FIND THE BEST SPOT IN YOUR RESTAURANT FOR TAKING GREAT FOOD PHOTOS Appetizing food photography has immediate, undeniable appeal and is increasingly important as a marketing tool for your restaurant. In addition to the professionally-taken photos you should use on your website and printed marketing materials, you should be taking lots of your own shots to use on all your social media networks. A current smartphone can take fantastic photos, but finding the perfect place to take them can be tricky!
Kitchen lighting notoriously makes food look yellow, and bar lighting is too dark. Try to find indirect natural lighting near a window, or even on an outdoor table. Once you find the best spot, tell your staff and snap away! Avoid using a flash. Use a mini tripod to avoid ‘camera shake,’ a blurring effect that becomes worse in dim light. Download photo-taking specialty apps like Camera+, Camera Awesome or Google Camera for features beyond your phone’s default camera app.
If you want to see food photos done right, head to your local newsstand and pick up a copy of Donna Hay, the Australian food and cooking magazine. It’s beautifully art directed and visually inspirational. Even simple items like cookies or spaghetti with meatballs leap off the page, begging to be eaten! www.donnahay.com
There’s a trend among chains to make their website home pages enormous food photos. Visit panerabread.com, macaronigrill.com, ruthschris.com, or joescrabshack.com to see how they maximize the first impression they make.
Why we love pICTURES As a species, humans are ‘visually wired.’ Nearly 50% of our brain is involved in visual processing. 70% of our sensory receptors are in our eyes. 90% of the information transmitted to our brain is visual.
The retro and grungy photo filters in the popular Instagram app can look great on personal photos, but most of them make food look yellowed and old, like a 1960s cookbook. Your food should look fresh!
DON’T FORGET You’re not the only one taking photos in your restaurant. If you notice customers taking food shots, consider adjusting the lighting in your dining area to be more camera friendly.
We can get a sense of a visual scene in less than 1/10 of a second. (Visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text.) Social media posts with visuals receive 94% more page visits than those without. Facebook posts with an image receive, on average, twice as many comments as those without. Photos and video need to be part of your marketing plan!
CLAIM YOUR LISTINGS ON YELP, TRIPADVISOR, URBANSPOON, YAHOO, GOOGLE BUSINESS, GOOGLE + Claiming your business listings on these sites takes just a few minutes, it’s totally FREE, and you only stand to benefit from the added visibility to search engines. There are many ways that both current and prospective customers might find your restaurant online, and it’s in your best interest to make sure every possible avenue is as up-to-date, accurate and professional as possible. You don’t know which site will be making that critical first impression!
Make sure all the pertinent information is correct: your business hours, address, website url, e-mail address and social media links. Make sure the sites direct visitors to your current menu listings, live entertainment/event calendar, Google map/directions to your location, etc. PRO TIP: Keep your passwords in one safe place; you can’t afford to lose them. Use different passwords for each site. Software like 1Password can help keep you organized everywhere. Visit http://www.1password.com
YELP • http://biz.yelp.com TRIPADVISOR • http://www.tripadvisor.com/Owners URBANSPOON • Owners/managers can claim an UrbanSpoon listing by clicking “Is this your restaurant?“ at the top right of your restaurant’s page. See the extensive FAQ at http://www.urbanspoon.com/faq YAHOO • http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/local-listings GOOGLE • http://www.google.com/business/ GOOGLE + • http://plus.google.com/pages/create To set up your business page on the major social media networks, here are the links to get started.
FACEBOOK • http://www.facebook.com/business TWITTER (and VINE) • http://business.twitter.com INSTAGRAM • http://business.instagram.com PINTEREST • http://business.pinterest.com/en YOUTUBE • Set up a YouTube channel through your Google + business page. FOURSQUARE • http://business.foursquare.com
TAKE CHARGE “As social is where consumers' eyeballs are, businesses must take ownership of their online company profiles. By providing their customers with a place to share content, social media managers can monitor and track content which directly relates to their brand.” Ryan Holmes Founder and CEO, Hootsuite
Google+ hasn’t become the ‘Facebook Killer’ it aimed to be. User enthusiasm waned, the manager resigned, and many major brands like McDonalds mothballed their Google+ sites. Still, some Search Engine Optimization experts believe having a Google+ page for your business increases your visibility on Google, and improves your ranking in Google’s undisclosed search results algorithm.
ADD PHOTOS TO YOUR LISTING pages, ESPECIALLY YELP and tripadvisor In many cases, prospective customers may visit your listings on Yelp or TripAdvisor before they ever visit your restaurant. And although it’s encouraging to see your current customers happily snapping pictures of their meal, you never know how those photos will actually look or where they’ll be posted. Visit your listings regularly to read and respond to reviews, and post your BEST photos there to maximize the first impression when prospective guests drop in.
