@Spirocks

Just Think

Restaurant Tech Upgrades For Right Now

As the year comes to an end upgrade your restaurants’ tech with these easy to install products for a more efficient, more appealing, and more secure 2015.

Restaurants Lighting, with its long hours of all bulbs burning electricity is a major expense. Upgrade to LED bulbs today and start saving up to 80% of the electricity immediately. This is one of the easiest ways to upgrade your space. Be careful not to get lights of a cold temperature that change the atmosphere of your space, I upgraded some halogen bulbs to these warm LEDs and have enjoyed their light, the electricity savings, and the quality of the build. Here is an amazon link:

Tired of your clunky old emergency lights with the huge, expensive, lead batteries that never seem sto be charged when it is inspection time? Yeah I was too, that is why I upgraded my restaurant’s emergency lights to these sleek, affordable, LED units that uses small easy to find rechargeable batteries. Oh and they always seem to be charged anyhow. These are a quick and easy install especially when you are just replacing an existing unit.

More and more customers expect to have a wifi network to use at the restaurant’s they frequent, whether it is a kid contently playing with their grandmother’s iPhone or a a business dinner that needs access to the cloud wifi is becoming a necessity and you don’t want guests choosing to go elsewhere when they need it. You also don’t want guest use to clog up your business network and or create any vulnerabilities in your system. That is why you need to get a wifi router that has dual networks, one for guests and employees and one for your business systems. This is the one that I recently upgraded to and I can fully stand behind its performance.

What upgrades are you thinking of making, want some advice on what I would do? Hit me up on Twitter @spirocks and I will be sure to get back to you.

Merry Christmas!

 

Don’t just rent your friends from Facebook

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Too many business owners have an online strategy which relies on garnering as many likes as possible for their Facebook page. This is wrought with peril and here is why:

At any time, and they do it often, Facebook alters how you connect with these people to further their goals. Which all revolve around making money off of these connections. They want you to rent your friends, plain and simple.

So as time changes, the investment you have made in those connections is adjusted, filtered, and rearranged to become more profitable for Facebook. Recently they altered how many of your business posts people who liked your page see if you don’t pay to promote them.  Its time to focus on making connections with these friends and followers as permanent as possible.

The answer for most of you: Build your email list. Start today, make it worth their while. How much should you invest in time and money? Answer one question: What is a permanent connection to your customers worth to you?

Dominate Instagram Marketing: How to Increase Your Brand’s Local Audience

Instagram has held the distinction as the fastest growing social media network for over a year now. For brands like yours, it puts the ability to get close to your targeted local audience in the palm of your hand.

This requires a healthy dose of inspiration be it artsy, humorous, insightful etc… it also requires you to have a solid understanding of the ins and outs of Instagram. That is what this post is about.

1) Follow the most influential local Instagrammers, interact with them.

Start by finding those that have tagged your business in a post, either by mentioning its name, or by geotagging photos at your place of business. These are happy customers who you must follow and interact with. Like their photos and let them know you are fans of them too, that good feeling is the beginning of an amazing instagram relationship.

Look for others in your community who are active on Instagram and follow them, like their content, get to know what they find interesting, finding customers that will sing your praises is a great thing. Remember you are great at what you do, once they give your business a try you will make them wish you had found them on Instagram earlier.

2) Hashtags are key to getting found, here is how to use them.

While I have a post devoted to this topic on its own, I will give you the cliff notes version here. Focus on finding the relevant hashtags for your post, making up a funny word may be entertaining for your followers but it isnt going to get searched for often if at all. Consider a fitness related post that included the hashtag #beeeasstmodelegdaaaaze versus #squats #legday #workout… clearly the latter post would transcend and be found more often. Studies have shown that including three or more hashtags in your post drastically increases how many people find it. In fact up to 7 are acceptable to Instagram users.

As far as local marketing goes, use hashtags that relate to the town/state/university that makes up your target audience. For instance I use the #andover hashtag frequently for my restaurants in downtown andover. It both relates to those who live in town, and to the prominent boarding school Phillips Academy Andover that is in town.

3) Pull back the Curtain, and do it frequently.

