KiMedia Strategies

4 Mobile Social Apps Restaurants Need To Be Aware Of

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:51:31 -0400

Times have changed. It’s no longer essential to get the best ad placement in your neighborhood newspaper to showcase your specials, deals and new menu items. No, print isn’t dead, but there are more effective ways to get in front of this target in a more long term successful way. The Internet has provided a platform for many innovative companies to create applications and websites that attract YOUR potential customers. Are you a little curious?

Yelp

Yelp is a crowd-sourced business review platform that has a lot of awesome and usually unknown features.

* The mobile app allows for geo based searching. You can see the menu, get directions and call right from the app on your phone.

* Businesses can set up check-in deals for those that wish to tell their Yelp (Facebook and/ or Twitter) community where they are dining.

* Everyone is a critic these days and Yelp knows this. They allow for you to draft up a review from your phone as you’re eating your meal. (reviewers do need to log online to review and post fro ma computer)

* The analytics provided to the business show how many people searched, asked for directions, called and of course checked in at that location.

Why is Yelp important for restaurants?

Because your customers are telling you exactly how they feel about your service and their experience. If we listen we are only able to improve and attract more customers.

How should restaurants use Yelp?

Monitor for new reviews, encourage reviews from your customers via QR code campaign or other awesome strategies. Don’t forget to incentivize potential diners by offering a check-in special.

Foursquare

Foursquare is a location based check-in tool that allows its users to see where their friends are, what’s near to them, who is running check-in specials and of course check-in to let the world know where and what they are doing.

Some awesome business-end features:

Businesses are able to (after they claim their location) create check-in, loyalty, friend and Mayor specials.
Businesses are encouraged to utilize their update feature and list their specials or announcements for your Foursquare followers as well as those that check-in at your location.
Businesses are able to link to Twitter and Facebook for seamless sharing.
Foursquare provides amazing analytics including gender, number of monthly check-ins and your most recent and most loyal visitors.

Why is Foursquare important for restaurants?

Foursquare provides something that Yelp doesn’t and that’s a more game-like app for its users. Everyone wants to be Mayor of a business, right? I was once Mayor of Mayor Dick Greco’s campaign HQ… That was a Mayorship to be proud of!

Foursquare also is integrated with Twitter quite nicely. You can see your recent visitors that shared their check-in to Twitter.

NEW FEATURE: Foursquare now includes the Twitter name of the business when a customer checks in and links to Twitter. Talk about a great way to encourage conversation and engagement!

How can a restaurant get started on Foursquare?

First… Claim your location. Once you’ve claimed it figure out what kind of specials you want to create for people when they check-in. Make sure you promote in your restaurant that you are on Foursquare and do have Foursquare check-in specials and be sure to update as often as you can with your day to day activities and specials!

Instagram

Instagram is a photo sharing tool that comes complete with a ton of hipster photo filters to transform your images.

Why is Instagram important for restaurants?

Instagram is important for restaurants because food is HUGE online. People love sharing their food, taking images of their food and often can be swayed on a meal decision based on a social media connections reviews or pictures.

How can a restaurant get started with Instagram?

First you will need to download the app either from the Google Play store for Android or iTunes for iPhone/ iPad. Once you download the app you will be prompted to sign up. Be sure to connect your Twitter account (Facebook is not necessary for businesses) and within minutes you will be ready to start sharing mouthwatering images of your food.

Tip: Be sure to use hashtags for the best Instagram experience. If you’re sharing a picture of a burger and you’re a burger joint in NYC I would use the following hashtags: #foodie #NYCFoodie #Burger #NYCBurger #Instadelish #Instagood #NewYork #EatNewYork #DineNYC #NYC #NewYorkCity

Foodspotting

Foodspotting is another mobile app that allows you to share images of your meal as you’re indulging. You can upload your picture to the actual venue listing and share whether you had it or LOVED it and then leave a message like “Just had the most delicious #vegetarian burger ever!

How can restaurants use Foodspotting?

Right now there isn’t really too much that restaurants can do on the actual site. You can definitely feel free to spot all of your dishes, but the gravy comes from crowd-sourcing images and reviews of your food directly from your customers.

Be sure to promote that you guys are watching Foodspotting, encourage a photo contest making use of unique hashtags for tracking. At the end of the day you want to give your customer a reason to share their delicious experience with the Internet, right?

Of course there are the regulars; Twitter, Facebook, Google+ etc…., but we wanted to give you some insight on 4 unique tools that many restaurants have yet to discover.

