Having worked in the restaurant industry through most of my adolescence and into my early 20’s, I was well aware of the old adage that went something like:

If a single upset customer tells 10 friends about an unsatisfactory experience, it’s conceivable those 10 friends could perpetuate that report to another 10… and so-on, and so-on… eventually damaging the restaurant’s brand bad enough to put it out of business.

Or, as Máma Brandcheffio said:

“Piss off one customer and you’ve lost 100…”

So, at a very young age, I was forced to learn two very important aspects to marketing.

1. Word-of-mouth marketing is very powerful.
2. The customer is always right.

WHAT? The customer is ALWAYS right?

Máma Brandcheffio used to tell me:

“Even if the customer is wrong, THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT.”

Even at 15, that concept incensed me.  Today it seems like a complete disregard to human civility (See last week’s post) and is entirely defeatist in nature.

Luckily, I came to my senses.

Chew on this:

Originally, one disgruntled customer could, with good effort, affect the opinions of 100 others with their own word-of-mouth marketing.  In 1983, that was a pretty big deal. With 100 potential customers talking about poor service or a fuzzy hamburger bun, over several days, maybe months, the reputation of the restaurant could be damaged enough to warrant inspections, improvements or to be ostracized out of business all together.

That was 1983 word-of-mouth. (Yawn)

Today, our “upset” customer can take a photo, text a gripe to their iPhone or Tweet it to thousands or tens of thousands before your gazpacho reaches room temperature! If “viral” enough, those thousands can make an instantaneous decision to re-tweet it to their lists reaching thousands more!

Word-of-mouth marketing has reached light speed!

Restaurants, from local and regional to major chains, are taking a “more than cautious” approach to social media marketing.  They want to make sure it’s not a “fad” before jumping in.

Have they lost their minds? Maybe in 1983 that’d be okay, but this is 2009!

Not only are social media tools like Twitter and Facebook the fastest growing user-based tools on the Web, they have moved the “Customer is always right” paradigm entirely into the customer’s control, forever altering the approach to marketing communication and public relations.

Restaurants may not want to get involved in a “marketing” sense, but can you imagine how fast they will have to scramble when the “Chris Brogan” of the restaurant industry sends a damaging Tweet or photos of one of their cooks, in uniform, picking their boxers out of their ass as they walk into the kitchen?

Mmmmm, appetizing…

To put it simply, social media WILL affect your restaurant. Ignoring it is not an option for today’s restaurants, no matter what size.

It’s better to use basic social media tools and participate in a brand management program.  Otherwise, you can watch your brand (and your future) carried away in the beak of that ubiquitous little blue Twitter icon.

Food for thought.

Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

Social media tools are easy to acquire…  Sure.  But just like a sharp knife, you may not want to hand it over to any shlub that walks into the kitchen.  If your company wants to start cooking up some social media marketing, you’d better be ready to do some serious planning.

If social media is like a big cocktail party, let’s think of social media MARKETING this way…

When gathering recipes for your next big shindig, you probably don’t want to mingle the sushi with the snow cones (only at my parties).  So, in the same spirit, why would companies insist on throwing anything and everything into their social media marketing mix?

Many companies are starting to really turn up the heat on their social media “marketing.”  They’ve set up Twitter accounts and launched Facebook pages and groups; but it looks like they haven’t thought of their brand, their target audience or, in some instances, even political correctness. Seriously?

Trust me, a meal consisting of three cups of unashamed self promotion, a tablespoon of ego, 1/4 cup of chaos and a pinch of nonsense will give your target audience nothing but a serious case of indigestion.

Create engagement and value with an integrated social media marketing strategy.

Here are three simple “Brandchef-a-fied” questions to ask yourself before that next tweetfest…

1. Are you working from a proven recipe?
   If you have a marketing plan with goals and targets, see how social media can be integrated into it.  Don’t throw the whole dish out just because there’s a new ingredient.

   Social media is so new that social media marketing is struggling to keep up with new developments, new policies, new technology, not to mention new users.  The right recipe – a proven crowd-pleaser – will help to solidify your position, extend your marketing message and your brand.  Just spice it up using the great tools social media has to offer!
   

2. Does your meal have any nutritional value?
   Empty promises or veiled attempts at engagement, just like empty calories, won’t add value.

   If you have a truly strategic marketing plan (with the customer in mind), your social media marketing efforts should reflect those same values and benefit your audience.  Superficial fluff, inane updates and ego-driven campaigns will only show your audience that you’re in it for yourself and soon they’ll walk away from the table – full, and dissatisfied.

3. How many dishes are in your sink?
   Máma BrandCheffio used to say, “If you have a sink full of dishes, you know you have a house full of happy kids.” The same goes for your social media marketing campaign.

   If you can measure results based on a working strategy, then you know what kind of appetite your audience has.  Set your goals, feed them the first course, and watch for the return. With those kinds of metrics you can make changes to your recipes on-the-fly – assuring an always full sink.

With any soiree, the planner has a lot of responsibilities.  As long as your strategy is truthful, transparent, relevant, unique and engaging, everyone at the party will have a great time,  and soon you will be the talk of the town.

