Four Practical Ways To Establish Your Restaurant On Twitter

For restaurants, Twitter is the king of social media. You should know how much faith I have in it if you’re reading this article from my blog.

But Twitter won’t solve your problems if you don’t know how to “catch” an audience. You need to gain their trust, and make it clear that your tweets are an honest attempt at communicating, not just to sell.

If you want to advertise your restaurant on Twitter, you need to attract a following. To attract a following, you need to follow these four practical tips.

1.    Inject humor into your tweets
The corporate world is a dull and boring place, and Tweeter is where mundane life could be more fun.

Practical rule no. 1 is to inject humor into your posts. This reminds followers that not only is there a real person behind your account, but it also help them relax a little towards you and your brand.

2.    Ask questions followers could respond to
Communication is a two-way street. If all your tweets end at that period, guess who’d feel left out?

Practical rule no. 2 is to encourage customer interaction by asking questions they could relate and respond to. It is also a good opportunity to conduct a survey of your menu and services.

3.    Timing is key to effective promotion
I mentioned earlier that Twitter is where most people look to read interesting stuff about their friends and followers, and this is where proper timing comes in.

Practical rule no. 3 is to limit your promotional tweets to only a couple times per day. Don’t bombard your followers with endless service or product advertisements—that is, unless you want to push them away and follow someone else.

4.    Be human
I can’t stress this enough. This is perhaps the most important piece of advice I could share to you about Twitter.

Practical rule no. 4 is to be human. Don’t make your tweets sound like a bored call center agent who couldn’t wait to put in his eight hours for the day. Show them you’re human and that you are interested in what they have to say. When customers realize they’re being heard, they tend to patronize that product or service—in this case, your restaurant—even more.

Being practical doesn’t end in four simple steps. Post a comment below and tell me your methods on attracting a solid following on Twitter.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 2:57 am and is filed under Online Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.