Your Digital Identity 2014

Your Digital Identity Technology & Social Media Trends for Restaurants

April 2014

Restaurants Prepare for Changes in Credit Card Technology www.nrn.com March 12, 2014 Article by Ron Ruggless

The restaurant industry has begun preparing for a big change in credit card technology and policies that will affect retail merchants in October 2015, both in economic terms and in operations.

Major credit card companies have announced incentives for merchants to change their point-of-sale systems by October 2015 amid a backdrop of credit card fraud that affected millions of department store shoppers, especially those at Target and Neiman Marcus, during the winter holidays.

Such changes would allow restaurants to accommodate the EMV standard that is widely followed outside of the United States and are aimed at better protecting merchants and issuers from fraud losses at the point of sale.

EMV, named after its developers (Europay, MasterCard and Visa), requires cards that have embedded microprocessor chips that store and protect encrypted user data instead of the magnetic strip widely used in the U.S. The chip in the card generates a one-time code for each transaction, which makes it more difficult to counterfeit. Another layer of security can be added with a personal identification number, or PIN, or a signature, but currently, that layer is not required.

However, many in the restaurant industry are not convinced that the payment standard is the fraud solution some are touting it to be. “EMV technology protects against counterfeit cards to some degree, but it’s not a silver bullet for fraud,” said Liz Garner, the National Restaurant Association’s director of commerce and entrepreneurship.

Garner also noted that because of the investment required for operators, the restaurant industry is hoping for a more secure solution, including the possible inclusion of a PIN requirement.

“There is no reason there should be a payment device out there that the merchant can’t ask for a second layer of security on, especially in a world where we have passwords for everything, from an ATM withdrawal to signing in to an Internet account,” she said.

“The worldwide standard is chip-and-PIN cards. Without issuing cards with PINs, it makes very little sense from fraud prevention and a lost-and-stolen type environment.”

David French, senior vice president for governmental relations at the National Retail Federation, said in a recent webinar that the chipped cards cost the issuing companies between four and 10 times as much as the long-used magnetic strip cards, and new chip-enabled hardware could cost the retail industry between $20 billion and $30 billion in total.

Card issuers are offering various incentives to merchants that comply with the EMV standard by October 2015. They include the elimination of the requirement that merchants with chip-enabled terminals annually validate compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, as well as protection from fraud liability.

Credit card companies are also warning of penalties for merchants who have not made the investment in chip-enabled technology.

Policies vary among companies, but they all include further shifts in fraud liability from the card issuer to the merchant.

Garner noted that the merchant community already bears a third to half of the fraud losses, depending on the type of transaction.

The NRA’s Garner said EMV compliance isn’t a complete solution and noted that the October 2015 timeline is “unrealistic.” She said it took Canada, with an economy smaller than that of the United States, seven to 10 years to move to a new level of card technology.

At large restaurant chains, changes in POS technology usually take about 18 to 24 months for acquisition and implementation.

The companies then have to certify with their card processors that they are meeting their standards, she said.

That’s why organizations such as the NRA are seeking extensions of the deadline as the industry explores additional ways to increase data security. “We’ve asked the [financial services] industry to consider a more realistic timeframe,” Garner added, as well as consider more layers of cyber security.

In February, more than a dozen leading retail trade associations, including the NRA, announced a new cyber security partnership to focus on information sharing, card security technology and customer trust. Liz Garner, the NRA’s director of commerce and entrepreneurship, said in an interview that the organization has been observing data security for some time.

The group’s goal is to bring together all points in the payments chain — credit card processors, companies, equipment manufacturers and banks — to increase security for customer data.

“There’s much more that can be done to prevent overall fraud in the system,” Garner said. “The cyber security working group is a step in the right direction to get all financial stakeholders to the table.”

“The restaurant industry has long sought a constructive, open dialogue with the financial services industry on the path forward toward creating a more secure payments environment for all stakeholders in the payments system,” Dawn Sweeney, the NRA’s president and chief executive said.

Sweeney said protection of customers’ financial and personal data is paramount to the industry, adding that “there is a shared responsibility between the financial sector and the retail sector to solve these issues together.”

The next piece of cyber security equation, Garner noted, is protecting data as it moves through the system, which she said is “absolutely critical.” The NRA’s role in the cyber security working group will address those issues as well, she said.

“There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle when we talk about data security and fraud prevention in general,” Garner said. “But we have absolutely got to do it to restore consumer confidence in the payment system.”

Facebook Admits Organic Reach Is Falling Short, Urges Marketers to Buy Ads Brands urged to think of fan acquisition as a way to enhance performance www.adage.com

December 5, 2013

Article by Cotton Delo

Facebook is being more blunt about the fact that marketers are going to have to pay for reach.

If they haven't already, many marketers will soon see the organic reach of their posts on the social network drop off, and this time Facebook is acknowledging it. In a sales deck obtained by Ad Age that was sent out to partners last month, the company states plainly: "We expect organic distribution of an individual page's posts to gradually decline over time as we continually work to make sure people have a meaningful experience on the site."

It's a big shift from the stance Facebook took a year ago, when agencies called out the fact that posts published by clients were being seen by fewer of their fans.

