Twitter Places Launch Means Better Reach For Restaurants
June 16, 2010
Twitter announced on their blog Monday the advent of Twitter Places, an enhancement to their location-based tweeting service. The new feature will allow users to select not only the geographic location of their tweets but also specific sites, such as a local restaurant, sporting venue or other public places.
A user has to share their location with Twitter by clicking on the “Add Your Location” link below the message box at the top of their home page in Twitter. Once their city and state are shared, the user can identify their exact location by clicking upon the down arrow next to the city and state location. Here’s an example from the TwoTables twitter page:
The rollout also included integration with Gowalla and Foursquare so that now users of those services can associate a Twitter Place with check-ins that are tweeted. Twitter partnered with Localeze and TomTom to gather data for the new feature.
While it seems a bit erratic at times to add a new place or to search for a Twitter Place that is not originally listed, we’re confident that the talented folks at Twitter will iron out the kinks very soon.
Have you or your customers run Twitter Places through its paces yet? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment!
Facebook Apps To Add To Your Restaurant Facebook Page
May 25, 2010
Do you have a Facebook page for your restaurant yet? If so, you are probably familiar with the standard applications available with all pages, including Events, Photos and Reviews. The following list aims to introduce you to a few, less obvious applications to consider adding to your page to encourage deeper engagement from your page’s visitors:
- Static FBML allows for page customization using Facebook’s mark up language, FBML, which is very similar to HTML. Functionality is more limited than with standard HTML but you can still build fairly complex designs for custom tabs and boxes. We used this application to design the TwoTables landing page, which enabled us not only to provide a consistent look with our website but also allowed us to direct visitors to various tabs on our Facebook page that they may not otherwise have found. We were also able to provide links to pages on our website and blog to give the visitor more options to engage with our brand. TwoTables will offer more guidance on using FBML to create custom tabs for maps, menus and more in future posts, so if you’re interested in learning more, subscribe to our feed or get updates sent to you automatically via email.
- YouTube Channel and Photo Gallery from Involver add visual functionality to your restaurant’s page. If you’ve already set up a YouTube channel for restaurant videos, then the YouTube app allows you to add a tab to your page that will update automatically whenever a new video is added to your channel. Photo Gallery allows for uploading of photos to be displayed in a carousel format. Both of these are free, however you do have to register with Involver to activate.
- Extended Info is a flexible app that enables administrators to add more information to their company profile that the standard info section provided by Facebook. We’ve used this application to better explain our mission and services to our page’s visitors. Restaurant marketers could easily use this app to add their menu, detailed driving directions or any other information that doesn’t fit into the standard Facebook info tab.
- Promotions from Wildfire is the only app included on this list that is not free however they do offer an affordable option for small businesses. Promotion Builder allows page administrators to quickly and easily set up a campaign for sweepstakes, surveys, coupons and more.
- For restaurants that offer online reservations, OpenTable has an app that allows your fans & visitors to book a table without ever leaving Facebook. Very handy!
- For those that use Contant Contact to manage their email marketing campaigns, they offer an application that allows users to sign up for your email list directly from Facebook.
Of course, the caveat when adding any Facebook application, either for your business page or personal profile, is that you authorize the application to have access to all the information you make available within Facebook. That said, you can easily remove any application with one click if you find it is not useful or if it is invasive.
What apps have you added to your Facebook restaurant page? Are there any applications that you would like to see offered that aren’t currently available? Let us know by leaving a comment to this post.
5 Free Tools to Boost Your Restaurant Online Marketing Plan
May 5, 2010
In honor of Cinco de Mayo, here are five easy, no-cost things you can do today to jump start your restaurant website marketing plan. Follow these steps, and by Memorial Day you’ll be well on your way to improving your business’ online presence:
- Update or Claim Local Listings – Enter your business name and zip code here, to see if your business listings have been claimed and updated on Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yelp, and Business.com. In less than 15 seconds, a report similar to the one below but specific to the business you have entered, will be available for you to view and act upon.
- Check for new marketing opportunities via keyword research – There are many good keyword research tools out there for professional marketers, but if you want a no-cost alternative it’s hard to beat Google’s own tool. Simply enter your website address or a keyword phrase, such as “Denver restaurant” and Google will show a list of related search phrases. Don’t rely heavily on the specific number of searches that are returned, instead use the results to rank relative demand for keyword phrases. Are people looking for restaurants that offer gluten-free alternatives in your area? Maybe a good place for Mother’s Day or Graduation celebration? Keyword research is a great way to uncover emerging trends to be included in your restaurant marketing plan. Make sure to include a new page on your website for any new markets you uncover!
- Do a bit of competitive research - How and what are your competitors doing online? Check out Compete.com and enter in up to three website addresses to compare unique visitors, top search phrases and top referrers for each site entered. This is a great way to discover new sites from which to get links to your own website and new search phrases to use in marketing your website.
- What’s being said about your restaurant online? – Here’s a two-for-one freebie! Monitor what the search engines are finding about your brand by setting up Google alerts for your restaurant’s name and the name of your chef. You’ll receive emails, for the time frame you select (immediately, daily or weekly), listing all mentions found on the web by Google. Do the same with social media mentions at SocialMention.com, where you can enter your brand name and see, in real time, what is being said about your business on social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs. You’ll not only see each mention listed, this site also calculates the strength of your brand, the ratio of positive to negative mentions and lots more. Subscribe to the RSS feed for your brand search to remain updated on mentions across the social networking universe.
- Download TwoTables’ whitepaper, Big Picture Internet Marketing , where we detail how to formulate an all-encompassing internet marketing plan for restaurants. Although compiled last year, the message, resources and tactics are still effective in 2010. You can also keep up to date on all things internet and restaurant related by subscribing to the TwoTables blog, following TwoTables on Twitter and liking TwoTables on Facebook.
That’s it! Enjoy your Cinco de Mayo celebrations, everyone.