Web-savvy businesses are wising up to the value of Twitter
Andy Lynes looks at the different ways restaurants are using the web and asks if it’s always good for business.
If you think tweeting is strictly for the birds, it might be time to reassess your opinion. Posting 140 character status updates on Twitter (or tweeting as its known) is the latest web craze to sweep the nation. Actor and comedian Stephen Fry has led the way in the UK with over 340,000 people following his numerous daily tweets such as “Am having fun with iPhone 3.0 beta”, but you can also follow the thoughts of everyone from Barack Obama to Ricky Gervais.
Twitter, along with sites such as Facebook are central to what’s been called ‘web 2.0′, a new generation of internet sites based around communities and social networking. Given that Twitter receives up to 7 million unique visitors a day in the US alone and, as of January this year had experienced a 97 per cent increase in traffic in the UK, its not difficult to see that tweeting offers more than an amusing way to kill a few quiet moments. The opportunities for viral marketing are enormous and forward thinking chefs and restaurateurs are already exploiting that potential.
In the UK, the Galvin brothers have embraced the internet in a big way with a home page on Facebook, a blog entirely devoted to their Galvin Cup professional cocktail competition and regular tweets.
“We average one booking a day from twitter.com, so what we do online translates into business for the restaurant,” says Fred Sirieix, general manager of Galvin at Windows and the driving force behind the Galvin’s web presence. “It is time consuming, but I don’t see it as a distraction; its an integral and vital part of my job.”
Grant Achatz of leading avant garde restaurant Alinea in Chicago (voted number 21 the 2008 World’s 50 Best list has long seen the potential of the internet to generate interest in his cooking.
In the months leading up to the opening of Alinea in May 2005, he partnered with foodie community website eGullet.org and posted in detail about every aspect of the launch of the restaurant, from developing the dishes to to deciding on the logo. By answering site members questions online, Achatz established a relationship and built loyalty with his customer base before he’d even opened his doors.
Achatz of course tweets, posting links to his articles on the Atlantic magazine’s high brow foodie site maintaining interest both in him as culinary theorist and his restaurant.
But you don’t have to be a major celebrity chef to benefit from internet exposure. Adrian Oliver, chef proprietor of the 22-cover Margot’s Bistro in Padstow has been a familiar presence on food forums such as eGullet.org and opinionatedaboutdining.com for many years.
“I do it to stay connected with the rest of the world because Cornwall can feel isolated, but it definitely attracts customers to the restaurant,” says Oliver. “I’ve started to use Twitter to let regulars know about last minute availability which helps fill up the restaurant.”
Oliver also personally maintains the restaurant’s blog †adding new menus and updating seasonal opening times. “I can’t tell you how many times customers have told me they’ve been reading my blog. We’re also the top search result on google for “mushroom and chorizo risotto” which is on our menu, so people find out about us that way too.”
But not everyone is convinced that so much internet exposure is good for business, especially if it’s prior to launch. In the 3 March 2009 edition of the New York Times in a story titled Opening Night and Already Old News, Manhattan restaurateur Keith McNally of Balthazar fame voiced his reservations about the amount of attention the opening of his new establishment the Minetta Tavern was receiving on blogs such as eater and The Feedbag.
“I don’t understand why people — or rather the blogs — are so curious about this place, but I can’t very well complain about it. But the truth is I’d rather not have it. Generally the more one reads about a place in advance of eating there the more resistant one is to taking it seriously. It’s like telling a date you’re great in bed before the clothes come off. It leads to nothing but disappointment. (Well it does in my case.)”
Have you embraced the marketing potential of web 2.0, or do you think its just a nerdy waste of time? Click the ‘Add a comment’ link below and tell us what you think.