Digitial Idenity

Your Digital Identity Social Media Marketing Trends for Restaurants

Late Summer 2014

5 Ways to Spin a Negative Review • The Decline of Social Media’s Organic Reach The New ‘Yelp Trends’ Tool • Google’s Improved Maps App • Email Marketing Strategies 10 Rising Social Networks to Watch • And More!

Restaurants battle decline of social media’s organic reach www.nrn.com July 1, 2014

Article by Mark Brandau

Organic reach in social media just isn’t what it used to be.

While restaurant marketers were not ready yet to declare the onset of “Facebook Zero” — as a white paper from Ogilvy & Mather published in March had — several of those executives characterized their content in social networks, especially Facebook and Twitter, as reaching fewer and fewer of their fans and followers without the use of paid or promoted posts and tweets.

As Facebook’s algorithms change and the user bases on Twitter, Instagram and other networks explode, brands have turned to several different tactics to try and break through at engagement levels they enjoyed years ago on those platforms.

The study on Facebook from Ogilvy & Mather confirmed that organic reach, or the percentage of brand fans who receive a company’s social media content in their news feeds, dropped sharply from 12.05 percent in October 2013 to 6.15 percent by February 2014. For pages with more than 500,000 likes, organic reach during that time period fell from 4.04 percent to 2.11 percent.

Steve Governale, the category director for restaurants at Facebook, told attendees at the Spring meeting for the Marketing Executives Group of the National Restaurant Association that maintaining and growing organic reach depends upon content that fans would want to share and promote in their friends’ news feeds.

“Where we’ve seen brands have success is when they’ve taken the creative elements to it and seriously put that discipline into how they’re publishing content on the platform,” he said. “As a marketer, good creative is the single-biggest driver for organic engagement.”

Executives from Moe’s Southwest Grill, Which Wich, Hospitality Democracy and Toppers Pizza agreed that shareable content was important but hardly a cure-all solution for the issue of lower organic engagement. They shared their best recent strategies with Nation’s Restaurant News.

Moe's Southwest Grill: Creating a context Moe’s Southwest Grill, the fast-casual chain of more than 500 locations, shifted some of its social media spending to buying promoted tweets on Twitter to increase engagement on that platform, chief marketing officer Paul Macaluso said.

But the key to making the brand’s social marketing more efficient was not just a matter of paying to optimize what Moe’s was already tweeting, he said. The brand sought to integrate its social media into its broadcast media strategy, which on Twitter meant paying for some “contextualized tweets” around a cable-TV buy.

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“We haven’t done a lot of national cable advertising in our past, so we tried to maximize our four-week flight,” Macaluso said. “ The week before our spots ran, we got the list from our agency of which shows on which networks would run the commercials and asked which would be a fit for our brand to tie into social media.”

One of those opportunities happened to be a commercial running during a TNT broadcast of the 1977 horror classic “Jaws.” Moe’s worked with Twitter to develop a humorous picture that hopefully would get shared and retweeted: a chip shaped like a shark fin, swimming in a pool of salsa, with the hashtag #WelcometoMoes.

“Twitter served that tweet to anybody tweeting anything related to ‘Jaws’ during the broadcast,” Macaluso said. “We got much higher rates of engagement than we would have with just an unpromoted tweet. That balance of having real-time social media is amazing, but we might not be ready for it at every moment, so we work on thinking ahead to ways we could create real-time events.”

“I’m going to build an audience and direct them to a database that I own: my email list,” he said. “I can control the message, retarget and do all those things without spending any more money.”

Which Wich: Engaging even more Hala Habal, director of communications for Dallas-based Which Wich, acknowledged that the fast-casual brand has to “pay to play” in social marketing more than it used to, but paid posts are only a piece of its strategy because “you don’t necessarily win anybody over because they see your ad.”

What does win over current guests and their friends is being responsive to comments left on the brand’s social networks and doing so in a way that creates an environment similar to the irreverent hospitality Which Wich tries to cultivate in its 400 locations open or under development, Habal said.

“Paid or not paid, it has to be on point with our brand and our left-of-center voice,” she said. “If it’s not consistent across our store, the website, Twitter and Instagram, it won’t work. …

Nobody goes unanswered [on social media] for 24 hours, and that has nothing to do with paid content.”

Which Wich has set aside dollars for paid social media so that it does not rob its local-store marketing budget, Habal added.

The increased one-to-one engagement social media allows has helped its organic reach as well, even as Which Wich experiments on other platforms where it finds customers and employees, such as Vine or Tumblr.

“Every one of our stores has its own universe, and customers and employees create different hashtags for their locations,” Habal said. “We didn’t pay for that; we let those people find their community. There’s an Instagram page where people make their own unusual Which Wich sandwiches, and it became sort of an underground menu for us. You can’t buy that. If I put that in a paid ad, it wouldn’t ring true.”

Hospitality Democracy: Pumping up the email list Multiconcept operator Joe Sorge, the founder of Milwaukee’s Hospitality Democracy, built a loyal following for his restaurants like AJ Bombers, Smoke Shack and Swig by being one of the first restaurateurs to leverage Twitter as a branding tool back in 2008 and 2009. But lately, the decline of organic reach on Facebook and the equally cluttered screens on Twitter from millions of new users has made posting to those networks feel like “shooting something into the abyss of information,” he said.

At the time of his first promoted post for Holy Moley, the shop had 345 organic likes, but Sorge then spent $30 to reach more than 7,100 people on Facebook, which resulted in 179 likes, comments and shares.

More importantly, that $30 spend netted 122 new email subscribers for a restaurant yet to open.

“If I want to make sales and get a return on my time, it’s by utilizing my email list, which has its own set of best practices: regular frequency, tailored messaging, and regular new content,” he said. “I want to spend more time on email, because I can prove I can fill seats with it.”

Toppers Pizza: Experimenting constantly Scott Iversen, vice president of marketing for Whitewater, Wis.-based Toppers Pizza, agreed that the social-marketing picture now incorporates all of the above strategies from topical content for paid posts to responsiveness and engagement to integrating with email lists and broadcast strategy.

The key for his brand of 61 pizza restaurants in 10 states is to keep experimenting with all of it and tracking what benefits the chain gains from paid social.

“One of the big things that evolves in social media is you have to pay attention to what those media are,” Iversen said. “We have a keen eye on Instagram right now, because we have to be listening to our audience and watch where they’re going. Facebook and Twitter still have the largest audiences. But there might also be some platforms out there more relevant to your guests.”

The brand always had high engagement on Facebook for its irreverent brand voice and its highly participatory promotions that usually got Facebook fans voting for their favorite pizzas or for flavors they would like to see, he added. Now Toppers is adding the paid component to that strategy to track how much of a boost it delivers.

