When I say “social media training,” I don’t mean teaching your employees to be sitting at a computer, monitoring conversations and replying to people. Instead, what I’m talking about is ensuring that their actions are bringing attention to your company’s social media presence.
In Wednesday’s post I made reference to our client III Forks — Jacksonville. I’m going to reference them again, because they’re a good example of the opportunities that exist in ensuring that your employees are working to nurture the company’s online communities.
In a restaurant setting, the opportunities for using social media are great and applicable across almost every area of the restaurant operations. III Forks is a dinner-only restaurant, which changes things a bit. Here are some examples of how social media can be implemented across the restaurant operation:
Pre-opening
Post to the Facebook Fan Page what that day’s specials will be, whether there are any changes to the dinner menu, and if there are any changes elsewhere in the restaurant that night.
Write about the night’s drink specials at the bar and any speciality wines that are available.
Opening
Write on Facebook about how busy the restaurant is that night. If there are holes in the reservation schedule that night, let people know: “We’ve got reservation openings tonight for 8 and 9 p.m., if anyone is interested!” This won’t always work, but it will cause people to think about making a spontaneous decision to go out to III Forks for a nice dinner.
Mid-Evening
Write about the dishes that are most popular that evening and whether there are any birthdays happening that evening. If you have an opportunity, take a few photos of the “behind the scenes” action in the kitchen, and post them to the Facebook page.
Ensure that waiters are asking diners to visit your Facebook page and leave a review. Not everyone will do it, but it’s all part of raising awareness of the page and encouraging interaction.
If you’ve got photos from the Happy Hour, post them to the Facebook page.
Closing
Post some stats from the evening, such as which dish and desert was most popular. Also, post any other photos that you might have from the evening. Also take this time to answer any questions or responses that fans/customers may have left on your posts from the evening.
It’s important that your employees are trained on how they should be using these mediums, and what they should be doing to direct attention to these online communities. In situations like this, awareness is often driven online from an offline position, such as in-store.
It may seem like a lot, but after a few days of doing it, it will become more natural. After all, it’s only about five posts per day. With everyone working in tandem, you will create a much more active online community that will deliver value back to the company sooner, and ensure that customers are getting value out of the company’s online community.
That’s a nice sample plan for a restaurant/food business. It is amazing that too many businesses do not want to do this, though it probably stems from the risk of them not being able to control what employees say and do not say. Oddly, employees will do what they want, so trying to put some control over it will only backfire and be ineffective. Employees in a restaurant who interface in any way with customers/clients should already be able to communicate, connect, and promote the business in the best light. If not, they should not be there.
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