How a bar or restaurant can use Facebook Questions effectively

Posted by barblog on Apr 1, 2011 in Bar Marketing | 0 comments

Facebook recently released a new version of Facebook Questions. This provides a great way for bars and restaurants to increase customer interaction.

Facebook Questions is a feature that allows Facebook users to post questions and gather answers from their friends and other Facebook users. Facebook Questions can range from “What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?” to “What’s a great restaurant in Columbus?”

Facebook explains Facebook Questions as a way to learn from your friends, see where people stand, and share what you know. But for a bar or restaurant, it can be much more than that. Questions is a way to gather feedback, increase engagement and draw attention. Read more..

How Review Sites Make You Provide Better Service

Posted by barblog on Mar 31, 2011 in Bar Marketing | 0 comments

People are using review sites, such as Yelp or Foursquare, to help them decide where to go for dinner, drinks, entertainment and so much more. These review sites are a great way for the customers to learn more about a business before they visit.

Since these review sites becoming more social (even Yelp has jumped on the bandwagon) and even more visible, it’s crucial that bars and restaurants stay on their game. Read more..

Five great ways bars and restaurants are using Foursquare

Posted by barblog on Feb 4, 2011 in Bar Marketing | 0 comments

Many bars and restaurants are taking advantage of Foursquare, a location-based mobile platform. Foursquare allows users to “check in” and share their location with friends while earning virtual badges and discovering nearby deals and discounts.

Foursquare boasts over 5 million user since its 2009 launch. Tens of thousands of venues are currently implementing special offers through Foursquare.

There are endless opportunities for unique deals on Foursquare that will keep your customers coming back and bring in new faces as well.

Read more..

Are you preventing your customers from promoting your Facebook page?

Posted by barblog on Feb 2, 2011 in Bar Marketing | 1 comment

Encouraging customers to tag themselves in photos on your Fan Page is one of the easiest ways to encourage interaction and engagement.

Tagging is a way for users to identify themselves in photos. Once someone has been tagged in your photo, it will appear on their profile as well. More tagged users means more people are likely to see your photos.

There’s just one problem: Facebook automatically restricts fans from tagging photos on a Fan Page.

Read more..

Remember that “YOU” are not “YOUR” customer

Posted by barblog on Jan 5, 2011 in Bar Management, Bar Marketing | 0 comments

I am fortunate to work with many bar owners in the course of my work and to listen to their ideas, share their enthusiasm and watch as many of them go on to succeed with very profitable businesses.

Of course there are exceptions to this. There are certainly a large percentage of failures on the bar world and I recently came across two such bars, struggling to stay afloat. Each owner was very different in terms of their management style, the bars were distinctly different yet both catered to an older clientele due to their locations in more affluent neighborhood. They also shared the same problem: Both bars were owned by guys in their late 20s/early 30s, who were trying their hardest to fill their bar with 40 yr old + neighbors at each location.

It quickly became obvious what the problem was. The owners were not their own customers and as is the case in many businesses, YOU are not YOUR own customer. How a twentysomething runs a business will not instinctively be in a way that appeals to potential customers twice his age. Read more..