Owners/managers can post as many photos as they want on these sites, and you need all your most professional food photos and restaurant interior shots in the mix to compensate for any unflattering or poor quality photos your customers might post. It’s one way you can quickly and easily improve your digital identity and turn the sometimes-irritating review sites into a marketing tool. Great visuals can persuade new customers to give your restaurant a try!
At left: A restaurant’s Yelp page with loads of photos. It makes the business look popular and appetizing. At right: A review page with no photos posted. There’s no life, no color, no visual interest. It makes the business look unloved. The owner of this page can dramatically improve this first impression, just by posting some photos!
YUM OR YUCK: The photos above were posted by different customers on the same restaurant’s Yelp page. One is bright and appetizing, but the other is dark and unflattering. If that dark photo was the only one on that page, would you consider dining there?
PRO TIP: When taking food photos, get closer and LOWER than you think you need to. Taking the shot from about 30 degrees above the table top gives the food the appearance of height, and makes a more dynamic composition.
EVALUATE THE FIRST IMPRESSION YOUR WEBSITE IS MAKING Pull up your restaurant’s website on your laptop and your phone and put them side by side.
Are you promoting what makes your restaurant unique and sets you apart from the competition?
Those two screens are the crucial first impression many prospective customers will have of your business - they’re the heart of your digital identity.
Are you using compelling food photography to hook visitors from the moment they arrive at your site? If you identify any weaknesses, make a plan to fix them!
Is your website working hard to communicate your brand and connect with your target audience? What would a first-time visitor think? Does the site make it easy for them to find the information they need?
Over 50% of the people searching for you online are doing it from a mobile device, so a well-branded, mobile-optimized website should be a top priority.
MAKING A GREAT FIRST IMPRESSION – TWICE! The desktop and mobile websites for Romano’s Macaroni Grill echo each other in content and visual branding, with the same logo placement, dominant (and appetizing) food photo and overall color scheme. The featured item is unique to their restaurant and they make sure you know about it! The mobile navigation is scaled back to the most important elements: Find Locations, View Menus, Online Ordering.
“Being effective at social media, whether for business or personal use, means capturing people who have short attention spans. They’re only a click away from a picture of a funny cat, so you have to make your thing more compelling than that cat. And that can be a high bar.” - Alexis Ohanian, Founder of Reddit.com
ORDER YOUR FREE TRIPADVISOR COMMENT CARDS Finding tactful ways to ask your loyal customers for reviews is an ongoing challenge for restaurateurs and managers everywhere. One of the more professional ways to solicit their review is by handing them an invitation. Once you register your restaurant on TripAdvisor, they will provide 250 customized comment cards – business cards printed with your restaurant’s name – that you can give to select customers to encourage them to post reviews of their dining experience. (see pictures below)
You can order your cards from the Management Center Page. The first batch of 250 is free. You only pay shipping. It’s a win for TripAdvisor, because it drives people to their website - people who’ll be required to sign up for a free membership before posting a review. The more members and visitors they have, the more they can charge businesses for advertising on the site, and the greater chance those new members will recruit their friends to become additional new members.
TripAdvisor is the world’s largest travel site with nearly 280 million unique visitors each month (compared to Yelp’s 132 million unique visitors each month). It could be considered a massive social network of its own. The bulk of the site’s content is generated by over 60 million members who have contributed over 170 million reviews of restaurants, hotels, airlines, spas, etc. TripAdvisor made over $944 million in revenue in 2013, mostly from selling advertisements on their site to business owners like you, so take advantage of the free comment cards!
The front and back of the TripAdvisor comment card at true size. Once you distribute your 250 free cards, you can order additional batches from TripAdvisor for a minimal fee.
Although social media is a relatively new form of communication, it has become the primary way retailers and customers are interfacing. - Ryan Holmes, founder Hootsuite
Economists at the University of California, Berkeley, found that a restaurant with a rating improved by just half a star (on a scale of 1 to 5) was more likely to be full at peak dining times. The study found “Social media sites and forums...play an increasingly important role in how consumers judge the quality of goods and services.” A Harvard Business School study found that a restaurant that boots its Yelp score by one full star can see revenues increase 5 to 9 percent.
ASK FOR REVIEWS VIA TABLE TENTS, SOCIAL MEDIA, E-MAIL BLASTS AND IN PERSON Fresh reviews are vital to a strong digital identity. So the TripAdvisor comment cards are just the beginning. Use all the communication outlets you can to entice your customers to post reviews: check stuffers, a poster in the restroom, comment cards, table tents, e-mail marketing and perhaps most convincingly, a genuine request from the server at the end of a good dining experience. Encourage reviews on Yelp, UrbanSpoon, TripAdvisor, and your Google business page.
