Giraffe Restaurants

Giraffe is a UK chain of 35+ restaurants catering to the family-friendly crowd. The corporate website is appealing to kids and adults alike, with big, juicy graphics, images and calls-to-action.

Massive eye candy

They’ve gone the extra mile to entice visitors to dig in and explore the site with games, giraffe trivia, their community efforts and more. All the while making it easy to navigate, sign up for newsletters, join their social communities, and shop for branded merchandise and gift cards.

Giraffe goes far beyond the boring ol’ text menu and pumps up their menu pages with images, fun type treatments and even rollover buttons for pics of the item.

Some might say “Who cares about eye candy? People want the menu, hours and a map”.

Who cares? Today’s multitasking, short attention spanned, tech-savvy, hip customer, that’s who. Oh, and kids. Considering its a family oriented string of restaurants, they’ve got it going on with the entertainment factor with games, engagement, and community involvement. Appealing to kids and adults alike. The site has a huge personality. Doesn’t yours – regardless of the cuisine or demographic?

A non-bloggy blog

They have a blog – although it doesn’t look like a regular blog, more like a news feed. Its packed with all sorts of story topics, from events, contests, announcements and ubiquitous specials. What I like about their news page is each story is short (most are one or two paragraphs), informative and have links where appropriate. Its a good example that even with limited time, they can post fresh content and keep it short and simple.

How ‘cool’ is your website? Does it have a big enough personality to bring customers to the site (and the front door) again and again? I’ll bet Giraffe’s does exactly that.

www.giraffe.net
@GiraffeTweet

A local pizza delivery biz here in Burlington, VT, Leonardo’s (@LeonardosPizza) routinely offers a “Retweet this and win a free pizza” contest.

Including the fact that I didn’t win – again (!), today’s contest was no different. Except that one of the RTers, Cortex Marketing (@CortexNetwork) retweeted with a desire to win, but also to donate to a worthy local non-profit, King Street Center (@KingStCenter).

By conducting a giveaway, Leonardo’s inspired others to give.

That’s a win for Leonardo’s Pizza, winning retweeter, and the lucky recipient of the pie.

Are you offering simple giveaways with no strings attached (other than a quick retweet?) How are you inspiring others to give freely?

Twitter is digital (or online) word-of-mouth. Information can be spread around quickly, and if the content that is being tweeted is irresistible – like a link to a good story, video, blog post, whatever – it can go viral in a matter of hours. Surely you have come across articles or blog posts with the familiar Tweetmeme button touting hundreds of retweets, some even thousands. That’s either some delicious content and/or a very good headline and teaser in the tweet itself.

What makes a tweet retweet-able?

HEADLINE
Good retweet-able Twitter posts should include a clever, enticing headline – something that grabs the attention of followers. If the tweet is sharing a link to a news article or blog post, ideally the tweeted copy will be similar to the article’s headline (which itself should be intriguing.) Even if you are tweeting a link to some interesting article, feel free to either elaborate on the story’s headline, or opt for a clever comment or response to the content – especially if you indeed left a comment on the article itself.

If the tweet is originated by you and points to something on your website or an article posted on your blog, you’ll already want to craft a captivating headline for the story, anyway. Tweets with lead-ins like “How to..” or “10 things…” etc, are enticing and ask for further investigation.

SHORTENED URL
Using a URL shortener to add links to your tweets is the best way to free up character real estate. After all you only have 140 characters to work with. Also, a number of popular shorteners like Bit.ly, Ow.ly, etc. offer click histories for each link they create from web pages. See how and when a particular shortened URL worked its way across the web.

Include a hint about what’s in store for the reader. Shortened URLs leave a bit of mystery as where we might be led, but you can provide a head’s up by adding [video] or [pic] or some such to your tweet. A shortened link URL also allows you to leave more space should others want to retweet it. You have a max of 140 characters to use in a tweet, but there’s no rule stating you must use all of them, every tweet.

HASH TAG
Adding one or two has tags to your tweet indicates you’d like a particular niche to pick up your tweet in Twitter streams they are following. For instance if you are a restaurant tweeting about your participation in a local festival, you’d want to include that event and city’s hash tag in order for your tweet to show up in people’s streams following that term or hash.

Caution with hash tags: no need to go all hash tag crazy on your audience. Limit the tweet to one or two relevant tags. You might add a few more if you’re asking a question to multiple markets and are looking for feedback form people you haven’t crossed social paths with yet.