At the time, Facebook contended that algorithmic changes had been made to weed out spammy, non-engaging content, but that the median reach of pages hadn't budged. It particularly objected to the inference that the changes had been made to spur marketers to spend more on ads to make up for lost reach.

But now Facebook is making the case for marketers to do just that.

In the document, titled "Generating business results on Facebook," the paragraph in which the impending drop-off in organic reach is revealed concludes with an ad pitch; marketers are told they should consider paid distribution "to maximize delivery of your message in news feed."

The three-page document also contains a section that repositions how marketers should think about fan acquisition: as a tool for making paid advertising more effective. While free distribution of content is mentioned, it's the third business benefit listed after "improve advertising effectiveness" (through ads with social context, which is enabled by a substantial fan base) and "lower cost for paid distribution" (since Facebook makes it cheaper to deliver ads with social context.)

In other words, the main reason to acquire fans isn't to build a free distribution channel for content; it's to make future Facebook ads work better.

"Your brand can fully benefit from having fans when most of your ads show social context, which increases advertising effectiveness and efficiency," the document states.

The fact that less and less of brands' content will surface is described as a result of increased competition for limited space, since "content that is eligible to be shown in news feed is increasing at a faster rate than people's ability to consume it."

Publishers are one factor in the heightened competition, since Facebook announced earlier this week that links to news articles will be given more prominence, especially on mobile devices, via an algorithm change. A Facebook spokesman confirmed that the overall organic reach of Facebook posts from brands is in slow decline.

"We're getting to a place where because more people are sharing more things, the best way to get your stuff seen if you're a business is to pay for it," he said.

The drop-off in organic reach continues to be a touchy subject for brands -- especially those who invested in growing their fan bases.

And it's going to oblige them to up their content creation game in order to emerge organically from the morass of stories eligible to enter users' news feeds, according to Digitas VP-Social Marketing Alex Jacobs. But having paid distribution on Facebook is also a given if they want to maintain the reach they may have once had when Facebook was a younger network and users had fewer connections to bombard them with content.

"If brands were to continue reaching the same amount of people as a percentage of their fan base, [Facebook would] be giving preferential treatment to them over a user," he said. "It's just the fact of the matter in terms of platform growth and the amount of content that's getting posted."

Organic Facebook Reach Throttle: The Good News for Brands and Businesses If you know what organic Facebook Reach is, you’ve probably already heard that Facebook is throttling the results for brands.

This doesn’t mean that they’re turning it off entirely, but your brand’s content will now only reach 1-2% of your followers.

To put it simply, Facebook Reach is the same thing as “impressions” in a traditional media source. It’s the number of people exposed to your content – and it’s how you get Engagement (and on Facebook, Engagement’s by-product is word-of-mouth marketing). In the past, Reach was earned media: we were able to get those eyeballs in the Newsfeeds of the folks who Liked us on Facebook, simply by posting content on our own owned media (our Page). And the more people who engaged with the content, the more other folks saw it – not just through the shares and their specific activity feeds (which is more earned media for us, i.e. the holy grail of social media marketing), but because Facebook Story Bumping rewards content marketing engagement by keeping popular content up at the top of relevant user Newsfeeds.

Now, I have long been of the opinion that social media marketing is a relationship marketing discipline. And so I am, perhaps, less troubled about these changes than some other marketers are.

There are, after all, still two ways to get your content in front of a relevant audience, and they are: 1) Pay for placement.

2) Engage good influencers, and they will share your content.

And the truth of the matter is that both of these tactics force us to be better at content marketing.

And maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

Organic Facebook Reach – It Ain’t Free Anymore This is what everyone is moaning about: yep, Facebook wants us to pay for real estate that we used to get for free. And, to be fair to the brands here, Facebook has put on a real dog and pony show over the past several years to convince companies that building up their followers is a great idea and that the big payoff is the earned media that we were getting in those Newsfeeds.

That being the case, Facebook has somewhat pulled the rug out from under the brands. This could have been handled better from a communications standpoint, and I question why there wouldn’t be a threshold for SMB’s and/or nonprofits who haven’t necessarily had a chance to maximize their Facebook presence and understand how Reach helps them.

The reality, though, is that all free rides are bound to end. Facebook is a business, and it’s going to monetize wherever it can. The big question that brands are going to have to ask themselves now is whether or not they’ve seen enough evidence that Facebook as a marketing channel is actually worth a spend; Facebook, obviously, feels that its value has been proven.

There is a bright and shiny side to this coin, though: Facebook placement is really, really cheap compared to other channels. I have a consultant friend who works with a charity, and they saw their organic Reach tank by 90% (from a reach of 750 to about 75) with the recent changes. They then spent $200 for promoted posts, and they reached 4,500 people.

socialmediatoday.com March 22, 2014 Article by Leslie Nuccio

Now, whether that $200 was worth 4,500 eyeballs is up to them to decide; this was an awareness campaign and their metrics are up to them. Doing a spend on Promoted Posts is advertising, friends, and while we have more tracking on this spend as compared to a billboard campaign, unless you’re actually prompting a click you’re taking a leap of faith that brand awareness is a worthy endeavor.

But there is a truth that we marketers who are bummed out by this change (and I most assuredly am one of them) need to admit to ourselves: Marketers know from experience that people don’t value free things as much as they should.

