Barry Chandler – The Bar Blogger

As more and more businesses attempt to connect with their customers using social media channels, more and more bars, restaurants and cafes are making basic errors that end up preventing any type of connection at all.

This video was prompted by a recent visit to a local cafe, but is one that I’ve been wanting to make for some time. Would love to get your feedback below too.

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Believe it or not, this is exactly what happened to a bar in Massachusetts, at least for a three day period anyway. It seems that neighbors of the bar noticed promotions on Facebook that were in contravention of the local liquor laws, however the bar owner tried in vain to defend himself by claiming that a former “rogue bartender” posted illegal “drink till you drop” and “free shots for ladies” promotions on the bar’s Facebook page without authorization!

“It’s not believable to me that one person in that establishment was doing all of these postings without other managers knowing about it,” said Selectman Bob Jackson, adding that the Facebook posts “were very detailed and happened repeatedly. “I don’t find it credible that only one person was doing that,” he added.

You can read more about the story here, but it’s clear that Facebook is no refuge for illegal promotions and the long arm of the law has a way of finding you be it online or offline!

Moral of the story? Establish a strict Facebook Policy for your staff when representing your bar and if in doubt, forget about it, try something less risky…

The blog posts that get the biggest responses here are those that mention new and novel ways to get more customers in the door. These posts have been re-tweeted the most, commented on the most and shared with friends more than any other,

Who am I to argue with what you want, so I’ll be focusing more on this direction moving forward.

Starting right now…Let’s look at one immediate action you can take in your bar to be put in front of 10,000 potential customers overnight.

It’s surprisingly simple but is based on the fact that different and offbeat stands out from the crowd and gets noticed. So the first step here is to identify something offbeat, quirky or unique about your bar. If you have a giant sofa that seats 30 people and is polka dot pink, that’s quirky, if you have a purple mechanical bull, that’s offbeat, and if you are the only bar in town that serves cocktails in a bucket, then that’s different.

Once you have identified what is quirky, different and offbeat, you need to get your customers involved to share these interesting points in your bar with others. To do this, you’ll need to incentivize them slightly. Not too much or it will appear that you are buying them off. Instead, consider this: Take a picture of your customers on the purple mechanical bull and tell them it will be on your bar’s facebook page that day. If they visit that page and “tag” themselves in the photo, you will send them a free drink coupon to thank them.

The average Facebook user has 130 friends, so once the customer has tagged themselves, that picture will appear in front of all 130 friends next time they log on to Facebook.

If you get 2-3 successful tags a day for a month, you will now have reached the facebook pages of 10,000 different users, and 50% of users log on to Facebook in any given day making it a quick way of spreading your pictures virally.

Checklist to make this work:

• A Sign near your point of quirkiness (the quirkier the better..) that says: Ask a Staff Member To take Your Picture and Get a free Drink.
• Keep a digital camera handy behind the bar for this purpose and upload the pics to Facebook every evening.
• Hand out a card to customers with the Facebook fan page address to increase your chances of having the photo tagged.
• Most important of all: A large sign that is included on every picture that identifies the bar, the quirky item and a web address and phone number for new customers to find you. Don’t make this mistake.

IKEA in Sweden recently ran a similar promotion when they opened a new store. They took pictures of their showroom and took out an advert in a newspaper advising customers that the first people to “tag” the item of their choice in the photo, would receive it! The response was extraordinary and the press went wild for this new use of social media to spread a message.

AJ Bombers in Milwaukee used Facebook to create initial awareness of their brand via a facebook profile picture promotion, where their customers were assigned the task of taking the most creative photo in their logoed, signature, extra large beach chairs and post that photo as their profile picture, also leaving that photo up for the entire month of July. The winner, Karen Louw is currently receiving free burgers for a year at AJ Bombers! Check out the YouTube video they posted below to their YouTube channel to educate their followers!

Be creative and think of what would make you want to have your picture taken somewhere. It might be the world’s tallest bar stool, or the the state’s biggest steak, or the world’s oldest bartender…whatever it is, take advantage of it and get your customers to spread the word for you. It could be the cheapest advertising you ever do!

I came across this great post during the week by social media expert Chris Brogan who sat down with Joe Sorge, owner of AJ Bombers as well as Water Buffalo, and a few other restaurants in Milwaukee.

In this great interview, Joe talks about how he uses social media to power his business. Proof if ever there was proof needed that social media can make a huge difference in bars and restaurants when used correctly.