TALK TO PEOPLE
Simply starting or participating in social conversations is a good way to encourage others to indulge your tweets and pass them on. You want to do the same for them; sharing their links and articles builds trust and social camaraderie that’s infectious.

In short, you want to make it easy for others to retweet you. Craft an interesting headline, use a URL shortener, and add a hash tag if you’re sharing links for a particular interest group.

What make a tweet “non-retweet-able”?

OVERTWEETING
Scratch that, tweeting mostly about yourself or your biz. According to Chris Brogan, one of this blog’s favorite bloggers on all things social media, an ideal tweet ratio should be 12:1. Meaning for every 12 tweets you post, only one should be about you. The rest should be sharing information, links, accolades, conversations and hellos with your audience. People won’t be inspired to RT a constant sales pitch, either.

NO REAL ESTATE LEFT TO TWEET
Try not to pack so much information, URLs (shortened or not), multiple hash tags, etc. into a tweet. Again, make it easy for it to be retweeted by leaving some space for the next RT’s own Twitter name to be included with yours.

QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
If you’re sharing an article or post, be sure to actually read the post before retweeting it. If a tweet is leading back to your website, does the page/site look good? Or is it something you’d rather hide in the coat closet? Is the story on your blog proof read and ready for viewing by everyone and their neighbor?

NO RESPONSE
Unless you are someone LIKE the aforementioned Chris Brogan, its not a bad idea to send out a blanket RT thank you if a particular post gets a number of retweets. It shows you appreciate the coverage and sharing. Likewise, make it a habit to reply to comments on your blog posts. It shows you’re listening and value your audience’s feedback. By not showing any signs of life or gratitude after you went to all the effort of writing a post and getting it out there, you might be dismissing your most avid fans. The whole idea of social media is to be social, to engage people, and share your ideas and theirs.

Are you making it easy to be retweeted? Do you have a system that works for you?

What do people mean when they say “engage your audience”? And how can you do it sincerely and effectively?

By engaging our online audiences, our goal is to spark an interest and get feedback. On Twitter we’re starting and participating in conversations, retweets, and general sharing of good information.

As businesses, we’re looking to make real connections with our followers, while building trust, loyalty and brand awareness.

en·gage

Pronunciation: \in-ˈgāj, en-\
Function: verb :
a : to hold the attention of    b : to induce to participate

10 ways you can be more engaging with your followers

1. Post interesting and useful information.
Link to some interesting facts, articles on other sites, or a post or event addition on your own website. Lead in with a clever headline, and use a topic hash tag to reach the market you are trying to attract.

2. Let others know you’re listening.
When someone mentions your establishment or retweets one of your tweets, a kind response, thanks, or further comment lets your community know your ears are open and you’re right there listening to the conversation.

3. Retweet and give credit.
When you find a juicy link you’d like to pass along to your audience, be sure to keep the RT @name or via @name lingo in the tweet. Give credit where credit is due if at all possible. Its OK to use “via” instead of “RT” when you’re editing the tweet copy to suit your followers.

4. Chime in.
See an interesting conversation in your stream? Chime in if you have something to add. Different perspectives or anecdotes are usually always welcome in a public platform such as Twitter.

5. Give props.
Did someone in your community (follower/following or not) achieve something awesome? Sending out a congratulations on a piece of press or accolade is a great way to acknowledge your online community and peers.

6. Say Hello.
When you see someone you know on Twitter, or haven’t met but would like to, sending out a quick hello is a good, non-spammy way to say “Hey, good to meet you here on Twitter, would love to connect sometime.” You might also welcome new followers with public tweets, or even a direct message as long as you use their human name in the DM – don’t bother signing up for auto-generated direct messages to new followers – that IS spammy.

7. Introduce yourself.
Find an industry “chat” to follow and introduce yourself and your establishment. You can discover chats by looking at some of the hash tags from the industry leaders you already follow. Some topical chats happen weekly, some monthly. Drop in, say hello, and make some new influential friends.

8. Ask questions.
Something exciting happening in your area like an event, festival, sports, or even the weather? Put a question out there, hash tagged for your area (like #seattle) and you’ll no doubt get a number of replies from folks in the know. This is a good way to inspire new followers and find interesting folks and orgs in your community to follow.

9. Answer questions.
Just like asking a question, chiming in and answering a question out there on your Twitter stream can reveal new opportunities for followers and people to follow. You can also become someone’s hero by helping them out.

