It's Pull love not Push Love

Restaurant operators still tend to revert to the "olde" ways of media. Push media isn't effective, yet they still try. Now, having said that, I truly don't mean to imply that all announcements fall on deaf ears. I just mean that social media is about having conversations; an interactive dialog not a monologue.

I receive messages from a a wide array of media. There is this one restaurant that thinks using a countdown to happy hour will be effective. "five hours 'till happy hour, four hours 'till happy hour, three hours 'till happy hour, two hours 'till happy hour, one hour 'till happy hour"..then amazingly - "30 minutes 'till happy hour" and then, the finale, "IT"S HAPPY HOUR AND YOU ARE MISSING IT!!!!!!!"

How can anyone think that this will be effective.

Social media are here to help you engage, discover and find influencers and build relationships. Using social media to broadcast promotions, specials and happy hour countdowns will not inure your brand to your affinity group.

Now, it is OK to create a social media campaign that includes broadcast, provided it is mixed with thought leadership, inspired notes, fun, games, contests, interactive dialog and conversation. Did I say conversation? Just pushing messages will do more harm than good, so it's a wasted effort.

This week on FohBoh

February 1-5, 2010


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Finding Influencers and Getting Your Social Media Game On

This can be a very long discussion, so I promise to keep it short. This post is short because I want this message to be concise, almost a mantra:

The goal of all this discussion, energy and activity regarding social media is to do one thing and one thing well - find your key influencers by listening intently and empower them to be your brand ambassadors.

"Find your key influencers by listening intently and empower them to be your brand ambassadors".

If you focus on achieving this one goal and measure its effectiveness over time, you will win the battle for customer loyalty and engagement.

What Social Followers Want

I found this on emarketer and thought is was worth reposting


What Social Followers Want
JANUARY 22, 2010

Deals aren’t the only thing

Brand marketers want consumers to follow them to build buzz and engagement, but social media users often desire something in return. What they’ve come to expect is a good deal, but many consumers—including the most active users of social sites—are also interested in deeper engagement.

A December 2009 MarketingSherpa survey indicated that learning about specials and sales was the top motivation of those who friended or followed a brand online, supporting the results of earlier surveys. But looking for savings was followed closely by learning about new products, features or services.



Reasons for Friending or Following Companies Through Social Media According to US Consumers, December 2009 (% of respondents)

Users described as “max connectors”—those with at least 500 social connections—were less interested than average in getting deals. Instead, they cared about new products and company culture, demonstrating the deeper engagement expected by social media power users.

An earlier study, by Razorfish, also found that exclusive deals and offers were the primary motivation of US Internet users following brands on Twitter.



Primary Reason US Internet Users Follow a Brand on Twitter, August 2009 (% of respondents)

Respondents who friended a brand on Facebook or MySpace responded similarly, though they were more likely to become a fan because they were a current customer (32.9%) than were users of Twitter.

Sharing interesting content that users care about, along with the deals and discounts they have come to expect, will both keep them engaged and spur them to pass along marketing messages.

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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.

Corporate Social Media Policy

More and more enterprise-grade social networks are coming online. With this, should come rules and guidance.

Here are ten common sense rules for developing your corporate social network social media policy:

1. Be Certified in the Social Media Certification Program.
2. Follow our Code of Business Conduct and all other Company policies.
3. Be mindful that you are representing the Company.
4. Fully disclose your affiliation with the Company.
5. Keep records.
6. When in doubt, do not post.
7. Give credit where credit is due and don’t violate others’ rights.
8. Be responsible to your work.
9. Remember that your local posts can have global significance.
10. Know that the Internet is permanent.

Yelping about Yelp!

Oh my, Yelp still doesn't get it!

I am a fan of reviews. Reviews keep us honest, alert and wanting to improve. But, I am also a fan of fairness and honesty. If Yelp would adjust their algorithm to focus on identifying "fake" reviews and post reviews chronologically, I would be much happier and these type of reports and blogs would disappear.

This is a link to a video to yet another story on how Yelp seemingly extorts money from reviewed merchants. Yelp sucks as long as they continue providing such an unfair service. In my opinion, as soon as a new review site comes along that offers the same amount of information, with reviews posted chronologically, Yelp will become less relevant. And, that's fine with me. Yelp never addresses their algorithm relating to date stamping. Why is that?

Even consumers are starting to look for alternatives. It's a good directory (so is Google), but it isn't a fair review site. The average review is what, 3.5 stars? Seems like a low-end attempt to create a crowd-sourced content site. Moreover, they are not creative. They haven't figured out how to monetize Yelp beyond advertising. Or have they?

See video at YouTube here.

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