Like Sorge, Toppers is “doing as much as we ever have with email,” but the brand skews very heavily toward college students who barely use that medium, so it tries to optimize its content across all of email and social media with the same content principles.

“We’ve invested more resources from the standpoint of doing more stuff creatively with our email blasts,” Iversen said. “We’re working with an outside vendor to make sure we get past all spam filters, and we’re focused on engagement metrics like open rates and clickthroughs.”

Paying $10 or $20 at a time to promote Facebook posts has increased the reach of his content from 5 percent organic reach to 10 percent paid reach, Sorge said, but he calculated he spent slightly more than $2,200 to acquire slightly more than 6,300 likes for his restaurants’ pages since November, or roughly 30 cents per new like.

“Well, what was the point of that?” he said. “But if you can only reach 5 percent of those people without spending any money, it’s a fruitless endeavor.”

He has begun using paid Facebook posts as a way to build up his email lists for his restaurants, including a new concept he plans to open soon, a doughnut shop called Holy Moley.

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10 Surprising Social Media Facts www.socialmediatoday.com July 29, 2014

Article by Sarah Matista

In order to maintain an energetic social media presence and an ambitious content posting schedule, sometimes we need to think that every person who sees and engages with our social posts is a power user, those all-important industry influencers who have the power to make your content go viral.

And while that fantasy can certainly help keep you motivated, it’s important to be aware – even if only in the very back of your mind – that it’s not really the case. Do I say this to dishearten you or rain on your parade? Certainly not. But it is important to be mindful of the need to make every interaction with an influencer on social really count.

Consider the infographic below from the digital marketing agency mainstreethost. According to the research shown, a brand’s biggest advocates have the fewest followers. Also, fewer than one out of 10 social mentions will actually come from power users.

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So what should a social media marketer do? First, make sure that you are aware each time a power user or influencer mentions your brand or your brand’s category. If you really want to interact with a power user, but they’ve never mentioned you specifically, keep an eye on their feed for mentions of the industy in which your brand operates. It’s a great excuse to tweet at them and get your name in the mix. You should be monitoring those emails you get from Twitter alerting you to mentions, and also set up Google Alerts for your brand name and industry keywords.

Another tool to try is a brand advocacy tool. These products make it easy to automate interactions with your brand advocates and biggest fans, and get more people – including influencers – talking about you. Check out GaggleAMP and SocialChorus as options.

And when you do get mentioned on social media, make sure you make the most of it! Leverage that user-generated content for your own promotion and content purposes.

view the full-size infographic at bit.ly/smfacts2014

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What restaurants need to know about social media Tips on building engagement and sales in the digital space nrn.com

July 25, 2014

Article by David Flaherty

Over the last few years, the world of social media has exploded.

According to a recent article in Fast Company, 93 percent of marketers use it for business, and social media is now the No. 1 activity on the Web. Because of this, the opportunity for bars and restaurants to connect with their fans has increased exponentially.

But for many operators, social media remains intimidating.

While there are many businesses holding Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest accounts, very few of them are using them intelligently and effectively. But with a few quick pointers on what this type of marketing really is, you too can become as prolific as the tweens. Consider this a demystification of the Wild West that is social media.

First and foremost, social media can be a wonderful tool for building a rabid fan base and communicating with guests in a more personal way than ever before. But it takes time and understanding to do those things effectively.

“Social media is an investment,” said Stephanie Erb, social media marketing manager of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. “It’s about facilitating conversations and building relationships, not simply pushing out messages. Done effectively, it can yield enormous benefits, but you need to be prepared to dedicate the necessary resources. Taking the time to define your objectives and content strategy, as well as outline your response process, will ensure you have a holistic view of what’s required and realistic expectations.”

Many operators mistakenly think that social media is a one-way communication stream where you simply write your specials on Twitter and hit post. But in today’s world, this doesn’t cut it anymore – and in fact may prove to turn fans off.

Laura Ryan, who manages the social media accounts for the New York-based Craft Restaurant Group describes it this way: “I think social media can be daunting and feels like the last thing you want to worry about as a business owner, but it’s become so important.

More and more I see that a restaurant needs to have a personality and engage on a deeper level.”

So how does one capture this lighting in a bottle and use it to increase business? Steven Solomon, who oversees the social media channels for Hearth and Terroir in New York, was an early adopter and is now sought after to help restaurant and bar managers understand the rules of the game.

“Receive, don't just broadcast,” he said. “Social media is social.

Would you show up at a cocktail party and do nothing but hand out your business card?”

Monitoring what your colleagues and guests are saying allows you to form alliances, Solomon added. Connect with people and businesses that have similar ideologies as you, and share their thoughts with your fans. If you take the time to spark up conversations and help them get the word out about their initiatives, you’ll find they’ll be there to act as your bullhorn when you need it. Engage people, get their feedback, and ask them questions.

“A program which uses social media to tell stories and appreciate those of others is good,” Solomon said.

The social media world is dynamic, fluid and, yes, overwhelming, so it’s important to have a structured approach.

“For us, the three most important things to remember are: engagement, consistency and participation,” Ryan said.

“Engaging with followers, potential and past guests, and with current topics should be a daily task. Consistency in the frequency of posts and in the overall voice of our posts is important.

And finally, it’s great to see staff participate and engage with the restaurants by posting new dishes and sharing what they’re working on and what they’re excited about.”

For the food and beverage community, in particular, the visual aspects of posts have become an important focus.

“We’ve developed a tip sheet for our restaurant community managers on taking mouthwatering social media images in their kitchens and dining rooms,” Erb said. “We also recommend surveying current staff for potential social media ambassadors – you might discover one of your servers is a closet shutterbug. Social media is a team effort, and you’ll have a much more engaging presence if you have involvement from all areas.”

An old complaint of many operators is that their efforts on social media are not quantifiable, and it’s hard to tell whether they are driving sales. But the ability to track progress has increased dramatically. Today there are sophisticated analytics that show engagement levels and growing fan bases, but sometimes it’s simpler than that.

“I recently posted an Instagram photo of a dessert from our pastry chef,” Ryan said. “The next day a woman commented on the photo and said she stopped by just to try that dessert after seeing the photo.”

And social media offers opportunities to engage that didn’t exist 10 years ago. “Our restaurants might intercept a tweet from a potential patron looking for a five-star dining recommendation for an anniversary dinner,” Erb said. “The restaurant can then engage them in conversation and provide a high-touch interaction, demonstrating the level of service the guest can expect while in-house.

More often than not, these examples result in a reservation.”

Another fear of operators is that in making themselves available via social media, they are somehow opening themselves up to direct criticism.

