The beauty of using Twitter for restaurants is all about immediacy and connectivity. This powerful social media tool allows you to monitor and respond to customer needs, whether or not they know that it’s your restaurant they need. For example, you can see people in your area who are hungry or looking for suggestions on places to dine out. You might also see people who have already made plans to eat at your restaurant and are on their way. This capability allows you to interact with people who have the intent of dining out as they are making their decision to do so.
One example I always go back to is when I was working with Morton’s, we monitored Twitter to find conversations that would tie to a dining choice and see if we could influence the consumer’s choice in dining. You may not always get this lucky when you monitor the feeds, but this does illustrate the power and value of the channel.
In this example above, a prospective customer needed a suggestion for local dining – they asked the general question and the restaurant had a specific (and timely) answer: Dine with us!
…And the customer responded to this personalized message by making plans to dine.
But the experience doesn’t have to end there. An online experience is a great way to pull someone into your restaurant, but taking an online conversation and making it an offline experience is what they will remember, what they will talk about, and what will bring them back. Make sure you know when they will be dining with you so you can prepare to take their experience to the next level. Figure out if there is a special occasion. Usually they will post about upcoming special events on their social media feed. Personalize a response to them. Give them something to share and make them say “WOW, that was an awesome experience!”
Note: Since this interaction took place, Morton’s has consolidated to just one national Twitter handle now and the @MortonsJax is no longer operational
Just remember, like everything in life: moderation sometimes is the best path. Start with something small that you can control, like this example; ask them to come to you to dine. Then be sure to follow through, you don’t need to be on every feed or in every space, but Twitter is worth a try.
Contact Rewards Network to learn more ways to attract new customers and to keep them coming back.