And this includes us. So, perhaps – if we’re really honest with ourselves – we’ve been a little more lax than we need to be in our own content marketing strategy. After all, until now we could just throw up pictures of cats (um – those actually work – keep doing that) and any other thing we so chose, and if it didn’t work, oh well.

Facebook was great for content experimentation for that reason.

Now, we’re going to have to consider where we’re putting a spend – and that means we’ll have to start to ask ourselves questions like “Is this post worth paying money to promote?”

And, if the answer is no, perhaps the next question we should be asking ourselves is, “Then is it worth the disruption to someone’s activity feed in the first place?”

Now, perhaps I’m just overly optimistic to think that better content will come out of this change, but hey: I’m an upbeat girl.

Influencer Marketing is the New Organic Facebook Reach Now that Facebook Reach is primarily a paid advertising channel, influencer marketing becomes more important than ever: your Page’s content may not show up in your followers’ Newsfeed without your dollars, but an actual person’s content will still show up to their followers, even if it’s your content that they’re sharing.

Using influencers in lieu of paid placement isn’t a bad thing: people are much more likely to pay attention to something that’s shared by an actual person in their network anyway, and social media marketing is a discipline that’s best done by real people acting like real people. That being said, it is of course more work to build up a personal network of influencers and lobby for spend dollars and really track that spend and make sure that the content you’re putting out there is actually worth money, or an influencer’s time.

And all of that should lead to better content marketing.

And better content is never a bad thing.

Going Mobile – Why Your Restaurant Needs To Be Smartphone Accessible www.socialmediarestaurant.com Feb. 20, 2014 Article by John Moore

Mobile – Easily the most important trend this year – it is also the one that offers the biggest opportunity.

According to a recent Restaurant Sciences industry study, 95% of independent restaurants do not have a mobile website, and only about half of chain restaurants have some sort of mobile site.

Here’s the skinny – mobile internet use in the U.S. is set to overtake wired use by 2015 – and this shift is happening even faster for social media. To quote Facebook in last September’s quarterly SEC filing: “[We] anticipate that the rate of growth in mobile usage will exceed the growth in usage through personal computers for the foreseeable future.” What does this portend for the hospitality industry? Think it’s an accident that Google lists restaurants and bars on their smartphone browser user interface homepage and not on their desktop version?

It is now estimated that 45% of all restaurant website traffic is mobile generated – and that number is not only growing, but also skews upward for a younger demographic with a relatively large discretionary income.

This means that if your site is not mobile ready, at least three out of ten visitors will find it useless – and that’s not even the worst part. If someone is browsing from their smartphone and cannot access your site they are going to go to the next option – which is guaranteed to be a review site, such as Yelp or Zagat. Besides the fact that there is no surety that the info those sites provide will be correct or up to date, you are also subject to the whims of your restaurant’s latest reviewer. Not an attractive scenario – but one that is, happily, easy to remedy.

There are many online services that can easily create a mobile version of your site. With the addition of a few lines of code to your existing website it will then be automatically loaded when your site is displayed on a small screen device. These services range in price from free (ad driven) to a monthly fee structure that can be scaled to a single store or restaurant group. Consult with your IT provider to determine which service is best for you – it may even be included in your web hosting plan.

Minimally the mobile page should include: Hours of operation, contact info, map link, menu link, click-to-call button, Open Table link and social connectivity.

A small investment in time and money can leap-frog you ahead of the competition – especially the restaurant sites with the extensive Flash-based slideshow of Venice and the Tony Bennett soundtrack that takes ten minutes to load.

Restaurants race to go mobile Limited-service chains accelerate app-based ordering, payment initiatives www.nrn.com

March 31, 2014

Article by Ron Ruggless

The pace to go mobile is accelerating — especially among national limited-service restaurant brands.

In recent weeks, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, Burger King, Starbucks and Panera have either announced their mobile intentions, or debuted mobile payments or ordering initiatives.

“Mobile is the biggest shift in QSR since the drive-thru,” Jeff Jenkins, mobile lead for Taco Bell, told Nation’s Restaurant News in February.

“If you can get 10 million people to download your app, you’re putting a portal to Taco Bell in 10 million pockets.”

The Irvine, Calif.-based chain said in February it would roll out mobile ordering by year’s end, noting it had been working for about 2 1/2 years on a mobile application that allows guests to order ahead using smartphones and was conducting a controlled beta test in five units in Orange County, Calif. The announcement ushered in a tidal wave of similar announcements from other chains. In March alone: • Burger King confirmed it would begin offering mobile payments at some stores in April. The Miami-based chain said it planned to make the option available at its more than 7,000 U.S. locations within a few months. Some units might also debut mobile ordering, the chain said.

• Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy’s Co. began accepting mobile payments at its 5,800 U.S. stores on its “My Wendy’s” smartphone app.

• Panera announced plans to introduce both mobile and online ordering to its 1,774 U.S. units. Called “Rapid Pick-Up,” the iOS mobile or Web ordering allows customers to order, select a pick-up time and then retrieve their items from designated shelves.

The offering already has rolled out to about 149 locations in Minnesota, Detroit and Panera’s home base of St. Louis.