“You have to be prepared for the fact that people turn to social media to express their real-time experiences with your establishment, positive or negative,” Erb said. “There is a commonly held assumption that launching on social media opens your brand up to risk and a loss of control, but this is not the view we take at Four Seasons. People will provide their opinions on social media whether you are present or not. Being active on these channels allows us to quickly intercept guest feedback and respond appropriately; it provides an opportunity to go beyond and to provide a personalized ‘wow me’ moment.”

Social media is here to stay. And whether you’re already avidly posting tweets, quips or pics across a myriad of sites, or just starting to brainstorm which logo you should present to your online fans, it’s never too late to get in the game. Some operators simply assign a person already on staff to gather content, post and engage with fans, while other companies go farther and invest in digital firms that have a team of community managers working on their restaurant or bar’s behalf. But doing nothing is no longer an option. So step into the Wild West, and join the conversation.

Introducing Yelp Trends If you’re wondering what the food buzz is in your area, this tool can help you find out. www.restaurant-hospitality.com August 4, 2014

Many operators have a love/hate relationship with review site Yelp.com, skewing toward the latter each time an anonymous reviewer trashes their restaurant online. But even Yelp’s biggest enemies may find themselves making frequent use of Yelp Trends, a searchable database of 57 million Yelp reviews that tracks trends over time and further breaks them down by individual markets.

Here’s how the company describes Yelp Trends on its corporate blog.

“Yelp Trends searches through words used in Yelp reviews to show you what’s hot and reveals the trend-setting cities that kicked it all off. Our massive wealth of data and the high quality reviews contributed by the Yelp community are what allow us to surface consumer trends and behavior based on ten years of experiences shared by locals around the world.”

Yelp Trends might work for a restaurant operator this way. Say you were thinking about opening a sandwich shop in Chicago and wanted to give your menu a contemporary Asian spin. What’s the best bet right now: ramen burgers, banh mi sandwiches or both?

To find out, the operator would call up Yelp Trends, type “ramen burger” in one search field, “banh mi” in the next and specify “Chicago” in the city box. Yelp Trends then returns a graph showing that through the middle of 2014, banh mi sandwiches have a steady following while ramen burgers, after a small burst of interest in late 2013, now barely register. Add a third search term—“craft beer” for example—and the operator would learn that a restaurant that offers craft beer and banh mi sandwiches looks like it could be a winner in the Chicago market.

Another factor: Yelp Trends results reflect the interests of only a small subset of the site’s visitors. Many, many people read Yelp reviews; relatively few contribute one.

As the company noted in a 2012 blog post, “Like other forms of social media, Yelp follows the 1/9/90 Rule. In other words, most people on Yelp don't write reviews; they read them." Not familiar with this rule? “The so-called 1/9/90 rule posits that on a social media network or review site, only one percent of users will actively create content,” writes Susan Kuchinskas.

“Another nine percent, the editors, will participate by commenting, rating or sharing the content. The other 90 percent watch, look and read without responding," she adds.

A third quibble: Quantitative types will gripe that the graphs produced by Yelp Trends don’t have numerical values on their vertical or Y axis. Which is to say, while the horizontal or X axis along the bottom of each graph provides a clear look at how a trend has changed over the past 10 years, the Y axis provides no sense of the magnitude of those changes.

So carefully calibrated market research this is not. But with 132 million unique visitors in the first quarter of 2014, Yelp is providing direct access a treasure trove of anecdotal opinion no other site can touch. Restaurant owners who use Yelp Trends to discover information that could be useful for their business should find plenty of it. Yelp Trends may not offer a precise current measurement of food and restaurant trends, but it looks like it could become one of the leading indicators.

Keep in mind that the raw data consists of words used in existing Yelp reviews, so Yelp Trends takes a kind of a heard-it-through-thegrapevine approach. This tool tells you what Yelp reviewers have talked about, not what they actually bought or intend to buy in the future.

Though imprecise, Yelp Trends offers an overview of 57 million Yelp reviews.

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Google Updates Maps with Gmail Invitations, Better Search www.mashable.com

Searching for places within the Google Maps iOS app just got easier.

Google rolled out an update to the iOS version of its Maps app that improves search and discovery, and integrates Gmail events and reservation information.

Now, when searching for a restaurant, store or other nearby business, Google Maps displays the results on a list of cards in the bottom half of the app. Previously, the app would only display the closest result; users would have to navigate away from the map in order to view a list of all results.

Relevant results also now appear on the map itself, along with a brief description of each location, such as "brewing company" or "Chinese restaurant." (The Android version of Google Maps already has this feature.)

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July 11, 2014

Article by Karissa Bell

The app also displays event and meeting information from your Gmail account directly on the map, so you can see the locations of upcoming appointments and dinner reservations whenever you open Google Maps.

Google also improved the app's "Explore Nearby" feature to suggest dierent locations and activities depending on your location and the time of day which will be available in "the coming weeks."

Finally, the update also integrates the new Smarty Pins trivia game so users can test their geography knowledge directly in the app.

The New Rules of E-mail Engagement www.nrn.com

July 21, 2014

Contrary to what some believe, social media has not eclipsed email as a way to connect with customers – far from it. According to a recent McKinsey report, 91% of all U.S. consumers use email daily and the rate at which emails prompt purchases is estimated to be at least three times that of social media.

Scott Shaw, CEO/Founder, Fishbowl (provider of digital marketing platforms for restaurants), reports that email is more important than ever. “Email continues to be the ‘go-to’ marketing medium for restaurants that want to talk to their customers one on one on a regular basis, sending information and offers based on their interests and purchasing profiles,” says Scott.

Simms Jenkins, CEO, BrightWave Marketing – an email marketingfocused agency and author of The New Inbox: Why Email Marketing Is the Digital Marketing Hub in a Social & Mobile World, agrees. “ At the end of the day, email drives revenue and engagement more than anything else and the return on investment is high. Plus, that’s where people are – they’re on email.”

What some experts consider current email marketing musts:

SEGMENTATION “Email is all about segmentation today – doing better, smarter marketing using email messaging based on recency, frequency, and spend, all of which can be captured by technology,” advises Scott.

Janet Hall, VP, Marketing, Fishbowl, says that customizing the look and tone of emails based on the unique segments of your list (gender, age, location, prior purchases, click-through behavior, etc.) is key. A recent e-Marketer study reports that segmenting customer email lists increased open rates 39% and lowered unsubscribes by 27% on average.