If you have any questions about these applications or would like to see how your restaurant can use them in their overall social media strategy feel free to email us at besocial [at] kimediastrategies [dot] com or fill out our contact form below.

No, You Cannot Contact LinkedIn By Phone

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 10:00:29 -0400

No, You Cannot Contact LinkedIn By Phone

The ABCs Of Leadership From Fisher-Price's David Allmark

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 09:54:50 -0400

The ABCs Of Leadership From Fisher-Price's David Allmark

Social Media Proves Value, Gets Budgets

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 10:00:08 -0400

Many still struggle with how exactly to measure and attribute success

Budgets for social media marketing are on the rise, with both B2B and B2C marketers proving they have generated leads and sales from their social outreach.

In its “State of Digital Marketing 2012 Report,” Webmarketing123 found that 52% of US B2C marketers and 41% of US B2B marketers planned to increase their social marketing budgets in 2013, while an additional 46% of B2C and 56% of B2B marketers will keep them the same.

Facebook was the most popular site for B2C marketers, with 65% reporting that they spent money there. Only 40% of B2B marketers said the same of Facebook. However, 39% of B2B marketers spent money on LinkedIn, compared to only 23% of B2C marketers. Greater percentages of B2C marketers were using Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest than were B2B marketers. However, the difference for Google+, which has been popular for technology conversations in particular, was only 3 percentage points.

These investments in social sites are showing results. Two-thirds of B2C marketers (67%) said they had generated leads from Facebook, and 39% said they saw sales as a result of outreach on the site. This was compared to 39% of B2B marketers who reported leads and 19% who reported sales. For B2B marketers, not surprisingly, LinkedIn saw the most success, with 44% of marketers seeing leads and 23% seeing sales from the site.

Corresponding with other recent studies, the report also found that a percentage of marketers were still unsure if social media was contributing to leads (20%) and sales (40%). In order to continue receiving budget approval for social, however, marketers must prove their outreach is producing results, and many will experiment with different metrics and measurement tactics to do so.

Corporate subscribers have access to all eMarketer analyst reports, articles, data and more. Join the over 750 companies already benefiting from eMarketer’s approach. Learn more.

5 tips to successfully market to Millennials

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 10:00:37 -0400

5 tips to successfully market to Millennials

Social Media Strategy

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 13:36:23 -0400

Social Media Strategy

Social Media Success Doesn’t Happen Overnight

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 14:22:00 -0400

It’s easy to think that all social media campaigns are successful almost immediately, but sadly they aren’t. Not unless you happen to end up with a genius viral video or you’re pretty darn famous and let’s face it… that’s not very likely to happen meaning that you have to work at your campaign in order to find success. You need to nurture your platforms just as you would a child.

Here are a few tips that will help you, over time, achieve success through social media:

☑ Log onto your social media platforms daily, update, engage with others all while creating a unique strategy.

☑ Find out what your competitors are not doing and do that.

☑ Be where your target audience is and engage with them, not as a salesperson, but rather as an acquaintance.

☑ Be social, not promotional.

☑ Don’t give up. If things don’t appear to be working tweak your campaign, don’t quit.

☑ Don’t be afraid to do the undone – be unique and think without boxing yourself in.

If you think you’re going to find immediate success Online, don’t be disappointed when you don’t. Those that are successful right away are so because they worked their butts off building their brand reputation long before they joined any social media sites. Be patient and persistent and you will reach the success you hope for.

If you need help with your social media campaigns please feel free to contact us at besocial [at] kimediastrategies [dot] com

Originally posted on our Social Media blog

KiMedia Strategies on Google+

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 12:55:29 -0400

KiMedia Strategies on Google+

2 iPad Apps Helping Companies Manage Multiple Social Accounts

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 00:22:56 -0400

We are often asked how we are able to manage as many social profiles as we do for all of our clients. We use quite a few apps that help us monitor, manage, listen and update different social platforms allowing us the ability to quickly and efficiently take care of business. Here are two of our favorite applications:

Facebook Pages for iPad

Why we love this app: The minute someone interacts with a page we manage we are notified making our response time quicker than most.

Echofon for iPad

Just like the Facebook pages app, Echofon allows us to monitor and manage all Twitter accounts making it easy for us to switch between accounts keeping our response time low.

We are always on the lookout for apps that allow us to keep our campaigns social, just as they should be!

What apps do you use to help manage your day to day social media campaigns?