“The object is by the end of the year to have this completely rolled out nationwide,” said Blaine E. Hurst, Panera’s executive vice president of technology and transformation, during the company’s analyst day.

• Starbucks unveiled a next-generation smartphone payment app that it said was the “holy grail” of mobile payments, with the iPhone version offering customers the option of adding tips for baristas and a shake-and-pay option to make the transactions faster.

McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A also are reportedly testing mobile apps, and better-burger brand Smashburger has indicated mobile ordering will be rolled out this year. Sandwich chain Jersey Mike’s Subs unveiled a mobile app in November that offers ordering and other services. And Chipotle Mexican Grill, which began offering mobile ordering in 2009, said earlier this year that it planned to invest $10 million to further develop its mobile platform, including adding mobile payment. Subway also is testing mobile payments and ordering.

“Mostly it’s the big chains that have figured it out,” said restaurant consultant Aaron Allen of the Orlando, Fla.-based Aaron Allen & Associates LLC. “They’ve jumped onto it early.”

Starbucks executives have said as much.

“With more than 11 percent of transactions a week now happening with a mobile device in our stores, and nearly 10 million customers currently using our mobile app, we’re thrilled to make the digital experience even easier and more rewarding for our customers and partners,” said Adam Brotman, Starbucks chief digital officer, in explaining in March changes made to the chain’s iPhone app.

Brotman said Starbucks expects to improve both its mobile payment and ordering apps going forward.

Allen credited national pizza chains such as Papa John’s Pizza, Domino’s Pizza and Pizza Hut with forging consumer acceptance of online and mobile ordering.

“This update to the Starbucks App for iPhone is an important next step in digital innovation at Starbucks, and one of the many ways we’ll expand and improve our digital experience in the months to come,” he said.

“The pizza guys totally get it,” Allen said. “About 69 percent of people in the United States have placed an order online, and 72 percent of those were for pizza. So the big pizza guys are doing a billion dollars-plus in online [ordering], and it’s moving to mobile.”

In addition, Starbucks is exploring options to leverage its mobilepayment technology, such as licensing it to other retailers, Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman and chief executive, told CNBC after the company’s annual meeting March 19.

The mobile market is projected to grow quickly. The number of consumers using mobile payments is expected to swell to 500 million in 2017, up from 75 million in 2012, according to BI Intelligence, a research service affiliated with Business Insider.

In addition, the value of global transactions using a mobile device is expected to reach $1.5 trillion in 2017, up from $120 billion in 2012. And the value of U.S. mobile transactions is expected to rise to $244 billion in 2017, up from $15 billion in 2012.

Mobile is increasingly important as more U.S. brands look to expand abroad, Allen said. In Africa, the banking infrastructure is poor or nonexistent, so mobile payments have grown as an alternative channel of economic activity. In Asia, smartphones are in wide use, and acceptance of mobile payments has found a stronghold.

Meanwhile, a National Restaurant Association survey last year found 74 percent of consumers aged 18 to 34 said they would order takeout or delivery on a mobile device if the option were available. Among consumers of all ages, two in five said they would use smartphones to find restaurants or get directions, the survey found.

That potential has not been lost on restaurant brands, Allen said.

“Starbucks has banked technology as one of the cornerstones of their growth and brand strategy,” he noted. “They are out to really own mobile.”

Wendy's accepts mobile payments at its 5,800 U.S. locations.

And, he said, “In emerging markets, like Saudi Arabia, for instance, they have the largest per capita penetration of mobile devices.

Countries like that have skipped over a generation of technology.

That’s really throughout the developing world — China, India, Southeast Asia and other places — have skipped over desktops and gone to smartphones.”

Restaurant executives considering mobile payment or mobile ordering must first decide how they want their brand to be perceived, Allen said.

“The digital brand and the physical brand are one and the same,” he said. “How the consumer engages and interacts with the mobile app should be a reflection of the brand personality, the promises, the positioning and the story.”

Starbucks' expects to improve its mobile payment and ordering apps going forward.

How to Boost Facebook Page Engagement www.allfacebook.com January 18, 2014 Posted by David Cohen Infographic by WhoIsHostingThis.com

Make It Easy For Customers To Find Your Bar www.buzztimebusiness.com

March 3, 2014

Consumers undoubtedly have endless bar and nightlife options.

Therefore, ensuring that customers can find your bar amidst the competition is half the battle. Don’t miss out on vital opportunities to get customers into your bar with these strategies.

Optimize your bar’s online listings on Google Places and Yahoo Local:

Make sure your bar is on the map: Many businesses lose out on potential customers because their accurate location doesn’t show up on GPS and mapping sites.

Report your business location, contact information and address to Google Maps and other major mapping directories to make it easy for customers to get to your bar.

Millions of consumers rely on location-based web searches to find bars within their vicinity. Make sure that your business is listed on Google Places and Yahoo Local and that the listings are current and accurate. You can then optimize your listing with photos, information, specials and coupons to make your bar stand out from the crowd.

Hit the streets:

Build a mobile-friendly website:

Tap into your loyal customers to spread the word:

While it’s one thing to have a well-designed website, if it isn’t mobile-friendly you are missing out on new customers!

