Eat Drink & Be Social Highlights

This week I wandered on down to Cambridge, MA for my first Eat Drink & Be Social event put on by Dialogue. The house was packed and attendees could be seen diligently taking notes and live-tweeting on their laptops and smart phones. Between the presenters and panelists, there was much to talk about for restaurants and social media.

This week I’ll break down the highlights that I think you might find valuable.

Highlights – Justin Levy

Justin Levy, New Marketing Labs (and Partner/GM of Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse)- Justin spoke about how his already established online presence, primarily his blog, enabled him to comfortably transition into social media for his restaurant. His goal was to rank higher than behemoth Ruth’s Chris on general “steak house” searches in the Boston area – without spending any money on PPC (pay per click) web advertising. Not only does Caminito consistently rank higher, they basically own the entire first page of Google and then some.

Takeaways:

1. Build upon your already established reputation
2. Turn all those stories in your history into blog posts, loaded with keywords, yet genuine and sharable
3. Give a hoot about your customers by showing that you truly care. Listen to them, build a community and welcome them where they like to hang out online
4. Don’t dwell too much on which tool(s) you should use, but rather how to interact best with your customers. If you seem to get better response thru Facebook, focus a bigger chunk of your efforts there, smaller on other mediums

Next post: Highlights from the panel discussion on review sites, time management, and more.

If you missed the symposium, you can browse the #eatdrinkbesocial tweet stream here to see what folks were talking about.

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