Corporate Social Networking

You bet, interactive communities are penetrating the corporate office and replacing (at least being included) in company intranets. No longer are the just big technology companies adapting and adopting this new communication tool. Restaurant chains are to. Even independent restaurants are starting to see the value of creating and managing a private group for internal communications and dialog. There are many ways to create a new, more engaged workforce reaping all the attendant benefits.

First, understanding how social media technologies work including legal considerations, IT support, policy and guidelines. It's best to realize that in most cases, company communication policies and common sense would apply. But don't smother, enable. The hardest thing for marketing folks and lawyers to do is let go. Social web mandates that we trust. It's a learning process, so community management is a key success factor.

Second, IT generally hates anything that passes through a firewall. So, allow access outside the firewall. IT, lighten up a bit.

Third, be patient and try not to grow your community too fast. It will take time because you really want the employee to discover the value and share. Word-of-mouth works internally too. The champions will surface

Fourth, make sure the your regional managers and general managers are on board and know how to use the community at the unit level. More, mush more on that as we go along here.

The B2B Social Web - More Than a Marketing Tool

Yes, it is! I know, the media is all in a frenzy about social media, all your friends are on facebook and Twitter is starting to bug you. Me too, sometimes. But, I find all these web 2.0 tools useful, but I use them for different purposes. Social media is like Chinese food. Somehow, when you make it at home, it always tends to taste the same. At least for me. That's because whatever I choose to make, I tend to use the same spices - because that's all I have in my cupboard. So, of course, my dishes tend to take on a similar flavor profile.

So, cooking with all the same spices is like using the same web 2.0 tools for all your social-business needs. The results will be similar. Choose the right tools for your social media strategy and measure its impact. Them swap them out until the objectives are met.

The future, as I see it for the social web, is B2B utility. Utility is needed when there is a problem to solve. In the foodservice industry, particularly at the unit-level, business solutions fall into four primary buckets: Business CRM, Social CRM, Workforce Collaboration and Business Productivity. By using readily available SaaS solutions developed specifically for the restaurant industry, an operator can leverage Web 2.0 and social media creating a powerful management system that promotes efficiencies. Cloud computing is finally here for foodservice. From purchasing and supply chain transparency through managing customer loyalty programs and mobile marketing initiatives, social media is in the middle of it all. How? By engaging all stakeholders via the social web and delivering information bi-directionally. Collaboration between all stakeholders is a must today.

FohBoh 2.0 is the first step in delivering integrated technology and social business solutions to the foodservice industry. While B2C is cool, and driving new customers to your restaurant door is compelling, you still need B2B social tools to engage and communicate interactively with them to measure success. Social networking is a part of your communication strategy, but should also be incorporated into your B2B strategy as well.

You also need to control commodity costs and real-time interactive conversations relationships with your vendors and access to manufacturers. It's a new game with new business models, new tools and technologies that are cheap and easy to bolt on. However, technologies need to be unified before true utility is obtained. Look for SaaS solutions for foodservice that offer fully integrated and unified connectivity under a single log-in beginning this year. This will finally make restaurants smarter and offer something truly valuable to business. B2B Social media is as powerful as B2C social media. Successful restaurant operators will need to be fluent with both.

Goodbye 2000 -2009 decade

It hardly seems that 10 years has passed since I hosted 25 people at a dinner party (well wine and we also had food) to say hello to a promising new millennium. We ate and drank and toasted to our good fortune, to our vested stock options and the burgeoning Internet gold mine. Living and working in Silicon Valley then was an insiders' game. It was regular cocktail chatter. We discussed how much each of us was making and where we were investing our option cash. It was a heady time. I miss those arrogant, easy money days where wealth was created from good timing, a lot of sweat and luck. We all knew it wouldn't last. That was obviously then. Before meltdowns, bubbles, tragedy, not one but two recessions and lost wealth. I often wonder how many of my old cocktail party friends still have any money?

The verb named Google and the micro-blog named Twitter - the new kid on the block that may implode on its own weight - are welcoming signs of another fast to market caution. Twitter went mainstream in February after simmering since 2006. It's 2010 and they still haven't a clue on how to monetize. I guess I am just old school when it comes to business. While free can be a good model, it doesn't always sustain unless there is utility and technology there to sustain a high influence rating.

I worry about Twitter. Not that I am losing sleep over their success or future. I just worry that so many restaurants seem to think it's get followers, spam them, give away coupons and increase my business. This is an incomplete thought with expectations from a naive user. Rushing to use any one-to-many mass communication channels is not a good idea. I just hope restaurant operators use this social media tool as a start to joining the conversation and a way to seed new belief in a changing landscape.

The LongView

Image by Gauravonomics via Flickr

I was told today that we may have to be patient for success. That, while social media are indeed being embraced by the enterprise, the FohBoh vision may be too big for foodservice. Hmmm.