RELEVANCY Email message volume is soaring. Consequently it’s essential that email content is meaningful to the recipient. “Personalizing emails – using the person’s name in the salutation – is a given, but you can’t stop there,” advises Simms. “The content needs to personalized as well.” Restaurants are catching up to retail, using data to send smarter, more relevant emails, says Scott. Open rates or clickthroughs can be used to customize content. With the proper tracking software, restaurants can email bounceback offers to guests who redeemed a coupon, or reminder offers to those who have not yet redeemed. According to Scott, one client with 100 stores recently saw additional revenues of $1MM due to simply reminding guests that they had three days left to redeem a birthday offer. One casual dining chain drove a 2% systemwide sales lift by targeting inactive eclub members who had not visited in six months.

FREQUENCY Simms says that frequency is one of the most debated topics for which there is no right answer. “Sending too many emails has the biggest impact, causing customers to emotionally or literally unsubscribe.”

Fishbowl reports that 54% of email subscribers unsubscribe because emails are too frequent; 49% because content is “boring”; and 25% due to irrelevant content. Simms adds that automated emails – welcoming those who sign up, birthdays, anniversaries, and re-engaging those who haven’t been in for a while – are no longer a luxury; they’re a must for a well-rounded and effective email program.

ADAPTING TO MOBILE “Almost half of every hour spent on a smartphone is on email, so it’s crucial that emails display well on mobile devices,” says Simms.

A 2013 BlueHornet email marketing survey reported that 80% of consumers delete a mobile email when it doesn’t look good and 30% unsubscribe, up from 18% in 2012. Using Responsive Design, which automatically displays content for optimal viewing and navigation across a wide range of devices including smartphones, is important, according to Janet, who adds, “People don’t want to read too much content on their smartphones, so copy must be concise and graphics limited to ensure downloading is fast.” Intriguing, brief subject and header lines are more important than ever.

SOCIAL INTEGRATION Scott recommends using social channels – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr – to drive email enrollment. An example, he says, is adding a tab on Facebook with a link to an email sign-up page, along with an incentive (i.e, complimentary appetizer or dessert). He says contests or sweepstakes can be a great email acquisition tool. Fishbowl created a sweepstakes for a client that led not only to an increase in subscribers by 453%, but Facebook fans as well. Sweepstakes participants had to both “Like” the page and provide an email address (via a button added to the Facebook page). Information about the sweepstakes was posted across all social channels.

METRICS It’s key to know your open and click-through rates. Historically, email measurement has been only open rates, but now, according to Scott, technology allows measuring results all the way through to restaurant visits. “For example, we can measure how many people use a welcome offer and measure their first year spend, if they’re dining when redeeming offers.”

“Email is going to deliver far more revenue per user, so use social channels along with your loyalty program to build your list and send exclusive, targeted offers via email. – Simms Jenkins, CEO, BrightWave Marketing

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Making Your Social Media Smell Better www.socialmediatoday.com

July 30, 2014

Article by Mike McGrail

Is social media for marketing new? Is it rocket science? The answer to both of those questions is a big fat NO! So why are so many businesses still representing themselves on social media in a way that reeks of mediocrity? Take some time to consider these points about your use of social media and test your odor-rating.

Are you boring everyone to tears?

DO NOT repeat the same message over and over.

DO NOT post the same image over and over. People tune out.

Are your social media profiles good looking?

Is the content you publish on your social platforms fully targeted at your key audiences? Do you have a regular posting pattern, one that is fine tuned to when your audience is paying attention?

Are your avatars cut to the correct size and looking sharp? No cheesy, soft-focus, real-estate type efforts please! Same goes for your cover images etc – are you making the most of the space? Don’t use them as a big ad junked up with text – make them pretty!

Are you using data to establish what your audience really wants?

You should be using as much imagery as possible, optimised for each platform. Try some nice text overlays too. Social updates with images get 42% more views.

Are your bios and ‘about’ sections filled out with key info and links?

Again, don’t overdo it! There’s a great post with regularly updated photo sizes, etc. at http://bit.ly/2014dimensions

Do link to your own content, but ensure that isn’t all you do!

Try some curation (taking relevant content from other sources), but make sure you quality check it and try to avoid using what everyone else does. Tools like Buzz Sumo can help you find great content.

How’s your communication?

Are you responding to queries/issues etc promptly? Don’t leave people hanging! 42% of people complaining via social media expect a response within 60 minutes! This is hard to achieve for many businesses, but aim to get back to people within a maximum of 8 hours and much less if possible!

Do you only speak when spoken to? On platforms that allow it (Twitter, G+, Instagram to name a few), you should be looking for people to actively converse with and not just those mentioning your business. Be careful though, don’t overdo it and never sell first!

Answer everything – don’t only answer queries that you deem ‘important’. Respond to everyone that directly engages.

Are you measuring everything?

Do you take the time to dig deep into the data surrounding your social media use? This is the only way of gauging success and the effect on your audience.

What about your website? Do you know what effect your social media work is having in terms of traffic, actions, enquires, sales etc?

You should be using Google Analytics link tracking. Are you taking that data and acting on it?

Use these tips to keep your social media fresh and engaging!

Twitter Shares Soar on Surprise Profit and Strong User Growth www.mashable.com July 29, 2014

Article by Jason Abbruzzese

Twitter bounced back from a rough start to 2014 with a secondquarter earnings report that showed a surprise profit and user growth that beat expectations.

Second-quarter earnings of $312 million in revenues and a profit of $0.02 per share beat analysts' expectations, which forecast revenue of $283 million and a loss of $0.01 per share.

Most companies would be pleased with an unexpected profit, but growth in monthly active users, which hit 271 million, proved to be the real headline. Investors had grown cautious that Twitter's slowing growth limited the company's future upside, but the 24% year-over-year rise in users put the company back in Wall Street's good graces.

The earnings report sent Twitter shares sharply higher, up as much as 35% in after-hours trading. Twitter's shares had dropped 39% since the beginning of 2014.

The upbeat earnings news comes after a tumultuous few months in which Twitter replaced its CFO and COO amid other personnel moves.

“Our strong financial and operating results for the second quarter show the continued momentum of our business,” said Twitter CEO Dick Costolo in a press release accompanying the earnings.

“We remain focused on driving increased user growth and engagement, and by developing new product experiences, like the one we built around the World Cup, we believe we can extend Twitter’s appeal to an even broader audience.”

The growth numbers are particularly encouraging after Twitter made a major push to attract new users around the World Cup, including features like a starter kit for those interested in following news and soccer stars on the platform.

CEO Dick Costolo has remained upbeat on Twitter's growth prospect while also touting that the content generated by the site's users has an impact larger than current perceptions.

To back up this sentiment, Twitter has teased the development of new measurements that would demonstrate the far reaching impact of tweets to advertisers and investors. The new metrics will be introduced in a later report.

