A twitter miss from McDonald’s

Posted by ianmara on Feb 2, 2012 in Bar Marketing | 0 comments

By now you’ve probably heard about the, um, difficulty the world’s biggest fast food brand had during a recent stab at targeting a new Twitter hashtag. We’re big proponents of bars and restaurants making use of hashtags whenever possible, but the recent McDonald’s fiasco illustrates that social media is done well only when it’s done right.

In case you missed the story, here’s a quick rundown. Last week McDonald’s unveiled a promoted hashtag it hoped would get Twitter users telling positive experiences at the restaurant. They called it #McDStories.

But instead of sharing warm and fuzzy memories of time spent enjoying Big Macs and McRibs, Twitter users began flooding the stream with negative tweets.

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Quick Video: 3 Tips for a Successful Social Media Campaign

Posted by barblog on Jan 27, 2012 in Social Media for Bars, Web/social media | 1 comment

I was recently interviewed by Sean Finter, CEO of Barmetrix on the topic of successful social media campaigns.

Check out the quick video below for my top three tips:

What Wal-Mart (gasp) can teach us about social media

Posted by ianmara on Nov 4, 2011 in Bar Marketing | 0 comments

Recently Wal-Mart announced a partnership with Facebook in which it would create individual pages on the social networking site for each of its 3,500+ locations nationwide. The local pages would be connected with the corporate store, but some information – things like specials and in-store events – would be directed through the individual pages.

As a Wal-Mart executive pointed out, retail is “fundamentally local business.”

While we’re aware nobody out there operates a company the size of Wal-Mart (unless Tim Cook is reading the blog), understanding why this move was made is relevant to all businesses owners.  Even if you aren’t a big fan of what Wal-Mart represents, there are nice parallels to be made here for how your bar/restaurant should handle its social media, particularly if you have more than one location.

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Great restaurant and bar Facebook pages

Posted by ianmara on Oct 27, 2011 in Bar Marketing | 0 comments

There are definitely common traits shared by the best Facebook fan pages. They look good, are filled with useful information and provide an opportunity for the business to interact with its customers. In no particular order, here are a few fan pages we think those of you in the industry should take a close look at:

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P.F. Changs

Why we like it: Eye-catching tab graphics, effective use of tabs, consistent fan interaction.

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Customer Spotlight: The Big Bar

Posted by ianmara on Aug 19, 2011 in Customer Spotlight | 0 comments

The Big Bar & Grill is located in Columbus on the campus of The Ohio State University. It is a popular watering hole nestled in prime real estate near the university’s athletic facilities, off-campus student communities and surprisingly affordable tattoo parlors.

In the past year we’ve worked with the The Big Bar to make sure its management takes advantage of the fact its primary customer base – the under-30 crowd – lives and breathes smart phones and social media. With that it mind, here are a few of the strategies we’ve helped them undertake: Read more..