Intersperse images of what you are selling with behind the scenes pics of your team, your office, previews of future offerings… let your audience feel privy to your process and in turn they will feel a part of it. For instance showing pictures of our recently launched sunday brunch dishes is a good way to let people know how amazing they are, but showing them pictures of a bar full of people having a blast eating them is another angle. Those ‘product in motion’ or ‘experience’ images are often even more impactful. Try something different and let your audience look forward to finding your next image… be you, be human, share you business story. It may be your everyday, but to a lot of people it is very interesting and your providing a window into the happenings can make them feel much more comfortable taking the plunge and becoming a customer.

Kaskade Demonstrates Why To Blog

I blog.

I do it here.

I also do it for my other businesses, Andolinis Italian Restaurant, and Sauce Wings.

I do it so I can talk directly to my customers and extended audience.

No filters, no reporting, no mistakes, and no doubt that I mean to say what I do. Thats the affect of this medium, its me, talking to you. But the truth is I dont have a terribly big podium to speak from so maybe you discount the whole blogging thing. As if its not that valuable a tool to communicate what I am doing, and what I think needs to be said.

What if I stood in front of an audience like this and I still chose to blog to get my thoughts across?

What if I had topped billboard charts, was paid $200k a concert, and had sold millions of albums? 

That would make my audience pretty large, and much like Kaskade’s.

Why then would I turn to a blog to get my ideas across, when magazines, radio stations, and crowds would assemble to see and hear me? His reason for blogging is the same as why I do it, so that his message can be delivered in his words, exactly as he intends it.

Recently when the LA Times attacked the Electronic Dance Music scene, (EDM) Kaskade didn’t do an interview on SIRIUS BPM or rant at a concert, he took to his blog to effectively and directly take issue with what he felt was unfair criticism. Here is a snippet:

As far as a music culture goes, EDM is the one who will accept the kids on the outliers, the ones who get bullied, the ones who feel like they may not quite fit in. This community is exceptional in its ability to bond all types together, and I am not exaggerating when I say it saves lives. Our audience is intelligent and kind, discriminating only in regards to which sound they like best. Our audience is unprecedented in their drive to proactively support each other.

There’s your story, LA Times. Do the world a favor and dig into that for a change, punks.

Read the whole post here: Kaskade

Whatever way you look at it, delivering your message, on your terms, in your words has value. Building that connection with your audience however big or small, can only lead to you and your business being better understood. Whether you are standing up for a group of people, or explaining a new product, nothing is left to interpretation when you blog.

So, Can you still afford not to?

 

 

Instagram Used for Small Business Marketing

Instagram is a powerful tool for your business, three reasons:

  1. It is simple to use for both the business and the consumer.
  2. It is visual and addictive.
  3. It is integrated with all the big players on the social media landscape.

So why isn’t every business using it?

Most likely they are unaware of how useful it can be. So today we are going to take a look at how it can be used by examining one of the best at using it. Ronnie Fieg.

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Ronnie Fieg, owner of KITH NYC, which is in Ronnie’s words:

 I tried to create a friendly and personal environment with the highest quality footwear and attire for any occasion. I want people to come into the store and leave with a dope pair of shoes, and a feeling that they are a part of something special.

Ronnie Fieg is an Instagram Luminary, Here is Why:

His use of Instagram is a three pronged success. First, his focus is clean, it is approximately 90% shoes and accessories and 10% lifestyle.  His followers know what to expect and a simple scroll through his images delivers. The second prong is the quality of his images, as a designer that is to be expected, but the originality of his images reflect his devotion to the shoe culture that he is an ambassador of and the urban backdrops and features of his images resonates with his audience and lends veracity to his visual messages that are lost on so many corporate accounts. Thirdly he isn’t hyping shit, his products are exclusive, original, unique pieces that he has hand picked or created. That prong may sound the most daunting to learn from, and it should, marketing can not solve any issue that a shitty product creates. What your business needs to find is the message that is unique to itself. What makes you better, brighter, more effective? What do you offer that people should want even if they don’t know it yet?

Ronnie Fieg knows that answer.

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His followers, which number north of 39,000 as of today, are living proof that there is an audience for marketing on Instagram. It isn’t in your face deals and promos that I am talking about, it is eye catching imagery, unique subject matter, and the use of the system to let it it be known that his shop has something you might want. Today, for a limited time. Find him on Instagram at RonnieFieg.

As for you and your business. First know your value, then frame it and share it.

I am @spirocks on Instagram.

