An Amazing Thing Happened.

I recently took on a new client, a restaurant that was struggling under the pressure of a tough economy, an insanely high payroll, and zero web/social presence. The losses were mounting and it was too late to capitalize on the Holiday season. This was the type of client that we would normally not take on, what with so many problems other than marketing, but the owner was persistent and nice and we set forth to straighten things out.

GuestFeed consulted with him regarding payroll and operational things that could be straightened out immediately, and built a brand new website that reflects the scope of their business and can be a resource for the social media to link back to. We then set up the various facebook, twitter, constant contact, and youtube accounts for the restaurant.

The next week we had dinner and took some video, while our professional photographer took pictures of food, drink, and atmosphere. These would be the basis for our social media blitz that would start immediately. Sharing photos of what the retaurant was about everyday. A few weeks in business had not improved, in fact it may have been worse with the snowy weather really punching us all in the gut. but we fought on, interacting via our social channels, and making videos and sharing new ideas like catering, group dinners, take out, lunch, etc every single day.

We looked at the strategy and decided it was best to focus on the authentic nature of his food, we made an HD video of his mother showing the cooks the way the recipes were made. All this content was distributed via social media, on facebook, twitter, youtube, and via email. His twitter following went from 24 to 1740 in two months.

GuestFeed consulted on menu development and actually designed the print layout, as well as the contact cards that are passed to his guests to build the email list.

Then last week, it happened, I got a text from the owner: “I have been meaning to tell you, we are getting people from facebook and twitter coming in” and then I could smile. His following had grown and begun to respond, and the results were hard to ignore when the customers were telling him that they had come because of all the posts they had seen.

I have never picked up my phone and saw a tweet about a bourbon manhattan at a particular place an gone there immediately, but I have gone to a place that consistently shares things that sound good to me. One day it just occurs to you: ‘I really need to check this place out.’

Guestfeed.com

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