Originally posted on our social media blog

Facebook Advertising Fail

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 13:33:22 -0400

Last week we were Tweeting with some of our connections when we saw a post from one that cut our eye. A Twitter connection had seen an ad that was obviously targeting her for one reason or another, clicked it and much to her surprise… was not directed to the pedicure promotion she had clicked on from LivingSocial. This makes me wonder how many other companies are doing things like this and why they would even bother. Let’s be real for a minute. If you are advertising pedicures, but the landing page is selling tires, how many sales do you really think you’re going to make?

False advertisement should be banned from Facebook and is considered spam. Don’t be that company that scams others!

There’s Always A Place Online For Any Business

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 15:05:30 -0400

It doesn’t matter if you run a concrete mixing business or you are a restaurant owner, there is a place for everyone Online these days. Some businesses may seem a little more social than others, but when it comes down to it every business is run by humans and humans are naturally social. You can’t close a deal without speaking with someone can you? Didn’t think so. Just like you really can’t take an order without engaging and having a conversation with the customers.

Point is, if you have a business… You NEED to begin embracing Social Media.

You might be asking yourself….

What steps do I take to become more social?

First you need to think about your goals – Are you wanting to increase sales, clicks, engagement, or something else?

Think about what you want and then review it to see if it’s realistic. If you think joining Twitter andFacebook is going to generate an extra 1k in business automatically, you’re sorely mistaken. Think goals like; target and connect with 5 local Twitter users, get 10 new Foursquare check-ins this week, or even… Engage with 15 new people on Twitter and Facebook.

Those are realistic short term goals.

Long term goals would be to be generating engaging content 5 days a week, notice people reaching out to you rather than the other way around, increase your foot traffic with Social Media promotions etc…

After you know your goals you will need to build a foundation. This foundation would be compromised of 3-4 Social Media platforms that would best suit your company. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, YouTube, Tumblr; find out which ones you think you should start with and focus on building those before you throw anything else into the mix.

When building these platforms you will need to think outside of the box.

Back to the concrete company. You wouldn’t think that concrete would have a place on Pinterest, would you?

You see that box you’re stuck in? Yeah… throw it away!

You can create pinboards focused on streets, things made of concrete, sidewalk art, the best spot in the lot….. You get the picture… Right?

(If not, please let me know because I would love to help you out. kim@kimediastrategies.com)

Once you realize that your company has a place Online using Social Media you’ll start to see things fall into place.

Your business can be social!

Spotlight your loyal customers and clients on your Social Media...

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 16:26:44 -0400

Spotlight your loyal customers and clients on your Social Media platforms.

Easily Increase The Number of People Talking About Your Facebook Page

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 18:51:26 -0400

We are always so focused on increasing the number of likes and follows Online that we forget to focus on creating conversation and engaging with others.

Unfortunately many people get so frustrated with this so if this sounds like you, you’re not alone.

One great way to increase interaction on Facebook is to post polls. Simple polls allowing people to add their own response, and comment. Why a poll? With polls you can invite your personal connections to partake in them without appearing promotional, as long as your questions aren’t promotional, that is.

Polls are a great way to increase the “People talking about” numbers which in return makes the page appear to have great engagement. Now I know it seems like we are just putting a mask over the real issue, but over time the engagement from polls will actually begin to generate engagement on regular posts. 1 “post like” at a time and you’ll begin to see the value in Facebook polls.

A Few Tips

* Make sure the questions you ask will interest the people you plan to invite to answer.
* Definitely ask your personal friends to partake by “Asking Friends”
* We do not suggest flooding your connections with constant polls. Once a week or every other is perfect.
* Ask questions pertaining to current events and viral news.

Originally posted on our blog at KiMediaStrategies.com

#BeSocial

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 16:08:41 -0400

#BeSocial

Brands Can Now Turn Their Facebook Timeline Into a Movie

Tue, 29 May 2012 16:00:40 -0400

People managing a Facebook Page can now easily create a movie using photos, videos and status updates from their brands’ Timeline.

Timeline Movie Maker from marketing agency Definition 6 spits out a chronological, one-minute clip after the browser tool “parses nostalgia,” “captures your good side” and “finds I-Remember-Whens” on your Timeline.

Users can customize the movie (see below), picking from a selection of music and replacing any visual element. Admins also can write status updates or messages to sprinkle throughout the video.

Continue article on Mashable

The Fight Against Bullying -- Kids Take Charge

Tue, 29 May 2012 15:28:14 -0400

The Fight Against Bullying -- Kids Take Charge

WHEN LOGOS ATTACK

Sat, 26 May 2012 07:56:48 -0400

8-twelve, the Brookfield restaurant the SURG group is opening with Green Bay Packers’ quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Milwaukee Brewers’ outfielder Ryan Braun, has gotten off to a rough start regarding their brand.