Video Marketing Examples for Small Business

Its easy to say… you should do video for your business. Its harder to actually do it. I have had the pleasure of working with some business people in the past few years to actually make it happen for them, and for my own businesses like Sauce. So I thought it would be worthwhile to actually show you the types of video marketing that we are doing, and give you a chance to think about what kind might be a match for you.

Sauce Super Bowl Video

This is an example of how you can use video to start a conversation, we put it right on our website’s front page this week, and have shared it through our social media channels as well. Its fun and not supposed to be a hollywood blockbuster. Video is a threshold breaker, it is an investment of time and creativity that the vast majority of business people wont make. How many wing places in the state of Massachusetts made a video marketing their their super bowl catering? I would venture to say one.

Century 21 McLennan and Company

This is an example of video marketing that educates the consumer, it is intended to demonstrate the knowledge and partnerships of one of the Merrimack Valley’s most successful real estate brokers, Matt Mclennan. His investment in video and online marketing have set him even further apart from his competitors. Those who hire him to sell their home or help them buy one, know at once that he will leverage both modern and traditional media to sell their home. Hell he sold mine and got one of the highest per square foot prices for any home sold in my town in 2012. Oh and he did it in one month… These videos are an opportunity for Matt to shed light on his company and his knowledge of how to get deals done. Examples are his video series on Short Sales where he and his short sale specialist discuss the various short sale specifics, to his current series on mortgage questions with a mortgage broker he works with (above), Matt uses video to both spotlight his properties and also educate the public. He is a front runner in our market on many levels and his use of video is definitely one of them.

J Borstell Property Video

Jeff Borstell is a Real Estate Advisor from J Borstell Real Estate in Tewksbury, they are a multi-generational brokerage that not only sells homes, but also helps builders find property to flip. Jeff has begun using video to document the process as he finds the properties and sees them through to completion. The video above highlights one of his current projects and as you can see he uses the medium to virtually show the property. Much as he would in person, but in this way he is able to immediately vet out if a home is a potential fit for a buyer, and also reach buyers that he may not otherwise.

Video marketing is daunting to start, you have to be on camera in most cases, and in the end it is all about whether you are comfortable enough to stand out from the crowd. If you want to discuss any of the above with me, just let me know. @spirocks on Twitter or:

Video Marketing Online Destroys Competition by Leveraging Time

Video represents the holy grail of online marketing, its ability to communicate with viewers trumps all other forms of online marketing.

Why is that?

Well if you were marketing your Real Estate Company for instance it would give you the ability to all at once show your personality, your expertise, as well as the unadulterated view of the homes you are selling with people in them. It demonstrates and explains so much more than can be read or spoken in that amount of time.

Why is time so important?

Time matters for a crucial reason which is that your audience will only give you a tiny bit before they move on. So if you spend 15 seconds explaining your knowledge of the industry, that is all you will get and you won’t have the chance to talk about what you are selling whether it is a home, a 45 day dry aged rib-eye, or anything for that matter.

Video allows you to address time in two important ways.

First it allows you to make the most of the time a viewer is watching, the visuals aid in telling a story that doesn’t need to be spoken or read. Secondly video stretches the time you have with your audience, studies have shown that more than 3 out of 5 said they would watch videos for at least 2 minutes. That is an incredible amount of face time in today’s 140 character message world.

A real estate agent might garner two minutes or more of face time with prospective clients by creating informative videos answering common questions about the market. Like this one: Matt Mclennan

Which may get you results like this:

Time also matters if you are paying for your marketing to be distributed, for instance if you are deciding between a direct mail campaign or a television spot on local cable, how much are you spending and how much of a message are you communicating? If you do direct mail you can cram as much info as you can onto a over sized postcard for a relatively affordable amount. I did that for my wing joint Sauce, and found that I could get a few pictures on the mailing side and the whole menu on the face of the card. But it left a lot of questions unanswered and we got the phone calls to prove it. Recently one of my clients decided that his money was best invested in a short TV commercial on local television. I am currently editing a 15 second spot for his store which will be able to convey so much information that we would have been unable to otherwise. Like they say a picture is worth a thousand words and a video may be worth 10,000.

When that video is finished I will link to it here as well.

Video is the best medium for dealing with the two biggest issues that time presents, attention span and cost.

Let me know if you have questions how video can integrate into your small business marketing plan.

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