devices. These “tweets” are sent out to all Twitter users (unless you restrict who receives them). You can send a public reply to someone or a direct (private) message.
Twitter allows you to “follow” other users (including increasing numbers of businesses) and to be followed. Updates from those you follow appear on your page. The more followers, the more influence and networking opportunities there are for both individuals and businesses. One way for restaurants to start the process of building a network on Twitter is to search for people in their geographic area, for those who talk about their restaurant and others, and those with an interest in food and wine, using tools such as search.twitter.com, whoshouldifollow.com, and twellow.com. Searching can also help you monitor what’s being said about you and what competitors are doing.
Finding their restaurants’ loyal customers online and communicating with them is one of the reasons P.F. Chang’s created a Twitter account early this year. “There’s so much going on in social media that we decided to test the waters and see where it leads us,” says Tiffany Hamby, guest relations manager, who handles the Twitter account, posting, and networking. Tiffany says they want to find their fans and be able to communicate with them about new items, special events, etc.
Like Facebook, Twitter users are open to being marketed to, as long as communications are relevant, authentic, transparent, and personal. The more personal businesses are in social networks, the more likely they are to really connect with people who’d be interested in them. It’s certainly acceptable to promote your restaurant – announce a special promotion, a new menu, a special event – but not in constantly in the form of a sales pitch. Try to attract a following with Tweets about your people, your culture, your expertise, your passion, and your brand. Ask questions; send news (Barack Obama announced Joe Biden as his running mate on Twitter); and provide resources – a link to something interesting you read online, a great review, organizations you support, information about a neighborhood beer festival or a chef’s appearance on TV – to your Web site as well. “It’s simple. To be successful on Twitter, be interesting,” advises Kevin.
With both Facebook and Twitter, the best way to understand what works is by observing what other restaurants are doing – how their pages look, how many fans/followers they have, what kind of an active dialogue is going on. Both are free services and require no investment other than time to set up and maintain a presence (although Facebook does sell ads). In terms of ROI, “One metric is if your fans on Facebook or your Twitter following has grown,” notes Kevin. But it’s difficult to quantify the value of relationships or the ripple effect of people communicating your message for you – which is what social networking is all about. Both services are growing rapidly, so Kevin advises restaurants to just jump in – claim their registration name and get in the conversation. “There’s a great opportunity for restaurants to tap into the huge amount of virtual gathering going on, so start building those relationships,” he says. (Note: click for a link to a partial list of restaurants on Twitter and to browsing restaurants on Facebook.)
TEXT MESSAGE MARKETING
The growing field of mobile marketing encompasses any marketing to mobile devices – primarily cell phones, from basic to smart phones. Kim Dushinski, founder, Mobile Marketing Profits, a consulting firm, says that texting to cell phones is the easiest and most cost-effective form and that consumers are extremely open to it – the open rate for opt-in text message offers approaches 100%. Other pluses are that texting is portable and more immediate than email. Ola Ayeni, president & ceo, Mobile Dialog, a mobile marketing firm, says that over 80% of people with cell phones will open a text message within the first hour. And it’s accessible – even basic cell phones have texting capability, and people are familiar with the technology.
Recent National Restaurant Association consumer research found that 22% of adults surveyed would be receptive to cell phones notification of daily specials from their favorite tableservice restaurant. Through texting, restaurants can also entice people to come in on slow nights, ask them to participate in contests, let them know about upcoming events, and send them coupons (which they redeem by showing the text or promotion code on their cell phone). “Your restaurant could text offers on slow nights, giving you a unique tool to get more customers on those nights,” says Kim. Plus, texting can be highly viral. “You can ask recipients to forward the text to others in their address book on their phone, or make an offer valid when someone brings in a friend,” adds Ola.
The majority of text messages are from one phone directly to another, but texting can also be sent commercially to multiple phones simultaneously. There are a number of text message marketing companies who can implement text message campaigns. After the initial set-up, ongoing monthly fees start at about $100, plus a per-message fee (typically with discounts for higher volume); your subscribers are charged whatever they pay their carrier for text messages. “All text message companies don’t offer the same services,” says Kim, who points out that it’s important to consider how easy the Web-based interface is to use, the level of customer service and tech support provided, and if the company can manage the types of campaigns you want to offer. It’s also important to find one that works with as many cell phone vendors as possible. (Click for Kim’s recommended mobile marketing vendors)
Federal anti-spam legislation applies to texting as well as email campaigns, so it’s essential to get permission, and mobile numbers you acquire have to come from an opt-in campaign you conduct. (You can’t buy a list of numbers and start sending unsolicited text messages, nor can you start texting people on for whom you happen to have numbers.) Kim explains how it works: “You entice your current and potential customers – on premise, on your Web site, via your email list, etc. – to sign up to receive your text messages. To participate, they send a text message to you or opt in online and then you send them a text message to confirm.” And like email marketing, it’s important to tell subscribers about how many messages they can expect to receive and how frequently, as well as provide them an easy way to opt out.
As with Facebook and Twitter, consumers are open to marketing via cell phones. But Kim offers a caution, “You have to consider how personal a cell phone is to those with whom you are communicating. If a company is going to come in to this personal space, it better be with something of interest, of value. The key is to make your customers want to interact with you – they see it as a connection.” One more common thread between text message marketing and social networking: experts say the time is now. “It took the Internet 10 years to become a mainstay of daily life; it will probably take mobile marketing only three to four years to be so commonplace that both businesses and consumers will have a tough time remembering what life was like without it,” says Kim. “Now you have a chance to be ahead. In a blink of an eye, you’ll be with the pack; in two blinks, you’ll be behind.”
For more info on social networking and text message marketing, click on “more resources” for links to Web sites, webinars, and articles to get you started.
