Social Media

[aj453]

Im terrible at social media. Im not very creative and on the list of things to do it always falls to the bottom. I have tried using employees to do it in the past, worked ok. Anyways is it worth using a service to tie all this together. I have a local lady that does it for a few companies. Im impressed with what she does, however is it worth the $50 bucks a month. I have three stores

 

[Fire_Side_Pizza]

I know someone who does it for $65 per month but does a lot of extras. Social media is the way everything is trending and it may be worth it to get your name out there as well. More and more people are using the web to research where they want to eat or are looking for recommendations. You can always try it and see what happens. Then if you don’t like it, you can probably quit anytime. It’s just another way to market your product.

 

[Daddio]

You ask if it is worth $50 a month. How many new customers will you gain and what is the value of each order?

 

[indie_pizza]

It’s really up to her to make it worth the $50, right?

I’m struggling with it right now, for a couple reasons. I was fairly good it it first started, but it’s hard to keep it fresh. I know the biggest way to get people to interact is to make a positive comment about another business or organization (not something spam though) or something else positive about what’s going on.

The single biggest response I’ve ever had was a few weeks ago when I gave an “atta boy” to the local PD for catching a guy who had done a B&E a couple nights earlier.

 

[pizzaduo]

We use Facebook daily and it has been great. Everyday we post our specials, along with a daily trivia question for a FREE lunch buffet, pizza, or side item. Trivia questions we have used, how much does our mixer weigh, what is temperature of our oven, how many items are on the salad bar, etc…, have fun with it. It takes at the most 5 minutes to a post the specials and daily question, so paying anyone $50 for social media is a rather high price.

 

[brad_randall]

aj453:

I’m terrible at social media… it always falls to the bottom.

I’m impressed with what she does… I have three stores

$50/month divided b/w 3 stores sounds like the biggest no-brainer in the history of Earth! Put this on autopilot already.

 

[HoustonPizza]

Now I have somewhat an opposite view of hiring someone to do it. To me this is my chance to get “up close and personal” with our customers. A chance to get them to know us and to interact with them. If I hire someone to do it it wouldn’t have that same personal feel that we have now, it would take on a more business-like feel. Our customers love that we are personally interacting with them on the page --everyone always likes to know the owners!

One thing that we have done it read books on engagement marketing and social media and we “friend” lots of other pizza restaurants to see what ya’ll are doing. Sometimes you see something that someone else has done…and it sparks a great idea. There’s lots of pizza shops out there doing some really good engagement marketing on Facebook. One thing we have learned is to mix it up a little…don’t always just post your specials or advertising…post pictures of interesting things going on in your stores. Ask questions…some of our active posts have been things such as “what’s your favorite song” or “your favorite movie”. We’ll sometimes do a random drawing for a pizza from those posters. We’ve also done last minute specials…had too many spaghetti noodles prepped one day and did an “Oodles of Noodles” special – it was a fast, quick way to get a successful special going.

That’s my two cents…

 

[UncleNicksPizza]

The trick to social media is to be engaging. I am just now venturing in to Twitter and Google + but Facebook for example, when people “Like” or “Comment” on your page, it shows on their timeline to their friends who are sometimes curious and venutre on to your page, increasing your exposure.

For example on my facebook page today I wrote: “Today is National Lighthouse Day! If you have ever been to one, you’ll know that lighthouses across the world are filled with history and amazing stories. Like this status if you’ve ever been to a lighthouse!” imploring fans to like the status, knowing full well that several have been to a lighthouse. This starts a ripple as their friends who have also been to a lighthouse may like the status, and show it to their friends so on and so forth creating a bunch of virtually free exposure.

I sometimes do a free pizza giveaway, where I tell them to like the status and I randomly pick (using random.org) a number, and count down the likes to that person and they win a free pizza. Trivia questions work well, anything that will engage the person into some form of interaction.

So that being said, it is relatively easy to do, but if you just want something simple (just someone to post information like that at the beginning of the day on to your page) I’d be more than happy to just post the same stuff I’m already doing for my page on to your page for free. Just let me know via PM (the offer stands for anyone). Always willing to help out other TTers.

 

[Liz_Barrett_PMQ]

Houston and UncleNick’s, great advice! It’s vital to engage your followers and break up the sales/promotions on your page. People don’t want to see a page that’s all business when they visit.

Show your pizzeria’s personality by posting photos of your staff, and invite customers to post their own photos eating at your restaurant or enjoying a delivered pizza.

Encourage more post engagement by asking open ended questions such as “The most unusual pizza topping I ever ate was _________________.” (and actually include the blank line). People like to complete sentences on social media. Try it and see what type of response you get.

The most important thing is to stay involved. You want customers to see your presence regularly. There are programs such as HootSuite that allow you to schedule posts months in advance, if necessary. Respond when someone asks a question, like their replies, and stay engaged. Customers will show their appreciation with continued loyalty and referrals.

Good luck everybody!

Liz Barrett
PMQ

 

[pizzanow]

We just got our building painted, so showed a picture of that. I plan on making an ‘experimental’ pizza once a week and than posting the results (good or bad) on FB. Hopefully that will provide some humor, excitement, and fun. Get people engaged, excited about pizza, and maybe even getting some ideas out of it. Trying to find content is hard, but I think I’ve got a few ideas to make my page worth ‘following’. There is nothing worse than ‘liking’ a business and than being bombarded with boring ads and sales pitches on your wall.

I just need to pretty it up a bit and add a timeline picture… and take some more pizza photos. But of course, that’s something I think about daily that keeps getting pushed further and further down the list of things to do. It’s right below reading the think tank, apparently.

http://www.facebook.com/pizzanowalbany