Simple Steps to Social Media Strategy Hospitality : Beverage Programs Coffee Fest Seattle 2009

Mobile Gold Rush 09 Social Media/Networking is Exploding 95% of Adults in USA have cell phones

Mobile Gold Rush 09 Facebook will match the population of the USA in the next 12 months

Mobile Gold Rush 09 Twitter has experienced > 1300% growth per month over the past year

Publ Jan 09

What is Social Networking? Social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups

What is Social Networking? People, groups and organizations congregate together into diverse communities online They communicate with each other

What is Social Networking? Sharing their lives together Talking about ideas and news Telling their friends about their favorite places, causes, businesses and products

Popular Networks Chalkboarder.com completed a comprehensive study of 2200 restaurants social media in 14 major US metropolitan markets in Sep 09

Popular Networks 10% of Affordable Dining Operations Have a Social Media Presence Approximately 5% just launched their presence 6% of affordable dining in the USA ($15-25 entrée) launched a Twitter account in the last two months

Popular Networks Predominant networks used: Facebook Dominant Twitter 25% of Facebook MySpace 5% of Facebook

Best Practices Be Authentic Produce Compelling Content Conduct Direct Engagement No Spam

Producing Compelling Content A Harvard Business Review article found that images have a 70% click through in social media messaging Use Pictures, Movies & Images

Producing Compelling Content Write creatively. Would you read a message every day that just said your drink specials?

Producing Compelling Content Customers want to know more about you Why you do what you do and what you are passionate about

Producing Compelling Content The goal is to get your fans to distribute what you share to their fans and communities That builds customers

Simple Steps Put together a social media team For advanced strategies, seek advice from a social media evangelist Don’t trust anyone who calls themselves an expert or guru

Simple Steps Devise a six month strategy and stick to it Cost of investment is really just labor

Simple Steps Find your competitors and follow them See who’s doing the best content and listen to their fan’s reactions

Simple Steps Produce Unique Content Often and Distribute It

Simple Steps Monitor the Back-Channel Back-Channel means what your fans say on your networks and what others say on other networks

Simple Steps Engage the Back-Channel Social Media is all about engaging others in dialogue It’s not about shot-gunning a message and not following up

Simple Steps Share Positive Responses Negative situations are simply opportunities to immediately provide a solution that satisfies – two times the value of a positive response

Simple Steps Always thank people for being in community with you

I showed a 10% increase in gross sales, pretty cool! better is the support of Houston about quality coffee via twitter Sep 23 11:05 am

Take Aways Creative Content Idea – Game On With an iPhone, make a 30 sec video closeup of barista action, upload to YouTube and share on Facebook and Twitter with a simple compelling message “This morning’s barista Eliza thinks you can’t bury her on the espresso machine today” Include the hyperlink

Take Aways Creative Content Idea – The Starbucks Example Take a picture of a good pastry, upload it to Flickr and then distribute message (with link to pic) offering a free pastry with purchase of a beverage “Mm-mmm. Delish pastries hot from oven. Buy a beverage – get a free pastry today only” Include the hyperlink

Take Aways Creative Content Idea – Favorite Cause Fund raise for a local non-profit “Introduce us to a new friend today and we’ll donate 5% of your purchase price to Habitat for Humanity.” Include the hyperlink

Resources At Chalkboarder.com’s White Papers Blog we’ve got a page of resources available online us anytime with questions

Resources