2014 will be the year that mobile internet usage will take over desktop internet usage. If your site isn’t optimized for mobile devices, you can be sure that consumers will go elsewhere.

Your most loyal customers are among your biggest arsenals to attract new customers. Use them to spread the word about your bar to their own friends and social networks. Incentivize them with free drinks and other perks to take simple actions that help promote your bar, such as checking in at your bar on Facebook or posting a fun video or photo from your bar with relevant hashtags.

Traditional guerrilla marketing techniques still have an important place in bar promotions, especially if your establishment is one of dozens of bars within walking distance to your potential customers. Have a lively street team pass out flyers and drink specials to people passing encouraging them to stop in for a drink or two.

Get tweeting: Twitter is full of opportunities to connect with your potential customers. Use it to attract people to your bar by tweeting coupons, events, drink specials, promotions, etc. to get more people through your door. To augment your Twitter presence, encourage existing customers to tweet photos and videos from your bar and share their experience with your Twitter followers.

Score press exposure: According to a Pew Research Internet Project survey, 39 percent of adults rely on TV or newspapers to get information about local bars, restaurants and nightlife. Build relationships with local bar and nightlife bloggers and journalists and give them convincing reasons to include your bar’s special events and other news in their editorial coverage. Perhaps you have a popular band performing live or a special private charity event that you’re hosting at your bar.

Give your media contacts the inside track to make sure your news is on their radar.

30 Compelling Statistics to Power Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

compiled from www.socialmediatoday.com Article by Alexandra Jacopetti March 26, 2014 and www.oursocialtimes.com Article by Luke Brynley-Jones Jan. 3, 2014

1. Pinterest (21%) is now more popular than Twitter (18%) among internet users, and Pinterest drives twice the website referral traffic of LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter combined.

2. Instagrammers also use Twitter. There is a 50% crossover between the networks.

3. Women are 4 times more likely to be Pinterest users than men.

4. An average of 55 million photos are shared on Instagram each day.

5. Pinterest outperforms Twitter and LinkedIn in the time spent on each network.

6. Facebook is ageing. 45% of internet users aged 65+ use Facebook.

7. National Geographic is the most followed business account on Instagram.

8. There are more than 20 million fake Twitter users on the platform.

9. Half of all clicks on mobile banner ads are by accident.

10. Facebook posts with less than 250 characters get 60% more engagement.

11. Videos on landing pages increase conversions by 86%.

12. 7% of Americans have never heard of Facebook.

13. Tweets with 1-2 hashtags get 21% higher average engagement.

14. Tweets with more than 3 hashtags get 17% less engagement.

15. Twitter and Instagram are still youth-dominated, but 23% of internet users over 50 use Pinterest.

16. Three of the five most retweeted Vines ever are videos made by musicians.

17. YouTube reaches more U.S. adults 18-24 years old than any cable network.

18. 74% of brand marketers saw an increase in web traffic after committing to 6 hours a week on social media.

19. Almost half of all Pinterest activity is on a tablet.

20. 40% of small businesses say social media is amplifying word of mouth referrals.

21. 49% of consumers use Facebook to search for restaurants.

22. Contrary to popular belief, most people AREN’T using multiple social networks. Over 50% of internet users either don’t use any social networks or use just one (i.e., Facebook.)

23. 44% of women say their favorite blogger influences their purchase decisions.

24. A call to action pin description gets 80% more engagement.

25. 33% of traffic from Google click the very first item listed in the search results. Are you #1?

26. Facebook and Instagram users are the most engaged, with 60% of users signing in every day (compared to 46% for Twitter.)

27. 78% of CMOs think custom content is the future of marketing.

28. DIY, tutorials and recipes get a 42% higher click through rate than other pin types.

29. Pinterest and LinkedIn users are wealthier than the other networks’ users with a high percentage earning over $75,000.

30. Of the social networks, Twitter has the highest rate of influence on electronic purchases - more than Facebook, online advertising, or search engine results.

8 Surefire Ways To Amplify Your Social Media Reach www.buzztimebusiness.com

Feb. 6, 2014

Even if you’re happy with your Twitter followers and your Facebook likes, there’s always room for improvement.

But with so much to consider, social media can sometimes seem overwhelming. Luckily, there are steps you can take to amplify your social media reach. And the best part?

You can put these simple steps into action right away.

1. Engage with your followers Social media is about relationships. It’s important to respond to customer questions and complaints, ask customers’ opinions, and carry on conversations. If you do this, customers will be much more likely to care about your business.

2. Update your profiles When your Facebook page hasn’t been updated since last year, you don’t exactly look exciting. What’s worse, people may even assume your bar or restaurant is closed! It’s important to keep things current. Make sure your photos are new and relevant, and make sure all links and info in your profile are correct.

3. Put social media buttons on all your content How can people follow you if they don’t even know you have social media profiles? Make sure to include buttons for your preferred social media networks (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.) on your blog posts, your website, and anywhere else you have content. Make it as easy as possible for people to find and share your content!

4. Use visuals We’re visual creatures, and this is especially true for the bar and restaurant industry! People will be much more likely to like and share your content if you include visuals. Pictures of your food, your drinks, or your great parties will all excite your followers and encourage new ones.