Review Sites Can Make or Break Your Business www.buzztimebusiness.com

July 25, 2014

Yelp, Urbanspoon, and other review sites might strike fear into your heart. After all, they have the power to make or break your business. Sure, negative reviews aren’t exactly great news, but they’re hardly a death sentence! In fact, if you take the right actions, review sites can work in your favor. Here are a few things you should definitely do if you want review sites to make, not break, your business.

Claim your listing.

You’re probably already on most review sites, but it’s important that you stake your claim on your listing! If you don’t claim your listing, you risk costly inaccuracies. Once you have control, you can make sure that your hours, address, website url and other pertinent facts are correct. Claim your business on Yelp, TripAdvisor and Urbanspoon, and create and verify your business page on Google.

Add extra info.

Your hours and address aren’t the only information customers need to know about you. Most review sites don’t charge extra if you want to add extra features like photos, promotions, or maps. A few great photos can really help promote your business.

Keep in mind that your customers are posting their own photos to the review sites when they dine with you, and you have no control over the quality of shots they post, so make sure you’re balancing out their unpredictable photos with excellent, professional, mouth-watering photos to make your business look its best and impress prospective customers who frequent the review sites.

Check often.

Claiming your page is a great first step, but it won’t do you much good if you never come back to check your reviews. Customers are leaving you reviews all the time, and if you don’t read and respond to them until months later, you’ve made a big mistake. It’s also a great idea to keep up on what’s making customers happy or unhappy. If many customers are complaining about a specific bartender or entree, you want to know about it.

Respond wisely.

You might think that you shouldn’t respond to your online reviews, but it’s important to maintain an active presence on all of your review sites. Just make sure your presence is a positive one.

No matter how negative a review, you should never respond with anger, sarcasm, or spite.

Staying professional and polite might be difficult if a comment is particularly nasty, but it’s still important. Remember that customers who are thinking about checking out your bar might be reading your reviews—you want to show them that you care about your customers. It’s also a great idea to let happy reviewers know that you appreciate their positive reviews.

Review sites can be scary, but they don’t always mean bad things for your restaurant or bar. In fact, they can be a great way to promote your business and show off your great customer service to both current and prospective customers 24/7! How do you use review sites to help boost your business?

Tying Together Text-Message Marketing and Social Media www.restaurant.org

Incorporating short-form text-message marketing into your social media can increase the impact of your marketing blasts and build stronger customer relationships. Here are three tips to create synergy between SMS marketing and social media: Drive people to a mobile “VIP” club via social media -- and vice versa. Create a mobile VIP club for your restaurant and promote it on Facebook, Twitter and other social-media outlets.

You can get started by posting pictures on your social-media accounts of the materials you use in the restaurant to promote mobile-club sign-ups. This helps generate VIP sign-ups from people who haven’t physically visited your restaurant. Use your monthly text blasts to ask people to like you on Facebook or follow your restaurant on Twitter.

You’ll maximize the growth of those social media accounts and your mobile VIP club by creating a more engaged, excited and loyal customer base.

Have a contest or a sweepstakes. Create a contest where your customers can like you on Facebook or follow you on Twitter to receive a weekly “secret keyword.” Send them the special weekly offer by text once they opt in using the secret word. This rewards your most loyal customers and encourages them to engage with your restaurant.

Integrate a text blast with your social media account. With just a couple clicks, you can post any text-message blast directly to your social media accounts. This alerts both mobile users and socialmedia followers that an offer is available. Social-media followers who aren’t mobile subscribers will be exposed to exclusive offers available only to your mobile VIP club. This may prompt them to join the mobile database too.

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MORE STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

With 114 million monthly visitors, Reddit is a digital platform that few in the marketing world can ignore. It has a little something for everyone and if you have good content to market you will find it to be a very helpful social channel and a solid source of web traffic.

Social Media experts WhoIsHostingThis have created a helpful Reddit 101 infographic to introduce you to the site and give you a jumpstart finding your way around.

view the full infographic at http://bit.ly/redditintro

With so much riding on your online reputation, it’s important to understand the ins-and-outs of online reviews.

This guide is designed to help you optimize your presence on review sites, providing tips on everything from how to harness the marketing power of review sites to how to deal with dreaded negative reviews. 28 pages packed with tips you can use today!

download at http://bit.ly/nraonlinereviews

In the last year, many websites updated their designs to meet the ever-changing demands of consumers. This meant incorporating things like responsive design, minimalistic iOS7-inspired interfaces, and parallax scrolling. In addition, it’s vitally important to know how someone’s eyes travel over your website so you can position key elements for maximum impact.

This article walks you through the HOT SPOTS and DEAD ZONES so you know you’re making a great impression every time.

view the infographic at http://bit.ly/webeyetracking

People love to make food, to eat food and to share their culinary adventures with others. Online journals – commonly called blogs – make the sharing process easier than ever.

Saveur Magazine’s Fifth Annual Best Food Blog Awards sorted through more than 15,000 food blogs to find the most inspirational, relevant and useful sites for you. The best of the best is waiting!

view it online at http://bit.ly/2014foodblogs

How to Use Pinterest for Business www.socialmediatoday.com

July 24, 2014

Article by Lauren Marinigh

It’s one of the most feared social media platforms, but if your target market is there, you should be too! So how do you use Pinterest for your business? Here are a few ideas that can make Pinterest a valuable platform for you.

3. Timing Timing is everything with Pinterest. It’s important to not just sign-on to your account, pin and re-pin a million posts at once, and then not log-on for awhile. This will annoy the people who were following you, and is it ever a good idea to only check a social platform once and awhile? No! Check Pinterest frequently, like you would with Facebook or Instagram.

1. Direct traffic The great thing about Pinterest is you can use it to direct traffic to your website, a product, or a blog post. With each pin you post or re-pin you can include a link. This link will direct users to your site as soon as they maximize the photo and click it for more information.

Include a call to action in the description of your photo that will entice your target to continue on a click-through.

4. Integrate Add a “pin-it” button on your website so users can easily pin your content right on their own Pinterest accounts. This doesn’t always appeal with all brands and organizations, but especially ones with products, or great visuals (like mouth-watering food photos) that your users will want to share!

2. Set-up boards When you start your Pinterest account you should create a few boards that you can re-pin and pin your posts to. Try and think outside the box, and create value so your target will want to follow the entire board! For example: DavidsTea has a board of recipes you can make with their tea. They re-pin from other users who create their own recipes, and also add their own.

5. Descriptions Many people get so caught up with how beautiful a photo is that they forget about the description. Include keywords and make them enticing! You want people to click through to the linked page, and you want people to understand the context of what they are looking at, even if it seems obvious to you.

