For Restaurants Twitter = Local, Facebook = Mass Market
Remember the idea that all restaurant marketing should be local marketing? And all local marketing should reinforce your two main consumer goals—frequency and loyalty?
Well, if you are not living in a time warp or in total denial, you have noticed that today, every second article in the national and trade press is about Twitter, the currently “on fire” social media system. Restaurant companies (along with everyone else) are trying desperately to find a way to get in on the craze (want proof? read this).
So, how are these two things—local marketing and Twitter—connected? Twitter, as opposed to Facebook (the still underutilized but global social medium) is all about “local.” It is existential, thriving in a world of “here and now.” The founder of LA-based Kogi, the instantly famous Korean Taco Truck concept , credits its success completely to his ability to communicate via Twitter with his local customer base. He is able to draw upwards of 400 customers within 15 minutes of tweeting the new mobile location for his trucks. If you are more than a few minutes from the new location, forget about getting there in time to eat before the police chase the truck to a new site. Nothing is more local than this.
Frequency, you bet. Loyalty, unmatched.
But will this business model be sustainable for more than the next 12 months? Probably not. What’s hot and cool and undiscovered today won’t be once it cools down, becomes everybody’s discovery and isn’t cool any longer. Imitators are already copying the idea across the country.
So, here’s the lesson. In order to become commercially viable for a restaurant company, Facebook, while still personal, needs large numbers of friends across broad market areas. Basically, a Facebook presence is the new Mass Market. You need to be here because 250 million customers are.
On the other hand, Twitter, (forget Ashton Kutcher’s million followers) is only valuable if it can change a loyal customer’s behavior during the next 15 minutes. After that, the 140 character text message is left on the cyber trash pile. This is the new “top of mind” advertising seeking to drive increased frequency. You need to be here because a core demographic, the Market of One, is here and they live down the block from your restaurant.
Oh, by the way, have you started creating your restaurant’s new iPhone App? Better hurry - it’s the next hot, cool discovery.
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