5. Be an early adopter It may already seem like there are tons of social networks, but new ones pop up all the time. It’s a good idea to at least check them out to see if they’re right for you. It can’t hurt, and in the best case scenario, it will introduce you to a whole new base of customers.

6. Pay attention to what time you’re posting Are people ignoring your updates? Take a look at your post times.

If you’re posting your best content at 5 a.m., it’s probably getting lost in the shuffle while people sleep. It’s important to post when you have the best chance of your desired customers actually reading and sharing your content.

7. Guest posts Sometimes the best way to amplify your social media reach is to borrow someone else’s! See if another business or a local publication is willing to let you write a guest blog post or column.

This can introduce you to a whole new audience online.

8. Make sure you have something your customers want to read Are your tweets just descriptions of your specials? Are your blog posts boring? Are your social media feeds nothing but self-promotion? If you truly want to extend your social media reach, you have to give customers a reason to follow you.

Make sure your content is great!

By keeping these tips in mind, you can reach more people online and get more attention on social media!

infographic by quicksprout.com Jan. 31, 2014

Instagram Catches Twitter for U.S. Users www.allfacebook.com

March 27, 2014

Positive statistics continue to roll in for Instagram, as the Facebookowned photo- and video-sharing service’s announcement that it had reached 200 million monthly active users was followed by a report by market researcher eMarketer that favorably compared Instagram usage in the U.S. with that of Twitter.

According to eMarketer, nearly 35 million U.S. Internet users accessed Instagram at least once per month by the end of 2013, double-digit growth when compared with 2012. They projected that by the end of 2014, nearly one-quarter of U.S. smartphone users will sign into Instagram or share photos at least once per month.

About two-third of Instagram users in 2012 were female, but eMarketer projects that by 2016, the discrepancy between the two genders will drop to 55 percent female, 45 percent male.

In comparing Instagram with Twitter, eMarketer wrote: Although Twitter and Instagram are quite different, their user counts and demographics are strikingly similar. They estimate 43.2 million U.S. consumers used Twitter monthly last year — or 17.6 percent of the total Internet user population. Meanwhile, Instagram users represented 16.1 percent of internet users in 2013.

On smartphones — where Instagram activity almost exclusively takes place — Twitter had just 30.8 million users in 2013, and this number will increase to 37.3 million in 2014, or 22.7 percent of U.S.

smartphone users. Both figures fall slightly below those for total Instagram users — 34.6 million in 2013, increasing to 40.5 million in 2014, eMarketer estimates. (Instagram’s smartphone user base is likely higher than Twitter’s, but it is possible for Instagram users to use their account only to look at pictures on a computer or tablet. That small minority of users is included in our total figure, but not broken out separately from smartphone Instagram users.) As a point of reference, eMarketer pegs U.S. smartphone Facebook users at 123.7 million this year.

Overall, Twitter’s U.S. user base shows signs of maturing in its demographic composition, spreading the user population more evenly across age groups, while Instagram is still largely limited to a pool of millennial and Gen X users. Last year, nearly 70 percent of Instagram’s U.S. users were ages 18 to 44; this year, that figure will drop, but only to 67.5 percent. In 2014, Twitter’s user base from 18 to 44 will account for about 60 percent of its overall users.

Over time, Instagram’s user base in these age groups will approach, but not surpass, Twitter’s, and eMarketer does not expect significant shifts in usage by age for either site within our forecast period. Instagram’s user count among users aged 18 to 44 will remain about 1 million fewer than Twitter’s in each year throughout our forecast.

How to make your local business more Instagram-able socialmediatoday.com

January 5, 2014

Article by Stephanie Frasco

I recently followed along with "live tweeting" on Twitter during the Social Media Club LA (SMCLA) Foodie Event. While I wasn't physically there, I was still inspired and through social media I was able to "be there" virtually. God, how I love social technology.

One of the panelists, a local restaurant owner said that they bring more foot traffic through their doors via Instagram than any other network. It makes a lot of sense. #foodporn anyone?

Restaurants are a no-brainer for adding Instagram to their overall social media strategy. People love looking at food. I know I do.

But restaurants aren't alone in this. Other small businesses can utilize Instagram to bring people through their doors.

The value is two-fold. One part of the story comes from the business side of things – the images shared by the business that bring the business to life through images. These images tell the behind the scenes story of the people and the products they sell.

The other side is the story the consumer paints for you on Instagram. There are millions of people taking pictures and documenting their lives through Instagram on a daily basis.

While the businesses' story matters, it is no longer the only one.

In fact, the much more powerful story is in the hands of your consumers, customers, and passers-by. It is the side of the story that you can't control that really influences people.

Social media is the new word-of-mouth marketing. People share experiences with their friends, fans, and followers all day long.

And many times those friends, family, and fans will follow their lead. Instagram has brought about a new type of Influencer, the photo sharing Influencer. And through their shares, they are influencing the decisions of their friends.

As a business you have to learn how to tap into that and encourage that behavior. After all, people are already sharing their experiences, good and bad, online. Instagram, because of the visual nature, is very powerful.

4 Ways To Encourage Your Customers To Instagram Their Experience 1. Decor If you want people to take pictures of your local business, you need to look good. People would much rather take a picture of something pretty than something ugly. The decor is the first step. Think about creating an Instagram-able area in your store.

