Posted by Tim on September 11, 2010
Opportunities are abound with social media. It is truly a fantastic platform to build your restaurant’s brand and communicate with customers. While doing that, however, it is important not to do a couple of things. Here are 3 simple things NOT to do with social media:
1) Don’t Ask For Favors
If you don’t know someone well enough to ask for a cup of sugar, then you don’t know them well enough to ask them to write about or promote your restaurant. Don’t publicly ask for a review. Instead, you can publicly recognize the customers that do review your restaurant with a “Thank You” and a link to the review. Ask them to introduce themselves to the manager the next time they visit. You might be able to provide them a complimentary dessert, or at least, an in-person “Thank You”.
2) Don’t Ignore Your Customers / Be a Jerk
This may sound too simple, but it’s worth saying. You’re using social media to establish relationships and build awareness for your restaurant, right? So – get social! Respond to messages, get involved in conversations, and don’t miss opportunities to communicate with some of your most valuable customers. It is certainly better NOT to use social media than to use it and NOT engage with customers. If customers send you tweets and you ignore them, they will think you’re a jerk, especially while sending out other tweets.
3) Don’t Send Auto-Direct Messages
Using auto direct-messages on Twitter is essentially Spam. Don’t bother someone with a generic direct-message that says: “Thanks for the follow!” or something similar. It’s a very hollow way of thanking someone. If you’re doing this, stop. Don’t take the “social” out of social media. You can lose followers and relationships when they forget why they’re there. People want to interact with you and your restaurant. They are interested in news, updates, and deals – not meaningless auto-direct messages.
