What should a restaurant tweet about?

Originally posted by Lara at DeepDishCreative.com. Read the original post here >>

What in the world should a restaurant tweet about?

Lots of restaurants have stepped in the Social Media arena; some finding their footing and running a well-oiled machine, others struggling with who, what and why to use Twitter for marketing.

Aside from the time required to zone in on your Twitter presence, you want to have a game plan and goals in place to get the most out of this exciting new way to exchange and engage with your customers and community. Here are a few simple ideas to help you isolate marketing opportunities on Twitter:

GET BRANDED

Having a branded Twitter page with proper messaging lends familiarity and trust that you are really trying to communicate with your existing customer base. Your Twitter page background, avatar and messaging should reflect your website.

WHAT TO TWEET

1) Specials. Tweet your daily or weekly specials with a few details and a link to specific pages on your website.
2) Happy Hour. What are the hours? Who is the rock-star bartender tonight and what is she serving up with flair?
3) Special events. Is there a festival going on in your area? How about holiday events?
4) The weather. Its a beautiful day and you have a patio. Its gloomy out but you have a fireplace.
5) The wine list or seasonal tap. Have a special microbrew on tap? Rare wine find at great prices?
6) Hello and Thanks. Say hello and thanks for new followers, or tweeps that identified themselves when they came in.
7) Retweet some of your community friends and neighbors’ interesting tweets and links. Always check those links first.

WHEN TO TWEET

Test the waters on timing for your tweets. Happy hour tweets are better a couple of times between 3 and 5pm. You might tweet less on the weekends, if at all, so get any reminders out Thursday and Friday to increase bookings. If you have a daily special – tweet about it the day before as a teaser, then recap a few times the day of the special.

DON’T MAKE IT ALL ABOUT YOU

Take some time to comb through your followers and say hello, retweet something interesting from them, and give a shout out to some of your friends and neighbors. Twitter is all about building community, relationships and trust. Aim to tweet more about someone else than yourself.

HOST A TWEET-UP

A tweet-up is a meet-up at a predetermined location, but with Twitter friends. Hosting a tweet-up for your followers, or a special Twitter community, builds a nice report within the community and can fill some traditionally slow nights or mornings with a little extra revenue. Always give something away – like coffee refills or a couple of appetizer samplers. Make it easy for folks to tweet about how great it was to meet up with everyone, by giving great service and food & bev. Twitter is the ultimate “word-of-mouth”. Use (or suggest to an organizer) a Tweet-up rsvp service like Twtvite.com – its FREE.

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