Why are recent reviews so important? When prospective customers see lots of recent activity on your social media pages and review sites, it indicates that your restaurant is popular and thriving. If nobody has posted a review in the last year, that’s an indication of a tired business that lacks an audience. And on the major review sites, once a review reaches a certain age, it may drop off your business page or be hidden, even if it was a positive review.
Social media can be a powerful tool to listen to, engage with and gain access to customers that you would otherwise not be able to connect with. - Carol Roth, investor and author of New York Times Bestseller ‘The Entrepreneur Equation’
A Prize is Not a Bribe Many owners worry that asking for reviews makes their restaurant seem desperate. But remember the local competition and the chains are doing it, too. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to improve your digital identity! Incentivize your customers to post reviews by offering them a token reward (such as a free appetizer) or hold a contest with a small prize. This gives you some control, allowing you to direct them to whichever review site you need the most assistance with (the one with the lower average score or the one with the fewest recent reviews). “Post a review on Yelp or TripAdvisor by the end of the month and you’re automatically entered in our drawing for a free t-shirt!” Smart managers will use the same strategy to woo new customers to their e-mail marketing list. “Sign up for our e-mail list this month and you’re entered to win a free sweatshirt!”
3 OUT OF 5 AIN’T BAD Even if your overall star rating is just average, having several recent reviews indicates that people are still going to your restaurant and you’re still in the game.
MAKE A CALENDAR FOR YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA POSTINGS Sharing fun, spur-of-the-moment posts make social media compellingly unpredictable. But as a business, you need a marketing plan. When it comes to posting content, don’t try to reinvent the wheel every day. Your customers don’t expect you to be a comedy improv master or a current events guru. Draw up a calendar of events that are relevant to your market and your customers. This forms the basis of your social media posting schedule.
Holidays and major sporting event days are a given, but also look for quirky, lesser-known holidays that will make great fodder for your social media feeds and add some fun and character to your marketing. In short, you’re researching a list of excuses to party. Be creative. Be clever. Be whatever is appropriate to your brand. Your customers want to have fun! And tomorow’s another day you’re going to have to dream up something to post on Facebook. Good thing you made a calendar!
LOVING LOCAL It’s important to show that you care about your community, so remember to promote other local businesses and events on a regular basis across your social media channels.
Fun Excuses to Celebrate All major holidays and standard restaurant and bar promotions should be included on your master calendar, even if they recur weekly: Half-Price Burger Night, Ladies Night, Karaoke, Live Music, Open Mic Night, etc. ESPN hosts an ongoing calendar of major sporting events at http://espn.go.com/travel/sports/calendar/ The calendar can be sorted by sport or city.
Any Questions? “The one thing I’ve discovered about social media is that people love answering questions. In fact, it sometimes feels like at any given moment, millions of people are online who have been waiting for exactly the question you fire off.” - Susan Orlean, author and journalist for The New Yorker, Vogue, etc.
PHOTOS ON TAP Include planned photo opportunities in your posting calendar/schedule. New draught beer from the local microbrewery? That’s a great social media photo post you can plan in advance.
• Oscar Night Party • Military/Fireman/Police/EMT Appreciation • Staff birthdays • Charity event (Toys for Tots, Cancer Awareness) NOTE: Don’t post the same photo over and over to promote a weekly event. Keep your feed fun and interesting.
TODAY IS A DAY TO PARTY! Sites like Daysoftheyear.com offer a comprehensive list of unsusual holidays. For instance, did you know that October 1 is World Vegetarian Day? October 4 is National Taco Day AND National Vodka Day! These may seem frivolous, but everyone loves an excuse to celebrate, and if you’re the only one in their newsfeed posting something about National Take Your Teddy Bear to Work Day, (October 8), that could be the shareworthy item that resonates with your customers and encourages them to share your post, broadening your restaurant’s social media audience and organic reach.
FIND YOUR HERO THE BUSINESS YOU’LL USE AS YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ROLE MODEL Even with a calendar and careful planning, there will be days when you’re staring at your computer screen, wondering what to post on Facebook, how to word an e-mail blast or how to engage your customers on Instagram. That’s when your Hero will come in handy.
Reviewing the websites and social media pages of the top chains will offer you the best role models for your own posting content and frequency and help inspire you when you’re stuck in a creative rut. Bookmark your favorites in your web browser for quick and easy access.
Today, take a few minutes – or as long as you need – to research other businesses online and find one that impresses you with their understanding and implementation of social media.
After all, the chains have huge marketing budgets and pay teams of people to help shape their digital identities. It’s FREE for you to like them, follow them, sign up for their e-mail lists and learn from their ‘best practices.’