This could be a corner that people can try on your goods and snap away. It could be something thought provoking or intriguing. The bottom line is that it has to have appeal.

By changing the way your business looks, you have better odds of getting snapped.

2. Encourage Users To Snap Away People need a little encouragement. Think about hanging signs encouraging Instagram usage. I know it sounds simple, but it works. When someone is asked to do something, you have a better chance of them doing it. No one reads minds. Ask and you shall receive.

3. Discounts Take a tip from the world's first Instagram Hotel, who offers excitement for the Instagram crowd. They even give away free nights if you have a certain amount of followers. You could give discounts for people who say they have come to you through Instagram, or even make a scavenger hunt out of your place and give discounts to certain items if they share on Instagram.

You can make a contest out of it and see ask people to share a wish-list using a specific hashtag and in return you might grant that wish for them.

4. Connect With Local Influencers Instagram's new direct messaging feature allows you to connect with Influencers in a way that has never been seen before on the platform. Win their favor and add a persuasive voice to your social media marketing strategy.

January 23, 2014 article by Steve Minks

www.socialnomics.net

10 Social Media Marketing Tips for Small Businesses Social media can be an excellent opportunity for small businesses because of its high return on investment.

The tips below can help your small business succeed on social media and help you identify a wide range of resources available.

1. Set goals.

Goals will help you to understand where you need to direct your efforts and how you hope to measure your success.

Be as concrete as possible; for example, instead of saying “increase sales,” say “increase sales by 50 percent.”

2. Be personal.

One of the great values of social media is the ability to put a personal spin on interactions. As a small business, your opportunity to do this is even greater. Interacting with customers in a way that makes them feel like they are dealing with other humans inspires a greater feeling of loyalty toward a business.

3. Don’t try to be all things to all people.

Find out where your customers are and spend your time and energy there. It can be too tempting to try to succeed on every social network, but that will only lead to spreading yourself too thin, particularly as a small business.

4. Incorporate video.

Instructional video, customer testimonials, tours of your offices or retail spaces – anything you can think of that your customers might find useful or interesting that can be expressed through video will make you stand out. You can upload videos easily on YouTube and embed them on other social media as well as on your company website.

5. Provide valuable content.

Think about the questions you hear most often from your customers; search the web for the problems in your field that tend to go unanswered. This will point you to content you can provide that no one else has, and your value to customers will skyrocket.

6. Visit other homes and neighborhoods.

“Social” is a key aspect of social media. It means that you don’t just wait for people to come to you; you need to go out and engage with customers, comment on blogs, respond to tweets and more depending on the channels you have chosen.

This is an excellent way to draw in new customers as well.

7. Seize the local advantage.

Get yourself listed on Google places, and be sure that you have accounts at places like Yelp, TripAdvisor and Foursquare. Talk to your customers; remember that complaints and dissatisfied customers are an opportunity. Leverage your advantage as a local business to stand out from large corporations that don’t have the same stake in the community.

8. Stay consistent.

Maintain consistency with your brand and message, and try to post at regular times each day and each week.

9. Be generous.

Social media is no time to be guarded. Share information, share discounts and push promotions. You can even identify other complementary businesses and help to promote them. This makes you look like a member of a wider community as well.

10. Measure success.

Based on your goals, use Google analytics and other tools to measure your ROI and see what approaches are producing the best results.

For not very much money, small businesses can builder a larger and more loyal customer base through savvy use of social media.

Supercharge Your Restaurant Website With These Tips www.buzztimebusiness.com/smarts

March 21, 2014

Your website does an enormous amount of work for your restaurant.

It gives customers necessary information, tells them about your brand, and often serves as the customer’s first impression of your business. So it makes sense that you want to have the very best website you possibly can! There are a few things you can do to supercharge your website and turn it into a tool that can help your customers and increase your business.

Keep it simple.

When you’re trying to make a better website, you might think more is better. But crowded, noisy websites usually turn off customers.

They just want to find out the important facts about your restaurant without being distracted by music or Flash graphics. Simple is better! Don’t make it a chore for customers to find info about your location, hours, or phone number.

Make it mobile.

More and more customers are looking at your website while they’re on their phones. If your website isn’t easy to read on a customer’s phone, they might get frustrated and just decide to go somewhere else.

Focus on your brand.

Your website should be an extension of the experience your customers have in your restaurant, so keep everything on brand. If your website uses entirely different colors and a different tone than your restaurant, you’ll just confuse people.

Ditch the PDF menus.

Downloading menus is a hassle many customers don’t want to deal with, especially if they’re looking up your restaurant on a phone or a work computer. Instead, include your menu directly on your website.

Showcase photos.

Yes, you should keep your website simple, but that doesn’t mean it has to be a list of text with no graphics. Great pictures of your food can really draw customers in. Don’t forget about photos of your dining room and bar, as well. Pictures that make your restaurant look inviting can attract customers even better than words.

Online reservations.

If customers can place reservations with a simple click of the mouse, they’ll be much more likely to come in.

Stay connected.

Online ordering.

Make sure your website is connected to your social media profiles.