10. Say Thanks.
Lastly, and probably the easiest way to let folks know you are listening and care – is to give a simple Thank You. Thank people for following, answering your questions, providing a hot tip, great link, connecting you with someone new, or for retweeting you. The opportunities are endless, and gratitude goes a long way in social media.

There are many more ways to engage your audience, and not just on Twitter. Facebook, YouTube, your blog and photo sharing sites all offer ample ways to ignite interest in your business or organization. What you doing today to engage your audience?

Did you participate in Mashable’s Social Media Day? Here in Burlington, VT, a host of events took place all day long. Including a treasure hunt involving 7 local businesses, 6 Tweet Ups around town, voting for our local socially-savvy favorite individuals and businesses, and meeting a whole slew of new faces.

Full recap and data here »

I wrote a recap of events and some interesting data gathered from the brief period of time taken to gather support, fulfillment and enthusiasm. A short poll revealed a snapshot of how people in this area are using social media tools, for a variety of reasons, and how much time they spend per day using them.

The whole event was deemed a success by our peers – thank you! What events took place in your neck of the woods? Did you host a celebration of your own?

Read the full story at DeepDishCreative.com »

Have you heard? Mashable (the consummate all-things-social-media website) has taken upon itself to announce a worldwide Social Media Day on June 30. If you’ll recall our musings of putting something together for Burlington, VT, well we did. And boy is it a doozy!

Together with a number of key, connected friends and contacts, the #BTV Social Media Day will commence with great fanfare bright and early on June 30th, and will last throughout the day. A Facebook Fan Page has been created using a couple of custom tabs. Its all branded up and ready to welcome the hoards of socially active individuals and businesses in Burlington and the surrounding area.

How this town is celebrating

Itinerary includes 6 Tweet Ups (yes, 6!), a local biz treasure hunt, nominations and voting for the King, Queen and favorite socially influential business. On top of that, there will be a ‘coronation’ of the King, Queen and Biz, a raffle of really great prizes for the treasure hunters, and a big finale drawing for folks who managed to hit all 6 tweetups. We’ll be using a passport stamp system for the Tweetups.

To record the various events, one of our connections is going to capture the festivities on video for a nice highlight reel.

Using Social Media to promote, well, Social Media

What better way (and really a no-brainer way) to promote Social Media Day than with social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, and location-based apps like Foursquare and Gowalla. Foursquare is the most popular in this area, so we’re encouraging check-ins at all the tweet ups and treasure hunt locations.

The Facebook Fan Page launched yesterday afternoon and is already garnering good support and ‘likes’. We’ve also come up with a special hashtag (#BTVSMD) for tweets and posts related to the events. Folks are already tweeting and nominating their favorite social celebrities and businesses.

We’re looking forward to meeting the many folks that make social media in this small-ish town so much fun and rewarding.

What’s going on in your city? Are you participating? Bet your customers are…

This is a story about customer service. Via Twitter. About Foursquare.

It all started a couple of weeks ago. I was creating a business account (my own) on Foursquare.com. Playing with options and specials and updating some personal information. I also decided to change my email address for logging in, and that is where a two-week vacation from an app I use numerous times a day – and set up for others – began.

I logged out and was alerted to my problem the next time I tried to check in at my local. Panic ensued as I frantically entered any and every email address I’d ever had to try and log in on my phone. No luck. Sounds silly, but I felt like a balloon let go of at the fair.

The next chance I had I fired off a help desk request on the Foursquare website. I got a confirmation it was received, but days went by before a brief acknowledgment of my issue was addressed. Then another couple of days. Then another. No word back from the original responder.

Foursquare is swamped

I understand that the Foursquare office and service center has a skeleton crew. The company exploded so fast, and its not slowing down. I’m sure they have many bigger fish to fry than my little log in problem – like automating business verifications instead of how they are handled at this time – over the phone. Sheesh, yes I can wait.

But two weeks was too long. A meeting with a group of local business folks was looming – a meeting to TEACH them how to use this tool! It was imperative that I get back online with the app. Or look like a total fool. Not only that, but I received an email alert letting me know that I had lost yet another mayorship. Two losses in as many days. I was on fire.

Enter Twitter

I sent a message to @Foursquare (again) on the public time line, but this time I added Cc @dens (Dennis Crowley – co-founder of Foursquare) to the tweet. If you’ll recall I met Dennis briefly at the Eat, Drink & Be Social event in Cambridge, MA recently. I fancied myself a ‘connection’; should I name drop? Nothing left to lose, I concluded.

