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The more I work with clients, the more I see patterns emerging that can be easily corrected. Let’s take a look at six common ones.
1. No goals. Social Media should be an integrated part of your overall marketing plan. In order for it to succeed, you need to understand your audience and what you want them to do.
2. No measurement. You can’t pay the bills with fans and followers. The best bang for your buck is to engage your current customers at their point of experience with your brand. This builds their loyalty and facilitates great word-of-mouth.
3. No social culture. Do you really want to engage your customers and hear what they have to say? Facilitating relationships with your guests takes time and requires the efforts of someone that knows your business. Every person in your organization should be asking for feedback to make the experience better. Using social media is just a technological way to assist that discussion. The best organizations engage everyone in that process.
4. Nothing to say. This is the most common concern. First and foremost, you don’t talk about yourself non-stop. Stop pushing specials, coupons and discounts to your social media community because you are telling them that they are nothing more than a transaction. Talk about the lifestyle of your clients: if you are a restaurant, what do you guests do before and after they leave you? How about taking a picture and posting the names of your loyal customers? Any special events going on in your community that your guests support?
Every time a guest walks through your door, it’s a day in their life. First date, last date, engagement, divorce, birthday, anniversary, new job, old job, every success or failure is celebrated and if you can add to their level of enjoyment by making a significant difference in their day’s event, you can make an emotional connection that plants the seeds of real loyalty.
5. Trying to be everywhere. The only platforms you need to engage in, are those where your guests are. Which means you have to have a conversation, or use a survey tool at some level, to get a good understanding of where your guests socialize online (and offline!) . Where do they talk with their friends and family? That’s where you need to be, no place else.
6. Forgetting staff. The most important people in your social media efforts are those front-line employees who greet, shake hands, talk to, laugh with, engage with, celebrate with, encourage, and serve every single guest, at every single table, every single day. They know your guests better and they know your business better. They make or break every guest experience. Your guests know them better than they know you. Plus there’s simply more of them. Ignoring the impact that your staff has and can make is insane. Which is why the first people you need to dedicate yourself to are them. Don’t hold them back from being a part of your social media efforts. In fact, insist on it. It should be a criteria for employment. If you have a decent Facebook or Twitter presence as your main social media focus, then allow your staff to post to it. There’s nothing more powerful than a server commenting to a guest on your social media outpost with: “Hey George! Glad to see you visiting our Facebook Fan Page. I wanted to thank you for allowing me the pleasure of taking care of you and Helen when you were in celebrating your 40th anniversary last night. I’ll email you some of the pictures and video we took so you can share it with your family and friends.”
Based on a post by Jeffrey Summers, Pres., RestaurantWorx Consulting
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