It’s important to not skip this step! You don’t want to just be re-pinning and pinning to unrelated boards and not organizing your pins.

7 Ways to make your Video Stand Out on Pinterest www.socialmediatoday.com July 30, 2014

Article by Kayla Minguez

Pinterest is best known for pinning recipes that never get made, workouts that never get done and thousands of good quotes.

But it’s also become a great place for marketers to pin videos.

According to a study, video is the most engaging form of visual content on Pinterest, so it’s important that you use it to your advantage. Here are seven genius ways to make your video stand out and drive traffic on Pinterest.

4. Repin Other People’s Videos This may sound confusing since you’re trying to make your own video go viral, but bear with me. When you repin others’ videos, you’re participating in the social network aspect of Pinterest and not just promoting yourself. Pinterest likes this. The site is more likely to recommend your pins to others and that will help your own video’s potential audience grow.

1. Make a Great Thumbnail The thumbnail is what people will see first and if you don’t use something eye-catching, people might jump right past you.

Remember, Pinterest is a visual site, not a text-based site. Try out your thumbnail on others and ask them how engaging they find it.

5. Sponsor a Contest Yes, contests remain the way to go on Pinterest. They grab attention and they’re a great way to encourage people to look at your content.

The social media site has a number of rules you must follow about contests, so make sure that you read them over thoroughly before you try to set up your own. You should encourage people to repin your video as part of the contest, in order to build your reach. Also, make sure the contest is fairly easy to navigate; you’ll lose your potential audience if you make it too complicated.

2. Include “Pin This” Calls to Action The point of pinning a video to Pinterest is to help it go viral, so make sure you’re encouraging your audience to spread the word.

Use annotations on your web site with “pin this” calls to action that will encourage people who watch the video to pin it to their own site. That way, you may reach an audience who wouldn’t have otherwise come to your site.

3. Use the Description Field Wisely Make sure that you take advantage of Pinterest’s 200-character description field in order to make a full accounting of what goes on in your video. This will optimize the chances that your video is found in a search and increase the likelihood people will actually watch.

6. Make Videos Short and Sweet There’s nothing worse than a video that drones on and on. Remember, in the online world, shorter is better when it comes to video. Don’t take three minutes to say something that could be said in 30 seconds.

Instead, work with a tight script and have a clear goal in mind for your video. The sharper your points, the more likely people are to actually retain them.

7. Quality Matters the Most Above all, make sure your video is high quality. If it looks like someone shot it in the warehouse on their phone, no one will want to watch.

Spend time making the best video you can before you start promoting it on Pinterest.

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Turning Social Media Likes into Restaurant Traffic www.fastcasual.com July 24, 2014 Article by Alicia Kelso If you can get all of your regular customers to come into your restaurant just one more time a year, and spend a little more for just one more meal, it will make a big difference in your business.

That’s why getting your regular customers involved in your social media strategy is the key to success, according to Katrina Padron, CEO of Padron Social Marketing.

Padron offered tips on how to strengthen your fan base and attract new guests via social channels during a recent webinar sponsored by the National Restaurant Association.

Getting your loyal guests involved One of the best ways to get regulars involved in your social media strategy is to leverage photography sharing.

"How many times have you seen diners snapping pictures of their food, their friends? They are taking pictures and posting them – generally to Instagram," Padron said.

Get current customers involved on your page by using Statigram, where you can search for your brand, a specific hashtag, etc.

You can then "regram” those photos and use them as part of your Instagram profile and thank them for posting the photo.

"You can build the relationship with them and show up in front of all of their friends as well," Padron said.

Email marketing list It's also time to dust off the email marketing list many restaurant operators began accumulating long before Facebook.

"Because social media is a hot topic right now, we forget about them, but you worked hard to build lists, use it. Integrate them into your social media plan," Padron said. "The people on the lists like your restaurant enough to be notified by email about upcoming promotions and specials.This is a great group of people to get back in your restaurant more often.”

A strategy Padron uses to make such integration happen is called fangating, which means offering something – a recipe, a discount, etc. – in exchange for a like. She said one of her clients went from 0 fans to 8,000 fans in a short amount of time through fangating, with no paid advertising dollars. She uses Woobox for this effort.

Compelling content Padron said one of the most challenging components of a social media presence is in creating enough compelling content.

Restaurants, however, have a bit of an advantage, as they’re highly visual. Post pictures of food, taste testing, the chef in action, a crowded dining room, décor, promotions, team members out in the community, etc.

"Create content on the fly. Once you get going, you’ll have more content than you actually need," she said. "Get creative and snap away. Fans will love it because they’ll recognize it. It’ll be familiar.”

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Finding new guests Once you retain current guests, the next piece is to find new guests.

One way to do so is through Facebook advertising. Padron advises against boosting posts, however.

"Basically (for boosts) you’re paying to get eyeballs. I don’t know that eyeballs is the best thing for the business. I want to know if people came into the restaurant. With eyeballs, you’re not necessarily getting likes or comments, which is a relationship building technique, and you're not necessarily getting shares," she said.

She does, however, like Facebook's advertising panel, calling it the best out of all the platforms, including Google, because of its targeting capabilities.

"Facebook has so much information on us that we don’t even realize we give to them and you can target your guests based on this information," Padron said.

For example, if you’re a family-friendly restaurant, you can target your ad to parents, and narrow it down further to parents with specific ages of children. You can run ads for children of graduation age, or ads that target other life events, such as pregnancies, those who have an upcoming birthday or those who have recently moved. You can even target your competitors’ customers.

LinkedIn Most business operators don't think of LinkedIn as a way to engage their fans, but Padron said it can be beneficial for restaurants with catering services.

"LinkedIn just isn’t the party that other platforms are, but it's so powerful for attracting people with specific job titles and the biggest area restaurants can use this is to increase catering sales. I love LinkedIn for catering lead generation," she said.

To take advantage of the site, seek out people with specific job titles in your market, for example "administrative assistant." Then send them a short message telling them how you found them, telling them about your catering service and what makes it unique, and telling them how to get in touch with you.

Tools to free up time Social media can easily become a time suck. Padron suggests three tools to help ease some of this burden: Buffer App: Allows you to schedule posts ahead of time daily.

HootSuite: Also allows you to schedule posts ahead of time, and includes a panel that shows all of the content being posted about your restaurant. It's good for reputation management, Padron said.

LeadPages.net: Good for capturing email addresses.

Sharing is key The ultimate objective for a social media plan should be to get shares. Think of it like a match, Padron said. "Think of that match as your message. Take that spark and spread it as far as you can, like wildfire. That's where social media strategies can be most effective – when other people are sharing your message.”

time and help their posts get more exposure. Start with one or two social media platforms and get a good start before jumping into more channels.

