Archives for August 2010

“You can’t steer a parked car!”

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I was at a business breakfast last week that included 2 speakers, one an author that was very interesting to listen to and one a politician – enough said. The author was doing a quick “how I got to where I am” rundown and it was an interesting tale, one of the statements that he remembered to us was this….

“You can’t steer a parked car”.

The context was that if you’re a business owner and you want to move your business forward you have to do _something_, you can’t be in control of your direction, push your business forward – steer it – if you do nothing.

I think it’s an excellent statement that sums up how a lot of us feel in business sometimes and it’s a pretty good motivator.

Often when we come in contact with new potential customers they are in this quandary; just spent a lot of time and money on setting up a venue, dealing with all of the other headaches (read: suppliers, staff etc…) and the result is that they are simply doing nothing to promote their venue, be it restaurant, bar etc.

They’re definitely not steering the car, in fact they’ve parked it in back alley and hoping that it’s not going to get pinched while they focus on everything else.

If you’ve had anything to do with the I.T. industry over the years you may have come across the notion “build it and they will come”. What it’s referring to is companies building software applications without doing much if any research on what users want in the fond hope that once they put it on sale the clients will come. Many a software company has lost a packet with this mentality, to say nothing of the dollars venture capitalists have thrown away.

The relevance to this? Well when I was in I.T. industry around 2000 I thought this phenomenon was just peculiar to that industry, it’s not. Now having worked with many operators in hospitality it’s just as prevalent there.

So here’s a two pronged challenge for you.

1)Do something this week to move your business forward – make the time for it, it’s important

2)Refer to point 1 because if you’ve built it and you want them to come, you’re going to have to work at it.

Facebook – first principles

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I was at the Bayview Tavern in Gladesville last week, and noticed that they were promoting themselves as being on Facebook.  As this is my local, I thought I would check it out … and with professional and personal curiosity I went to their website to check it out.

Got to their site – and there’s a lot going on at the Bayview – music, karaoke, trivia nights, and they have a cricket club (might be fun) … hey – no link or mention of Facebook.  A further scout around the sub-pages and still nothing.  So I log onto Facebook, and a general search of the term Bayview turns up over 500 pages, and Bayview Hotel – 31 (with none of these being what I’m looking for). A couple of searches later, I find this page called Bayview!, which has 295 followers.  This is an “unofficial” page, put up by a patron.  There is a lively bit of discussion about the Bayview, including suggestions, complaints and comments about activities and events at the Bayview.  Also, related to the same venue is another facebook page, called “The Bayview Hotel Appreciation Society”, with 108 members.

Someone from the Bayview has interjected into both pages, and invited people over to the “official” Bayview page, and because they don’t provide a link, I’m back to searching.  I finally find it, and it is much more complete with lists of events and activities, but it only has 83 fans and a one-way discussion about the venue.

Not to pick on the Bayview, but this experience leads me to reflect on our first principles of social media marketing:

1. Integrate

Help people find you by brining your links and pages together.  Too many times I see people but up a page and not link it to anything.  Publicise your social media activities on your web-site / business cards / drink coasters, and with promotions and activities.  Put them on your web-site, twitter feeds, blog and other on-line presence so that they each reference the other.  Remember that stepping into the on-line world, you are in a global marketplace with 500 million plus users, pages and names.  Help your local patrons find you quickly and easily.

2. Converse

Any conversation with your patrons is a good one.  If you find unofficial pages, join and participate.  Listen and respond.  These are the real conversations that you want on-line, and here is where the real value in social media can be found.  So don’t be afraid to engage with these other outlets.  Take a leaf out of Coke’s playbook – they found that a couple of fans had put up a brilliant Facebook page, so rather than compete and attempt to migrate fans to the official site, they offered to work with the fans and made their site the official Coke Facebook site ! (see the story on the page’s info.

3. Incentivise

Promote your page, events and activities with some soft promotions.  Encourage people to post experiences, photos and put up discussions (a good one at the Bayview would be on video games !).  Perhaps a pitcher of beer or a special for Facebook only fans – all these work to drive traffic to your social media pages and encourage people to get involved.  It also says to people that you value their time and efforts.

Best of luck, and remember to have fun with your on-line marketing !

Conversations

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Using Social Media to market your hospitality venue is all about conversations, and reaching your patrons where they are (in the on-line world).

The current Australian federal election is highlighting how hard it is to create conversations with your audience. Both Labour and the Coalition have been accused of using Twitter and Facebook to broadcast their message, and not engaging with the voters. Similarly, when thinking of using Social Media to market your brand, your venue, yourself … what are you looking for ?

At The DMA, we believe the on-line experience of your audience should match the off-line, real world experience of your patrons – in tone, manner and attentiveness.  When someone walks into your venue, they will see some advertising posters, special boards, info about up-coming events.  They will be warmly greeted by staff, and given attentive service and a warm experience.  On-line, this is backed up with some broadcast and mentions of events, specials and info for your on-line audience.  Better still if these specials are for this audience alone, and make sure that these take up 25% or less of your post on Twitter / Facebook / your blog.  Respond quickly and attentively to all feedback – positive and negative – just as you would if the person spoke to you in the restaurant.

Be consistent, engaged, and on-line as much as you can be.  The Social Media world is a place where you can reach your patrons 24×7, and represent your brand and the unique experience of your venue.  Start as you mean to continue – like real relationships the time and effort is rewarded by a growing audience.

Be patient, as it takes time to build trust and participation across your on-line activities.

Sure, it’s all common sense … and uncommon in application.

In future posts we’ll have a look at some case studies of hospitality venues and their use of Social Media, highlighting success and hopefully providing some ideas of how you can harness the Conversation to market your business.