In my weekly quests to find new and different ways bars and restaurants are using social media I am constantly reading twitter posts and facebook updates. After a while my brain just goes numb. There is hardly anything out there that excites me. There is only so much I can take of “Come to Our Bar”, “Our Restaurant is great”, “Our bar has beer”, “Our Restaurant has food”. I get it, you want to promote your business, understandable. However, if all you do is talk about yourself people will get bored and stop reading what you have to say.
One point that I think all experts agree on when it come to social media is that you must talk about other people and businesses. Most bars probably don’t want to promote another bar in their area but what about tweeting praises to liquor or wine brands that your bar serves. Likewise, restaurants could tweet about food news or recipes, possibly even promote a local food blogger or farmers market. Many things that interest you and your employees will probably interest your followers to, including local news, events and sports.
Another easy way to interact on Twitter is to retweet. If you read another Tweet that you like, retweet it, easy-peasy. This is a great way to post funny and witty tweets if you are maybe not so funny or witty yourself. I also suggest replying to other people’s tweets and tweeting at followers you know are loyal customers.
Of course I understand that at the end of the day Twitter is a promotional tool for bars and restaurants. No matter what you want to post you specials, happy hours and good press. This is my suggestion: If you decide you want to tweet 10 things a day make 5 of them about your bar or restaurant, 3 of them retweets and 2 of them responding to other users. I think that is a nice balance, we’ll call it the 50, 30, 20 rule… or maybe not.