You can also limit those employees' access through the Facebook admin page. Choose to only give them access to post and respond to other comments, and you can remove access if they leave the company.

She suggests some tips on how to start that fire: • Send a press release to local publications, ask to include your information in the "things to do” sections.

• Send information to the social media coordinator of the newspaper.

• Ask other people with big networks to share it on their page.

• Partner with organizations or businesses that share common goals.

• Share your content by positioning yourself as an expert; for example, recipes or how-to's.

Dedicated staff and policy Finally, if you're wondering whether or not to dedicate the staff and budget for social media efforts, consider that people 25-44 years old spend about 23 minutes four times a day on Facebook.

"People are there," Padron said.

The best times for posting include the morning, lunch, after work and at night. "Try to catch people when they're making a decision about eating," Padron said.

The best practice to remember is to make sure you're appealing to your target audience and solving their problems.

For example, Padron is a mother of two, including one picky eater, and is on the go a lot.

"Give me the content through social that solves my problem about finding something healthy and finding something for my picky eater and I'm going to open that," she said.

"Who is your target, what are their problems, what are your solutions? Post those solutions as your content."

She recommends having a social media policy in place that outlines the appropriate voice to use across social channels. Choose a couple key staff members to help with your social media strategy, and have them sign that policy prior. Train them on best practices to save them

Russian Hacker Group Steals 1.2 Billion Internet User Passwords www.mashable.com

August 6, 2014

Article by Adario Strange

A U.S. security firm has uncovered what appears to be the largest Internet security breach in recent memory, conducted by a group of Russia-based hackers.

Hold Security's blog post, which details the data breach, also promotes its own services. However, an independent security expert hired by The New York Times confirmed its findings.

According to Milwaukee-based firm Hold Security, which conducted an 18-month investigation into the breach, the online gang stole 1.2 billion username and password combos, as well as more than 500 million email addresses.

"Your data has not necessarily been stolen from you directly," the blog post said. "It could have been stolen from the service or goods providers to whom you entrust your personal information, from your employers, even from your friends and family."

The hackers pulled off the data heist, which ultimately scooped up 4.5 billion records, using unsuspecting systems of botnet network victims (in this case, computers with viruses that allowed a single operator to control a large group of affected systems) to test websites for SQL vulnerabilities. When a vulnerability was discovered, the hackers were then able to execute SQL injections, enabling them to send malicious commands to a website and steal its data, including usernames and passwords.

The Russia-based cyber gang is comprised of a dozen men in their 20s who began as amateur spammers by buying information on the online black market back in 2011, The New York Times reported. Ironically, the hacking revelation has come during the Black Hat computer-security conference in Las Vegas, which takes place from Aug. 2 to 7.

The group managed to steal information from 420,000 web and FTP sites, Hold Security said.

"Accounts are hacked and credentials are stolen every day; however, the number of credentials reportedly stolen is at a massive scale," Eric Chiu, president of cloud company HyTrust, told Mashable.

" This is a huge wake-up call to consumers and companies that attackers are going after personal and work accounts in order to impersonate our online personas.

The Times said Hold Security is trying to develop an online tool to help individual users identify whether or not they were impacted by the data breach. Those who use the Internet for online banking and shopping will likely be the most troubled by the company's report. As for businesses, they are advised to immediately run a check to see if their websites are vulnerable to SQL injections.

"If you haven’t updated your password recently, now would be the time," Adam Kujawa, head of malware intelligence at security company Malwarebytes Labs, told Mashable. "Make sure it’s a strong password containing capital and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters. Also, don’t use the same username and password combo for every site. This is especially true for sites that have personal information like the site to your bank or credit card."

Here’s Why the End is Near for POS Terminals www.fastcasual.com June 17, 2014 Article by Noah Glass

I recently had the pleasure of attending and participating in the 33rd Annual Piper Jaffray Consumer Conference, where I heard fresh perspectives from restaurants, retailers, investors, analysts and service providers like me. I had the good fortune of joining top experts in a panel titled, “When, Not If: Technology Milestones for the Restaurant Industry.” The brilliant Piper Jaffray Senior Research Analyst Nicole Miller Regan served as moderator, and Damian Mogavero, Founder and CEO of Avero, and Austen Mulinder, President and CEO of Ziosk, were my fellow panelists.

My favorite moment was when Results Thru Strategy’s Fred LeFranc asked me if I could envision a day in which mobile ordering eliminated the need entirely for POS terminals at restaurants.

I thought back to a college finance course and the smart instructor who often asked us to “examine extreme examples.”

After a moment of contemplation, I replied, “Yes.” It turns out the elimination of POS might not be an extreme example after all. During the conference, Julie Krueger, Google Retail Industry Director, spoke about “Retail’s New Realities.”

Julie cautioned those in the room that consumers are embracing new technologies much faster than retailers and restaurateurs.

In fact, she reported, 50 percent of consumers have said they would prefer a self-service experience to a full-service experience.

Krueger’s warning as well as my own experience led to my affirmative response about POS systems. Consumers are demanding self-service options, which can offer a much better experience – much faster, more accurate, and ultimately more personal than ordering from a cashier who has to re-enter a spoken order into a POS system.

A perfect example is the Five Guys app, built upon the Olo platform, which turns every customer’s smartphone or tablet into a personal POS terminal. Instead of the standard five or six POS terminals in the front of the house, Five Guys now has over 1 million customers walking around with a personalized Five Guys POS terminal in their pocket. A Five Guys customer can stand in the back of the line in the restaurant, order from the Five Guys app, and watch the order print out on the burger prep line in a matter of milliseconds (try this at your local Five Guys). The prepaid order zooms across one of the fastest APIs on the Internet, which securely pushes it down to the store’s back-of-house prep line.

As technology rushes ahead, the day will come when a traditional cashier may be the least convenient or reliable option for ordering your meal.

Today, this process relies upon connectivity with the POS system, but that need not be the case in the future. A restaurant could store all of its menu and pricing details in the cloud and eliminate the front-of-house POS terminal entirely. In fact, what digital ordering providers like Olo store in the cloud is exactly the product availability, pricing and ordering rule-set that would enable this POS-terminal-free future.

Will POS systems go extinct tomorrow?

No, they will not.

But when digital ordering pioneers like Papa John’s are seeing that digital orders will come to represent 50 percent of their orders this year, we’re approaching a major industry milestone that hints at a self-servicedominated future.

