Social media engagement goes beyond random tweets and posts about your specials and coupon promotions. Your followers & fan tire easily of the “in-your-face” sales pitches about the latest and greatest deal. It gets old and they will eventually tune you out…or even worse, they will stop following you. Social media when done right, humanizes your brand and helps you build and maintian long-lasting credibility.
The following are 7 benefits of active social media engagement. Effective engagement leads to REAL social conversations which can lead to real and invaluable ROI. You never know where that conversation can lead…maybe straight to the bank?!
1. Customers talk about & share what THEY LOVE - Get INSIDE the head of your fans and followers. Check out their profiles. Ask genuine questions about what they like/dislike to get the conversation started. People love to talk about themselves and share their opinions. Give them a reason to share and interact with your restaurant brand! Remember this basic human fact – people love talking about themselves and what they care about – so listen to and participate in their conversations!
2. Opens the window to talk about your products & services in a “non-spam” way - As a result, you build the context of real conversation with back and forth chatter that doesn’t sound like a canned sales pitch. People don’t respond when they are being talked at…talk WITH your customers & fans.
3. Creates valuable brand ambassadors - The best testimonial you could receive comes straight from your customers’ mouths…or in this case, straight from their tweets or Facebook posts, Yelp reviews, etc! You don’t even have to mention your brand once. Let your followers do all the talking. A happy customer will gladly share with others WHY they should use your restaurant’s services/products. During 2011, approximately 18 million people were strongly influenced by the opinions of others on social media. Who are the influencers in your social media clique?
5. Promotes “word of tweet” marketing - Your customers will tell their social media followers how much they like (or hate) your brand, simply by the way they talk about their experiences with your brand. With just one tweet, thousands of people (and potentially more) just heard about your company’s from others…AND gave your brand a “big thumbs up” in the process. When you consider that 23 million folks in 2011 discovered new brands or products through social media, then you can see why remaining connected and engaged is very important.
6. Builds brand equity – Social media engagement “humanizes” your brand and gives your brand REAL value with customers, fans & followers. If they are invested in your brand, they will gladly tweet positive testimonials which further enhance your brand equity.
7. Grows your bottom-line – It’s a fallacy to think you CAN’T MEASURE your ROI when it comes to social media engagement. You CAN SEE you’re a return on investment by first establishing what you want to measure! If your goal is to increase sales during happy hour or Sunday brunch, then create campaigns, content and conversation both around & about those things. Leverage QR codes, offers, fun games and contests to help drive interest & ultimately traffic to your establishment. You may not be able to measure your ROI to a tee but you can get darn close!
Are you ready to have an effective social media presence? We help restaurant organizations, restaurant consultants and marketers improve their social media presence with our creative, engaging and dynamic social media program - Full Scoop.
Make the most of your social media. Start by contacting Adapt today to learn more about our Full Scoop Social Media Services.
What is the ONE thing businesses owners, executives and marketers hate the most? Negative customer feedback! But let’s take it up a notch…it’s the complaints that are broadcast on social media channels and review sites, such as Yelp, Twitter, Facebook, Urban Spoon... just to name a few. In the restaurant and food service business today, there is as much room for poor service and disgruntled customers as there is for huge margins – which means BARELY any room!
Without the necessary customer engagement strategies and systems in place, your business could potentially be living with with negative feedback on the top of review and social media
sites… as well as on customers’ minds – most of which can be AVOIDED!
TIP 1: Have a Customer Service Policy Plan in Place
Start to proactively address negative customer situations by simply establishing customer service policies. Make sure ALL employees and managers are on the same page and you have a clear, cohesive plan in place. Communicate on a regular basis with your employees and set a good leadership example. Practice what you preach!It takes 12 positive service experiences to make up for one negative experience. So make sure that ALL employees understand the importance of not only delivering great service, but also how to respond to customers based on the customer service policies you have in place.
Your business can’t afford to have a customer walk way unhappy, especially when your team had opportunities to successfully address and fix the problem.
As you develop your customer service policies, ensure that your team has opportunities to begin addressing issues with customers across multiple channels: email, phone, social media sites, and face-to-face. Out of best in class companies: 91% provide customers the ability to track issues over the web, 57% measure support center success across email, chat, web, and voice, and 62% use integrated voice response (IVR).
(Press Release)
The prestigious W³ Awards honors creative excellence on the web, and recognizes creative and marketing professionals behind award winning sites, videos and marketing programs across the globe. Judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, W³ is the first major web competition to be accessible to both big agencies and smaller firms.
The International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA) is an invitation-only body consisting of elite professionals from acclaimed media, interactive, advertising, and marketing firms including: Conde Nast, Coach, Disney, Polo Ralph Lauren, Victoria’s Secret, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and MTV Networks.
“It is an honor to receive the W³ award from the IAVA and it was a pleasant surprise, especially since we are a small Texas marketing agency,” commented Ryan Chambers, Adapt’s principal. “We’ve partnered with Olenjack’s for a few years now and improved their marketing both online and offline. Doing great work that delivers successful results for our clients is paramount to us. But it also takes having confident clients like Brian Olenjack who give us the room to do something different – but effectively – for them. As for the award, it’s definitely nice to see our work pay off and to be recognized by an international design organization.”