Include simple, easy-to-find links to your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Yelp, etc. profiles, and make sure all of those profiles link back to your website.

The same goes for ordering! Depending on what type of restaurant you have, online orders might be the way to go. Customers appreciate the convenience of placing their orders while at work and simply swinging by to pick up their food on the way home.

Your website is an important and useful tool, so don’t let it fall by the wayside. By keeping these ideas in mind, you can supercharge your restaurant’s website and attract more customers!

10 Ways Technology Will Rock Your Dining Experience in 2014 Technology is not the thing most restaurant owners have devoted their lives to mastering. But, as smartphones become increasingly ubiquitous, managers are catching on fast.

The talk at restaurant conferences and on dozens of training webinars in the past year revolves around how best to implement technology to make customers happier — and bring restaurant owners more sales.

Restaurant chains have been busy behind the scenes, exploring new tech solutions to help diners get in and out faster and keep them coming back.

6. Share the Love Many diners are already sharing photos on phones. Restaurant chains including Taco Bell and Wendy’s have been busy building their social media audience. Now, restaurant apps will help us share our raves about our favorite eateries and photos of the meal we loved.

Sometimes, there are also rewards in it for diners. For instance, Rita’s Italian Ice offers an app that earns you bonus points toward free ices in return for shares and reviews on Facebook and other social-media platforms.

7. Pay with Your Phone 1. Find a Restaurant Near You At this point, it’s a snap to use restaurant-finding apps such as LocalEats or Foodspotting to locate restaurants near you while you’re on the road. If you’re obsessed with a particular brand, look for their location-finder app — more chains are releasing these by the minute.

2. Customize Your Order McDonald’s and White Castle are both testing touchscreen kiosks that allow customers to hold the lettuce or otherwise alter their burger order, industry trade magazine QSR reports.

3. Place Your Order on the Go While some restaurant chains are just getting into this, others are already cooking on mobile orders. Trade publication Pizza Marketplace reports Pizza Hut gets half its orders online — and mobile devices are used to place half of those orders.

Pre-ordering means less hassle for both diners and restaurant chefs and servers, who deal with fewer annoyed customers standing around waiting for their order to come up.

4. Order and Pay at Your Table Forget the waiter: Chili’s, Applebee’s, and Uno Chicago Grill are among the brands adding tableside tablets that allow patrons to place their own order. Presto! No more delays if your server fails to appear.

Once restaurants have an order tablet on your table, the obvious next step is to have that same tablet pull up your bill and let you swipe your own card. Since taking a credit card into the back to run it is a common opportunity for card-number theft, solutions that don’t let the card out of your sight are understandably popular with diners.

5. Be Entertained Visit the food court of Toronto’s mammoth Eaton Centre mall, and you’ll find video walls that offer mini-movies about the 11 eateries featured in the court, games for kids to play, and more.

Expect this sort of virtual “eatertainment” approach to spread.

Some of those games are on your phone, too — more chains are finding ways to “gamify” their brand with apps that let you play on your phone (and keep their name in your head).

Sandwich chain Blimpie’s Blimpie Run game enters you in drawings to win free sub sandwiches for a year.

Chipotle created a stir last year with its Scarecrow game, which raises awareness about the company’s pro-sustainable farming philosophy. Some parents try to make restaurant times nondigital, but others delight in having a game the kids can play on the phone while they wait for their order. If the game comes with a social message, that just might swing some votes.

Some restaurant chains jumped on the pay-with-your-phone bandwagon early, but look for more to join in soon. New advances will help make the process easier, too.

For instance, Canadian doughnut chain Tim Horton’s recently upgraded its TimmyMe mobile-pay app to enable Blackberry users to tap-to-pay, QSR reports. Bringing that feature to Android phones is next in the chain’s sights.

8. Get Discounts The rise of virtual wallets such as Apple Passbook and Google Wallet, and rewards tools such as Punchcard, now allow you to take your loyalty cards virtual. No more wondering if you’ve eaten 10 tacos and can claim your free one now — and no more scrabbling around in your wallet for flimsy paper punchcards.

Besides discount-tracking apps, smartphone owners can look to get more discount deals than their digitally challenged friends.

If the hot session topics at restaurant conferences are any indication, more and more restaurants are laying plans to text you local discount deals.

9. Eat and Donate If you feel fortunate to be able to enjoy a restaurant meal, Los Angeles-based LivnGiv wants to help you use your meal to benefit the less fortunate. When you use the company’s virtual restaurant gift cards, it generates a donation to the charity of your choice of 20 percent of tab. It’s only in L.A. for now, but this is an idea that’s sure to catch on with socially conscious diners.

10. Get Food Delivered Too exhausted to go out? A few clicks on The Hunger App, and Eat24 will deliver food from over 25,000 restaurants in 1,000 cities.

If they don’t have your favorite, there are plenty of other services to try, including DoorDash and GrubHub. If you think the new-tech solutions you see at your local restaurant are exciting, you should see what’s going on in the back of the house. Menu analysis, scheduling, and even hiring of workers are all being revolutionized by new software as well.

These tech advances may not be obvious when you visit, but they’ll be helping restaurant owners deliver tastier menus and better service when you arrive.

www.forbes.com February 7, 2014 Article by Carol Tice