A recent xAd and Telmetrics study reveals that 60 percent of smartphone owners have chosen a restaurant solely with their smartphone on the go. And when comparing the impact of the smartphone in the automotive, entertainment, restaurant, and telecom industries, the study found that conversion rates are highest in the restaurant industry. The same study two years ago revealed that the top activities for consumers were around things like browsing the menu and calling the restaurant. Now more consumers are using their phones as a form of payment, and they expect ordering capabilities, too.

The self-service, digital ordering opportunity transcends counter service. Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of the National Restaurant Association's Research and Knowledge Group, shared that off-premise is the fastest-growing channel for all restaurants, with 75 percent of restaurant industry traffic now happening outside the restaurant’s four walls. Even casual dining chains can use the location-aware superpowers of smartphone technology to better gauge when to start making an off-premise order and when the customer has arrived to collect it.

Krueger spoke of the retailer’s dream of an “endless aisle.” In the very near-term, off-premise sales through mobile ordering will help to realize the restaurateur’s dream of the endless dining room – whether there’s a POS terminal in that dining room or not.

10 Rising Social Networks You Should Explore mashable.com

July 28, 2014

Article by Kyli Singh

Had enough of Facebook and Twitter? It may be time to switch up your go-to social network. With the daily explosion of startups, there are plenty of new social media tools popping up. These newer platforms could be working on the next big thing, so you'll want to keep an eye out.

1. Secret

2. Shots

Secret offers a platform for users to share their feelings and thoughts anonymously. All secrets come from Facebook friends or people in your contacts, without you knowing who they are.

The app is available for both Android and iOS devices.

Addicted to taking selfies? This app was designed for you.

Shots is a mobile social network through which you can snap and share selfies. You can reply to any given Shot, and also send private messages. The app is only available for iOS, but will be launching an Android version soon.

3. Snapchat

4. WeChat

Snapchat is a popular mobile platform that allows you to share photos and videos with others. You can set a time limit for how long your viewers can see your snaps before they disappear.

You can also create Stories, or a series of snaps that form a narrative, and use a variety of features for customization.

Snapchat is available for both Android and iOS devices.

WeChat is a mobile text and voice messaging service.

In addition to making free calls, you can share videos and photos (or "Moments"), create group chats, and find new people nearby.

The app is available for Android, iOS and several other devices.

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5. We Heart It

6. Tinder

Think of this as a younger and artsier version of Pinterest.

Instead of pin boards, the app has "canvases" and "collections."

Users can "heart" and tag others users in photos.

Available for both Android and iOS devices.

While not exactly a social network, Tinder is a mobile dating app that pulls your photo and basic info from your Facebook account. Users can swipe "yes" or "no" to potential matches who are nearby. If the feeling is mutual, people can chat within the app. Tinder is available for both Android and iOS devices.

7. Medium Medium is a microblogging platform (somewhere between Twitter and Tumblr) that launched in 2012, created by Evan Williams and Biz Stone (formerly of Twitter). If you want to publish stories or ideas, you may want to consider using Medium. Users can also recommend stories with their networks and curate their favorites.

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8. Vine

9. Whisper

Seven months after Twitter acquired Vine, the video sharing service made its way up the charts. The fun app allows you to shoot and share six-second looped videos. Vine is available for both Android and iOS devices.

Whisper is another social media platform that allows people to anonymously share secrets. With Whisper, you can send anonymous direct messages and ask others for advice, or just chat. The app is available for both Android and iOS devices.

10. Bubblews Bubblews, a social networking startup, allows users to create posts (aka "bubbles"), follow friends, and "like" and comment on other bubbles. It diers from other social networks because the company pays its users who attract advertisers and traďŹƒc.

Currently, Bubblews does not have a mobile app.

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June 29, 2014 article by Phil Penton

www.restaurant-hospitality.com

5 Ways to Spin a Negative Review Handling negative feedback gracefully provides an opportunity to show your customers that their business is important to you.

Customers love to share their dining experiences on social networks and review platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Yelp. The restaurateurs that provide outstanding service are often able to tout five-star ratings across these sites. But when you come across a reviewer who called your food plain and your customer service nonexistent, what do you do?

Don’t panic. Nearly every negative review provides an opportunity to make a positive impression on current and potential customers.

When you respond to a negative review and address the upset customer on these review platforms, hundreds of other consumers can see how you conduct business. People understand that mistakes happen, so when they see a restaurant owner or manager trying to do the right thing, it builds trust in the brand. Here are some guidelines to help make the most out of a negative review:

1. Respond immediately.

When you make a point to address feedback as soon as possible, customers will see that you’re committed to improving customer experiences.

When you let bad reviews sit unanswered, they can snowball over time and form a kind of anti-advertising for your business. Recently, for example, a customer was refused service at a New York Restaurant while wearing Google Glass. She responded with a negative review, and what started as a single comment from one disgruntled customer soon snowballed into a community of people weighing in with similar experiences.

The sooner you respond, the sooner you can defuse the likelihood that an isolated incident will balloon into a bigger issue.

2. Personalize interactions.

Rather than spouting off a boiler-plate response to every negative comment, show the reviewer that you’re really listening. Repeat back specific details of their problem—whether it was the too-salty fettuccine alfredo or the rude waitstaff, acknowledge the specific issue at hand. This shows the customer that you are listening and demonstrates that you are willing to address and ultimately fix the issue.

3. If appropriate, offer a free “second try.”

To demonstrate your commitment to providing a great customer experience and the belief in your brand and product, offer customers a free second try. Consider using coupons or gift cards to encourage customers to dine with you again—presumably with better results.

Often when customers do have a better second experience, they will update their review—again showing other customers that you are committed to providing an excellent experience.

4. Use an online reputation platform.

Managing your reviews across multiple platforms can be challenging. Using an online reputation platform allows you to see and respond to reviews across all platforms from one interface. An online reputation platform aggregates data across all review sites and can give a complete picture of how your restaurant is perceived across the web. Better yet, look for a platform that alerts you when new reviews are posted. This enables you to jump into action if new reviews warrant a response.

5. Don’t focus solely on the negative.

While unaddressed, negative reviews are often what stick in customers’ minds. But it is also important to promote customers who share their great experiences. Respond to the positive reviews, engage with your customers and share their comments across your social networks to amplify the reach of those good experiences.

It’s always important to encourage customers to share their feedback— whether good or bad. Consider placing signs, table toppers or window clings for the review sites you’d like to promote. Another option is to add a note on the receipts gently reminding customers to leave their feedback. All these tactics work to increase the likelihood of customers sharing their experience.

The best way to get positive reviews and maintain a strong reputation is to provide exceptional service at all times. But when a customer does have a negative experience and shares it on a review or social platform, use the tips above to turn that review into a positive opportunity for your brand.