Keep Cooking (tasty social media treats)
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

I LOVE social media.  It’s the wild west in cyberspace. Not only can I post anything I want on this blog, my Facebook account, my Twitter account(s) or any number of other outlets (look to the right) I subscribe to; but I can search and monitor (virtually) anything anyone else is saying, tweeting, video-taping, etc. as well – and all while talking to others through the same venues about what I’m seeing, reading, experiencing…  (you get the idea).

Now, THAT’s truly social.

Seeing my adoration of social media, a friend of mine posted this article from The Eastern Echo on my Facebook wall.  I assume she did it to rib me a little for what looks like backlash against social media outlets like Facebook, MySpace and especially Twitter for not having more robust security options. But the writer of The Echo brings up some pretty solid points.

The Echo writes:

…like any responsible organization, Facebook finally updated its privacy settings a few years ago after users encountered plenty of embarrassing situations. You can now control which of your friends are able to see those great pictures of you passed out on the bathroom floor with genitals scrawled on your face.

But the truth is, Big Brother isn’t watching anymore, he’s tweeting.
Twitter, too, has security options that can allow users to select who can see their tweets. Unfortunately, people just don’t seem to know about them — or even worse, they don’t care.

They go on to say:

So should we all delete our Twitter accounts?

In my opinion, that would be the easy way out. …

But we can’t continue blaming every new social networking site for our blatant misuse of its technology. The answer isn’t to stop using the Internet, it’s to start using it more responsibly.

And parents? Don’t blame the Internet every time your kid is caught sending naked pictures of themselves to their friends. It’s not Twitter, it’s you.

Sweeeeeet!

So, here’s my take (as written on The Eastern Echo’s article post):

It’s not Facebook’s, MySpace’s, or Twitter’s fault that the “victims” of such horrible, depraved mismanagement of mental scruples are eventually caught.  Social media is exactly that…  SOCIAL.  If you stand up at your next cocktail party and announce that you’re getting breast implants… well…  it’s out there and the repercussions are yours to deal with.  Similarly, you can’t charge Twitter (et al) with keeping idiots form incriminating themselves or filtering content to our children.

It’s simply a matter of ethics. How long has it been since an Ethics 101 course was over-booked?  Can we blame parenting?  Sure, but don’t forget all of the lackadaisical marketing executives, most media outlets and virtually all of Hollywood.

The future of communication is going to be driven through social media. Heck, I even found this article through a friend of mine on Facebook.  So, technically, it’s my responsibility, as a marketer and as a role model for following generations to participate in social media with ethical, reasonable candor.  It’s my responsibility to educate and to foster those values.

Long lost are the days of plopping the kids in front of the boob-tube and call it babysitting.  Because the boob-tube has been replaced with YouTube and we KNOW what can be found there.

There are a lot of unethical, unreasonable people out there.  There always has been.  But we can’t expect the social media developers to protect us.  That’s our job.

Posted and disseminated…

Food for thought.

Keep Cooking (reasonably ethical conversations?)
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

T.G.I. Fridays …  what can you say but “ubiquitous?” They’re everywhere. From every other street corner of any slightly metropolitan city to parodies in cult films, they’ve become the Walgreens of the “casual dining” industry. If there’s a cross section of people and commerce, they’ll be there, with silly stripes, suspenders, and buttons-a-blinking to welcome you. And as expected, T.G.I. Fridays is now on Facebook. But they’ve taken a little different approach to their Facebook efforts than others I’ve seen.

Have you met “Woody?” No? Well until earlier this month, no one else had either.

Woody is an “average guy” looking to pick up 500,000 fans before the end of September, and if he’s successful, those fans will receive a free Jack Daniels burger!

Now who doesn’t want a free burger?

To round out the social media-focused campaign, Woody has a few television spots running regionally, as well as posted in the Videos tab on the Fan page. So far, the page has a over 100,000 Fans, and is expected to reach their half million goal by the end of the month.

Now, McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A and Pizza Hut have all hit the 1 Million mark simply extending their current campaigns to the social media platform.  And from a social media marketing standpoint, this isn’t a groundbreaking approach.  But the fact that T.G.I. Fridays has created a character and campaign solely for Facebook is quite unique.

But that’s where my compliments take a turn to skepticism…

If you look at the entry form on the Woody fan page, they’re requesting email  addresses to send the free burger coupons to when the 500,000 has been reached.  Can anyone say marketing database? Sure, I’m okay with that… But then, there’s the next click.

When you submit your email address, the application asks for access to your Facebook profile information, photos, as well as all of your friends’ information!

For a free burger? No thank you.

Marketing database gathering? Phishing?  I don’t know, but that last step seemed to cross the line for me

Social media is about building community. Social media MARKETING is about building a community around your brand and it’s offerings.

I ask T.G.I. Fridays how will offering up all of my Facebook information help me feel closer to your brand? Sure, I get a free burger out of the deal (maybe), then what? (Enter your own spammy nightmare scenario here.)

Social media has made how people share personal information pretty liberal, but the line needs to be drawn somewhere. If companies want to use social media marketing to have me join in the conversation, they need to show authenticity, engagement and trustworthiness, not just dangle a free burger in my face…book.

Keep Cooking - TRUE Branding communities!
Andrew B. Clark
- The Brand Chef