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Downtown Raleigh eateries turn to social networking to connect with customers

Editor’s note: This article was written as an assignment for a course on digital writing that is part of the UNC Certificate in Technology and Communication.

By Noelle Talley

RALEIGH: Next time you head out to lunch, you might want to check Twitter or Facebook before you decide where to go. Restaurants, including some in downtown Raleigh, are now using social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to bring in diners and to keep them coming back by highlighting specials, seeking customer feedback, and offering prizes.

Eric Harris started using social media to promote The Pit in March of 2009 soon after becoming manager of the barbeque restaurant on West Davie Street. He’d read and heard about businesses using Twitter for marketing and decided to try it.

“With everyone having smart phones and being linked in with each other, the timing was right for it,” said Harris, who posts to both Facebook and Twitter on behalf of The Pit.

Blaine Nierman, executive chef and general manager of 518 West Italian Café on West Jones Street, didn’t even have a cell phone until four years ago, but his restaurant started using Facebook and Twitter to reach customers in January of 2009. Nierman, who had previously started a blog on 518 West’s website, liked the idea of viral, friend-to-friend marketing made possible by online social networking.

“It’s one more marketing tool to use to keep your name in their frontal lobe, in the top three or four choices,” Nierman said.

Gaining fans and followers
Harris estimates that he spends about an hour and a half a day using Twitter and Facebook on behalf of The Pit. The Pit currently has 336 members in its Facebook group, and more than 1,500 followers on Twitter. He initially gained followers by following local breweries and other people who posted about barbeque.

Harris posts photos of The Pit and lists weekly beers on tap on the restaurant’s Facebook page. He averages around six tweets, or Twitter posts, a week.

Recent tweets by Harris included a pre-lunch reminder about the restaurant’s pulled pork barbeque and ribs, a promise of a special desert for people who dined at The Pit that night, and a link to a song about southern barbeque on YouTube.com.

518 West posts messages about once a day, with most posts appearing on both Facebook and Twitter. The restaurant tries to bring customers in by listing specials and giving away gift certificates and other prizes, Nierman explained.

For example, in early November, 518 West gave two tickets to South Pacific to the first person to comment on a Facebook post about the musical. Every Wednesday, 518 West offers gift cards to the first person to retweet, or repost, its drink special.

Nierman said he initially offered gift certificates more frequently and counted on word of mouth to bring in fans and followers. 518 West currently has 301 fans of its Facebook page and 235 followers on Twitter.

Staying local
Harris credits social networking with helping The Pit build and maintain relationships with its local customers following a wave of national publicity that helped turn the restaurant into a destination for barbeque lovers from beyond the Triangle.

The Pit was reviewed by Gourmet magazine within months of opening and has since been featured in The New York Times travel section (“36 Hours in Research Triangle Park, NC”), on the Food Network program, “Throwdown! With Bobby Flay” and on the Today Show on NBC.

“We want to keep our hometown, local flavor,” Harris said. “Our focus, when I finally figured out what I was doing with it [social networking], was to really emphasize local things. For example, highlight specialty beers on tap and that brings in customers.”

Doug Sutton, Jr., Marketing and Community Relations Manager at NBC 17 and MyNC.com, agrees that emphasizing local ties is a smart way for businesses to use Twitter. NBC 17 was the first local television station in the Triangle area to use Twitter, starting in March of 2007, according to Twitterholic.

“Being local nowadays is very important. People love that Subway buys all its produce from local farmers, that 18 Seaboard buys its apples from the North Carolina mountains. These are the kinds of things you should tweet about,” Sutton said.

Responding to customer feedback
Facebook and Twitter aren’t one-way streets; customers can also share their own views and respond to businesses’ postings.

During the week of November 8-15, 2009, other people mentioned The Pit more than 40 times on Twitter, including several retweets of Harris’ posts. A retweet means that followers of The Pit shared several of his posts with their own followers. During the same week, 518 West garnered four retweets on Twitter and six comments, or online responses from fans, on Facebook.

Nierman thinks responding to customers’ comments is key. A customer identified as Pamela posted a comment on Facebook on October 30 questioning a recent health rating of 90 for the restaurant.

“I hope this is something that is being addressed b/c [sic] it’s a shame to have such a low rating for such an otherwise fantastic restaurant,” Pamela commented.

518 West responded to the comment by explaining that the restaurant had purchased new coolers to fix the problem and had requested a re-inspection.

Nierman also recalled a comment from a customer criticizing a dish and suggesting ways to improve it, feedback he says was helpful.

“Any comment, whether good or bad, is going to help us be a better restaurant,” Nierman said.

Free marketing?
Neither Facebook nor Twitter charges money for posting to its site. The low cost of marketing through online social networking is a large part of its appeal for Harris and The Pit.

But Facebook and Twitter aren’t free for 518 West. After starting the restaurant’s Facebook and Twitter pages, Nierman hired a marketing firm to take over posting duties. He’s considering bringing those duties back in-house to save money.

“We feed them ideas and they actually post it for us,” Nierman said, adding that it’s expensive.

Nierman said he recognizes the irony of paying to use a service that is usually considered to be free. He also thinks it’s hard to tell whether online social networking has actually helped his business’ bottom line.

Advice for other businesses
Sutton believes that most businesses can benefit from using tools like Twitter and Facebook.

“This is how people are getting their information. They’re not watching TV all day anymore, but they have their computer or their mobile phone with them,” Sutton said. However, he recommends against relying solely on social networking to bring in business.

Harris recommends that businesses strike the right tone in their messages, which he describes as jovial but professional.

“The real pain of it for me was getting what I wanted to say down to 140 characters and not sounding cheesy like a used car salesman,” said Harris.

Messages posted on Twitter can be no longer than 140 characters, spaces included. Messages posted to Facebook can be up to 420 characters.

Nierman recommends against posting too many messages because customers may find it annoying, and Sutton cautions that businesses need to make sure they’re using Twitter and Facebook to communicate with their customers, not just to promote themselves.

“Don’t necessarily make it about selling something. People like to make friends online. People go to match.com to find dates. People go on Facebook to find friends. Make it about relationships,” Sutton says.

He recommends finding someone with the business who has the right personality to develop relationships with potential customers through online social networking.

Both Harris and Nierman said they would recommend that other businesses consider using Facebook and Twitter.

“In this economic time, you don’t know what’s driving people to come to a restaurant,” Nierman said. “You need to be willing to try anything to see what’s going to work.”

Tips for Businesses: How to use Facebook and Twitter
• Find someone entertaining and engaging to post on behalf of your business.
• Check out what the competition and similar businesses are doing online.
• Focus on building relationships with customers, not just on promoting your business.
• Encourage and respond to comments from customers.
• Don’t go overboard by posting too many messages.
• Twitter and Facebook should work with traditional marketing, not replace it entirely.
• Be patient. It can take time to gain fans and followers online.
Sources: Eric Harris, Blaine Neirman and Doug Sutton

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