Presto. Four, FOUR minutes later I received a direct message from @dens. I emailed him my issue and history and he cc’d a reply to the help desk. Luckily, Anna, the person who replied early on, was on hand and immediately handled the ticket. After an exchange of a few emails, Anna had me back in action.

Lesson learned

Lesson learned here? Aside from paying better attention when updating my account, is don’t be afraid to go straight to the top. I did – and he was listening. Thank you Dennis and Anna.

Now to get my hard-earned mayorships back!

Have a social media customer service story to share?

Does your restaurant, bar, wine shop or other food & beverage venue depend on tourism dollars? Chances are it does, even though you don’t know it. You might want to take a serious look into these online classes put together by Tourism Currents. The curriculum is solid and profound, and the hosts have a slew of experience and in-the-trenches advice for any business relying on area visitors (or ANY new piece of business).

Tourism Currents (@TourismCurrents) is the online brainchild of small business and tourism blogger Becky McCray (@BeckyMcCray) and travel blogger Sheila Scarborough (@SheilaS). Follow them now if you don’t already. Together they are a powerhouse on information that restauranteurs can reap.

I’m so confident in the workshops they’ve put together and flattered to be asked to help spread the word. I’m whole-heartedly promoting Tourism Currents with this link for signing up. [affiliate]

Don’t hesitate to sign up now!

You can participate as an individual or as a group, and there’s a money-back guarantee. There are several course stacks to choose from, depending on your interests. Topics include roadblocks, inspiration, building communities of advocates for your business, and real world examples. Enrollment in any of the courses is now open and runs through June 30. Learn more about Tourism Currents’ course offerings here »

Register here »

I’m all signed up and anxious to continue my personal brand development. Will I “see” you there?

One of our favorite blogs on all things social media, Mashable, has organized a National Social Media Day, coming Wednesday, June 30.

I’m collaborating with a number of social hot shots around Burlington, VT to put together a knock-down drag-out good time for local folks that are active participants on Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare.

Like the very successful National Foursquare Day, we’re hoping to garner much enthusiasm from local businesses like restaurants, bars and other small biz. The goal is to build more awareness, get more folks to log in, check in, and check out all the great establishments that engage in social networks around here.

Get involved

Have you connected with organizers in your area? What will be your contribution? Find out if there’s something brewing in your city with Mashable’s Meet-up page. If you don’t see events already organized, start something! Grab some great publicity and show your social prowess.

A recent article reflecting on the Nation’s Restaurant News report on restaurants’ social media effectiveness. The big question is does this stuff work?.

Consider the following poll results from NRN*:

• Although 61% of restaurants said they were actively on Facebook, only 8% of consumers said they ever follow restaurants via Facebook
• 78% of restaurants planned to use Facebook even more in the next 6 months to market themselves, but a mere 15% of consumers said they planned to “like” and follow restaurants
• Although 53% of restaurants say they currently use Twitter to market themselves, only 3% of consumers say they follow any restaurants on Twitter
• While 66% of restaurants say they plan to use Twitter more in the next 6 months, just 9% of consumers say they will use Twitter more to follow restaurants

While the higher percentage of restaurants vowing to ‘use’ social media in the future is optimistic, the pathetically low percentages of people willing to fan-up and follow is understandable.

Why it’s not working

A vast majority of restaurants, bar and other entertainment venues that use Twitter and Facebook fan pages are generally ONLY MARKETING THEMSELVES. They don’t talk to or promote others, or apparently spend any amount of time cultivating their social gardens. Potential fans, followers – customers – aren’t interested in signing up to be marketed to. They want to be entertained and engaged. They want the cool. They want to be recognized, involved, and feel like they are a part of something.

When all an establishment’s tweets and posts are doing is rattling on about themselves, of course no one will be interested in following. And why there’s no interaction, no interesting Facebook Insights analytics, no comments or retweets. And so many wonder why this stuff just doesn’t ‘work’ for them.

Don’t be a statistic

We write about how to engage your audience and be interesting all the time on this blog. Don’t let your restaurant’s social efforts become one of the statistics above. Be interesting, talk to people, promote others, not just yourself. Once again, a good rule for tweets and posts is 1:12 – only one out of every twelve of your tweets should be about YOU. The other eleven should be talking about and to your audience, community, customers.

There are some folks out there doing it right, and you instantly know who they are when you stumble across them.

How are you making your story interesting?

*These poll results are only found in the magazine version of NRN, unfortunately no link available.