The restaurant’s original name was to be 8*twelve, but with internet fodder suggesting that the asterisk may give Ryan Braun-haters an unnecessary reason to bring up his offseason accusations, the name was subtly changed to 8-twelve. Regarding the change, SURG Restaurant Group co-owner Omar Shaikh told Milwaukee Magazine that he “just wanted to avoid the negativity.” As they say, any publicity is good publicity, but this misstep out-of-the-gate doesn’t reflect well on ownership.

AND THEN THERE’S THE LOGO.

I have a few personal rules when I design a logo. Obviously, veering from these rules is appropriate in some scenarios; just make sure you keep the objective in sight.

Always keep the brand in mind.
Even before the brainstorming stage, a designer should have an idea of the tone the brand wants to put forth. I’m not privy to the 8-twelve research, but I don’t think “Tavern Softball League”is what they are going for. With the two most respected and classy (looking at you Brett Favre) athletes Wisconsin has ever seen heading up the ownership, I would expect to see something a little more highbrow.
No more than 3 colors.
I won’t get into color theory, but adding any more than 3 colors creates visual confusion. Also, the logo must also look good in black and white and grayscale. The more colors added to the logo the harder this becomes to pull off. I count 4 colors in the 8-twelve logo.
Keep it simple, stupid.
Typefaces are very important when designing a logo. Avoiding more than 2 fonts is recommended; I count 5 in the 8-twelve logo, one of which is the commonly used “Bradley Hand ITC.” Using Comic Sans, Times, Papyrus and other commonly used typefaces can come off as amateurish.
Create Balance.
Visual balance is important in logo design because our minds naturally perceive a balanced design as being appealing. You can achieve this by keeping the weight of the logo balanced, the colors calming and size equal on each side. When looking at the 8-twelve logo, I don’t know where to focus; there’s the name 8-twelve, 2 tag lines, a baseball graphic inside of the 8 and, inexplicably, yardage marks and numbers on the swash.

Continue reading this article

This Heatmap Proves That Looks Are The Most Important Thing On Your LinkedIn Profile

Fri, 25 May 2012 16:33:09 -0400

There is a lot of debate about whether or not you should include a photo of yourself on your LinkedIn profile. Most of us don’t include one with resumes we send out, and recruiters scan through online profiles like they’re browsing through resumes.

If you do include a photo, you are allowing yourself the chance to be discriminated against, but if you don’t include one, people may wonder why there’s no photo since the majority of profiles have one.

Miriam Salpeter at U.S. News & World Report says that not having a photo on your LinkedIn profile will make others assume that you’re either “really ugly” or “don’t know how to upload a picture.”

Most of the users on LinkedIn believe that it benefits them to have a picture on their profile

In a study conducted by TheLadders, an eye tracking heatmap shows that recruiters spend 19 percent of the total time they spend on your profile looking at your picture. Then, your current job position and education are glanced at, but not so much time is spent on your skills, specialties or older work experiences.

The “eye tacking” technique examined the eye movements of 30 professional recruiters during a 10-week period to “record and analyze where and how long someone focuses when digesting a piece of information or completing a task.”

TheLadders

So should you include a picture on your LinkedIn profile? Mark Jaffe at CBS says “maybe.” The bottom line is that it’s supposed to help propel your job search and career, not be a hindrance against it.

Jaffe writes:

Same goes for your mug. Can we see your face clearly? Is it strictly business? Was the photo professionally done? Does it improve on your qualifications? Finally … are you attractive enough to be judged on looks alone? Because that’s what you’re inviting people to do. And you can’t have it both ways, hoping to add cachet but claiming discrimination if you wind up getting rejected before the first date.

If it’s a solid asset, great, use it — as long as you’re absolutely certain that it projects the soul of professionalism. But keep in mind you may be dismissed from consideration regardless of your credentials — which quite possibly will never be examined — because you’re bald, overweight, too young, too old, wearing the wrong suit or, cruelest and most unreasonable of all, too beautiful for your own good.

Now see 16 heatmaps that reveal exactly where people look >

Even small businesses can create powerful, meaningful, sincere branding messages. Four ways.

Fri, 25 May 2012 14:35:31 -0400

Even small businesses can create powerful, meaningful, sincere branding messages. Four ways.

Talking Social Media On Road Trip Radio

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:44:17 -0400

Talking Social Media On Road Trip Radio