Nation’s Restaurant News offers their own DAILY tracking of how the top 200 chains perform across social media. http://nrn.com/industry-data/social-media-200
CURRENT TOP 10 • Sept. 7, 2014 1. Red Lobster 2. Whataburger 3. 7-Eleven 4. Dunkin Donuts 5. KFC
6. Wendy’s 7. Applebee’s 8. Burger King 9. Pizza Hut 10. Wawa
Begin your research at the Restaurant Social Media Index. http://rsmindex.com, the go-to source for social consumer data and brand intelligence in the restaurant & hospitality industry. They track performance of all the major chains, and can even track your restaurant’s social influence. Start with their quarterly list of the Top 250 restaurants overall, tracked by Influence, Sentiment and Engagement. These businesses really ‘get’ social media and how to use it, and they should top your hitlist for your Hero search. Save time; start with the best!
CURRENT RSMI TOP 10 • Q2 2014 1. Subway 2. Buffalo Wild Wings 3. McDonald’s 4. Panera Bread 5. Starbucks
6. Firehouse Subs 7. Taco Bell 8. In-N-Out Burger 9. Wendy’s 10. Shake Shack
• • • •
4,951,306 likes on Facebook Posted photos get 7,000 - 10,000 Likes, hundreds of shares Well-branded, mobile-optimized website Twitter (263,570 followers), Instagram (68,213 followers)
THANK YOUR CUSTOMERS VIA SOCIAL MEDIA A simple strategy to humanize your business and make a connection with your customers: just say “Thanks.” Thank you for supporting our little local restaurant. Thank you for trying our new entrée. Thank you for that thoughtful review. We’re so glad you enjoyed your dining experience with us. Thank you for that karaoke number that brought down the house last night.
“We know you have a bunch of dining options out there, and it means a lot that you choose to spend your time and hard-earned money with our family.” It’s not the kind of thing you’d post each week, but every once in a while, send out a simple message of warmth and hospitality. Thanking your customers creates an emotional connection, and reminds them that you don’t just see them as dollar signs, but as friends. Friends who’ll want to visit you again soon.
TWO-WAY COMMUNICATION “Too many brands treat social media as a one-way broadcast channel, rather than a two-way dialogue through which emotional storytelling can be transferred.” Simon Mainwaring CEO of social branding firm We First
It’s a dialogue, not a monologue, and some people don’t understand that. Social media is more like a telephone than a television. -Amy Jo Martin, founder and CEO, Digital Royalty
COMMIT TO A TIMED GOAL FOR TAKING NEXT STEPS You’ve made a lot of progress today, but some projects require more planning and additional resources. Now that you’ve enhanced all your web listings, evaluated your web site and researched the industry leaders and their best practices online, you should have a pretty good idea of what your strengths and weaknesses are. This awareness will help you make an informed, specific plan for your next big digital identity initiative.
Videos will be 55% of all internet traffic by 2016. Have you started posting video on your website and social networks? Maybe a blog would be a good fit for your restaurant. If you’re targeting Millennials but you don’t have an Instagram page yet, that might be a top priority. The important thing is to set a goal, commit to a firm timeline, and then make it happen. Keep improving and enhancing your digital curb appeal, and customers will continue to find you, online and at your restaurant.
IDEAS FOR YOUR TO-DO LIST ☐ Hire or designate a Social Media Manager ☐ Take a group photo of your entire staff ☐ Launch a contest to encourage review posts ☐ Reprint business cards with Facebook and Instagram logos and addresses
☐ Record and post a video to Facebook ☐ Call web designer to discuss update/redesign ☐ Download Vine app and see how it works ☐ Schedule a professional photo shoot of current menu selections
☐ Buy a sponsored post on Facebook to promote an upcoming special event to thousands of new customers
visit www.UNODUEGO.com Many restaurants are using short videos on their websites to communicate their brand personality, their culinary capabilities, and to lure the right kind of customers in with an accurate representation of the experience they’re offering. A short, professionally produced video won’t break the bank, and it’s a very efficient way to communicate your personality to an internet audience.
☐ Establish relationship with local shop or organization and agree to cross-promote and share each other’s social media content
☐ Let your social media audience vote on your next Limited Time Special (if possible, have side-by-side photos of two options)
• 200 Million monthly active users • Over 20 Billion photos shared • 60 million photos uploaded daily • 1.6 Billion Likes daily • Owned by Facebook
• Over 40 Million users (majority are aged 18-20) • 5 vines are tweeted every second (peaking on weekends) • Owned by Twitter
Ask your Sysco Marketing Associate for more information about Building and Maintaining Your Digital Identity