The 4C's of Social Media
FohBoh has content. In fact, more P2P content in one spot for the foodservice industry than anywhere else.

FohBoh Is collaborative. We have 13,000 members that suggest that we are an active, engaged community. Not all at once, but we are engaged.

FohBoh is The defacto online restaurant community. We have members, content, groups, interaction, dialog sharing, and 13,000 members...

FohBoh has collective intelligence. We are the deepest peer-to-peer resource for our industry. Our members are the voice of the restaurant industry.

The Restaurant industry isn't waiting for analysts and investors to say, ok, the timing is perfect for us now. That concept is a circular reference.

We are working hard to move this needle and educate investors, analysts and others to deliver solutions to this industry. We need social media business cases and thought leadership now, not when prognosticators say so.

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Time for the restaurant industry to embrace the new, new

Image of fohboh

I find that I am always thinking about what's next. I am a gadget guy, for sure. Call me the ultimate early-adopter. I remember my first computer purchased for a ton of money in 1984. It was a Macintosh. I jumped right in and started playing with it. Totally unafraid, as I should be. Unless I dropped it, I wasn't planning to break it. Really, what could a 512 machine do? Practically nothing, almost everything.

I'm a believer, and I practice the art of the possible. I have no fear. So, why is that? What was it during my childhood that turned this personality on? My parents were hard working, middle class folks. But not risk-takers. My grandfather was an entrepreneur and inventor, howevever. Maybe "it" skipped a generation; kind of like hair-loss.

Being a risk-taker is a hard thing to tell someone. Like your wife! Actually, my wife knew it long before we were married. It's my first wife that didn't know. That is, until I had quit my job, moved to Reno, Nevada in 1980. Then a year later, I opened my first restaurant at the age of 26. I just decided to be an entrepreneur. I had a vision and focused on that goal. In those days, being an entrepreneur wasn't something you actually put on a business card. It wasn't something that I even identified with. I was just a someone that had a dream and followed his heart. I was a risk-taker restaurateur.

Here's the thing I just don't get about the restaurant industry. An operator will take enormous personal and financial risk developing and operating a restaurant. Huge amount of risk with huge failure rates. But when it comes to technology, clams up. "No thanks." "Not for me." "Too complicated." "Too expensive." "Never had it, don't need it." "It's a fad." "We have all the technology we need around here, thank you very much!" Gez. Ask any technology vendor about selling into the foodservice industry and they just look down and say, "man, can you say late adopters?"

But, wait. I see as small crack. A glimmer of hope for the sales rep and the operator. Its called social media. Why does it takes an economic meltdown and a fundamental shift in how humans communicate to drag a restaurateur to the table?

First, foodservice is already very late, so may they are right on time, again. Social media has been around since the Internet started. Social media is just people having conversations online. The change is speed and dialog...a two way conversation. The future of the social web is positioning restaurants to leverage this amazing force of change betetr than many industries. If, they will use it. Don't be afraid. You cannot break the Internet.

1. It's mostly free.
2. You cannot break it.
3. It will, if used strategically, build relationships with new and existing customer and should increase sales.
4. It is powerful and can, drive operating costs down.
5. It should be looked at as a utility: Business CRM, Social CRM, Business Productivity and Workforce Productivity tools to help sustain and grow your business.

The trend is more use, not less. The reality is your customers and employees are online using social media and social networking right now. Are you?

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Blogging for a Living

Over the past two years, I have somehow found the time required to be more productive. While I have been blogging since 2006, this past 20 months, since founding FohBoh, I have been a very active blogger and social media practitioner. Now, with my frequent posts on FohBoh, bi-weekly posts for the FohBoh newsletter, "In the Window", my new Social Media Kitchen blog, this new Restaurant Social Media blog and my forthcoming monthly column for the California Restaurant Association "The Standard", I am now fully engaged. Lately, more speaking engagements, moderating and participating on panels discussing my passions, social media, online communities, technology, and foodservice social media.

So, where do I find the time to actually run my business? How can I be creative, continue my research, read, raising capital, create and sell new products and still have a balanced life? I think I just work, alot.

I find what takes the most time is messaging. Crafting messages. Revisiting the last message, learning new messages and trying not to live in PowerPoint. FohBoh is a small company with just a few employees. We are NOT venture-backed, so resources are skinny. We do have a few shareholders and a couple of note holders. But, most of the capital is from my wallet. Deferred luxuries include things like like a paycheck. This is skin-in-the-game and dedication.

Blogging has become our SEO strategy and we have learned to be patient and optimistic, however. Testing and evaluating new technologies has also become a big part of our daily routine because we need to accelerate user adoption, FohBoh member activity. So, adding to our daily activity is Twitter, Digg, Friendfeed, Facebook, and dozens of foodservice and other blogs. Writing now consumes 4 hours a day, seven days a week.

I had a foolish thought recently. Maybe I should write a book?

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