Don?t Get Left Behind, Evolve by Electricjelly
Have you noticed people in your establishment taking pictures of their food and drinks before tucking in? This is the food posting craze and it?s literally the BIGGEST social media phenomenon taking place right now. Which means huge free marketing and PR opportunities for restaurants and bars who get involved.
Why should your customers take all the glory? Some food posters are now bigger than newspaper food critics, imagine how big an audience you could reach if you started sharing your own food posts, pictures and videos on the same social media sites?
Our team of social media hospitality experts at electricjelly have put together the following tips to help people in the industry harness this opportunity before the boat sales and the bloggersphere moves onto the next craze.
For more information, and shared ideas join the new online community at Evolve and @Evolve_news.
Evolve Tips to Getting Started
- The key to good social media is to be informal and adopt a ?buddy? rather than corporate voice.
- Sign up to Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Twitter & Facebook under your establishment?s name and get key trusted team members to download the Apps so posting is quick and easy.
- Find the big food posters on the above and follow them ? they will then notice you and follow back hopefully (if you make it interesting enough for them). See below for a list of top people to start following.
- If you have a big name chef or well known front of house they should also be signed up to the above and encouraged to regularly post ? but note below.
- Ensure everyone posting on Social Media for your establishment only posts fun, clean, non-controversial images, short videos and news. Create an agreement they sign and/or have your marketing department do the posting (although this is not ideal as will create a more corporate tone).
- Go for ?behind the scenes? pictures only your team could get, so stuff like the Chefs creating a signature dish, the kitchen staff having a comp to create the tallest stacked dish, the highest souffl?s etc etc.
- Use pictures and videos rather than words where possible as they are more appealing and shared more widely. Follow our quick guide to creating Vine videos here http://www.electricjelly.com/5-ways-to-use-vine-for-business/
- ENGAGE and INTERACT with your followers, ask them to vote on pictures, maybe offer exclusive social media promotions, ask for reviews offering prizes for the best dish pictures etc.
- New to Instagram? For ideas check out these top food posters:?Food 52, A Life Worth Eating, Chef Todd , Food Republic and our own Jamie Oliver
Who to Follow
Do you know who the most influential food and drink reviewers in the UK are? Its no longer just the ones you know about on the nationals (although they are still big) there are a lot of influential food bloggers, posters and Tweeters that have come to the fore, which is a great opportunity for you. Don?t be shy get in touch with them.
We suggest you get following these influential Tweeters: @GilesCoren, @MarinaOLaughlin, @zoesqwilliams @jayrayner1@Mr_AA_Gill @Traceyamacleod, @Richardvines, @TimeOutLondon, @hotdinners, @eatlikeagirl, @cariffbites, @meemalee, @hollowlegs, @chrispople, @essexgourmet, @scandilicous, @tehbus, @MrsMarmitelover, @FoodStories
And maybe get in touch with these Food Bloggers with recipes and news as a start (there are 100s more): A Merrier World, Food Stories, Eat Like a Girl, Spittoon, Tamarind and Thyme, Cheese and Biscuits, Cook Sister!, The English Can Cook, Hollow Legs, Thriftygobbler, The Cocktail Lovers etc.
Finally some words of advice from Gregg Hone, Director and Founder of electricjelly and Evolve:
?The most important advice I can give is, keep it simple.
The reason why most companies start and fail at social media is the time factor to implement. It needs to become a fun part of your daily responsibilities, not another chore. We work with our clients to plan a simple strategy that works within the business needs and the available resource, and one that can grow with the business and as more resource is available.
We also help prepare a training session with your business social media champions to create the guidelines for content and work out was is, and more importantly what isn?t appropriate.?
Most of all this is supposed to be fun, so enjoy. Of course if you need more thorough advice and support the team at electricjelly can help you develop easy systems to make the most of social media. Contact Gregg directly [email protected].