Three Ugly Scenarios On How Twitter Could Fail As A Free Restaurant Marketing Platform
Twitter this. Twitter that. It seems every business and every restaurant wants to advertise on Twitter. But let me assure you Twitter is not fool-proof. Twitter as a free restaurant marketing platform has its share of setbacks too, and I think it is best that you find out about it before any permanent damage is done.
Here’s an example of a Twitter faux pas I’d rather not share, but I’ll say it anyway, all in the name of free restaurant marketing.
- Scenario #1
Last week I responded to a public message a friend of mine posted on Twitter. Call it stupidity, but there were clearly several meanings to my reply, a reply I didn’t even bother to read twice before posting it. It was enough to make my friend blush. She told me herself. Later my wife got wind of this mess and there you go.
Lesson learned. Now I have a built-in system to filter everything I type at least twice. Since Twitter is both a social media and a free restaurant marketing tool, it really helps to screen everything before posting it to the public.
- Scenario #2
Here’s a strange one.
The other day a friend of mine received a message from a fellow restaurant operator couple saying they were blocking him indefinitely for “making a useless post on Twitter”. My friend was really upset by this. He sent several emails to the couple (since he could no longer message them on Twitter) asking them what was up. But all of them were ignored.
Then several weeks later he received a reply. The couple said they were away on vacation, and that they had received dozens of similar emails asking them about the block. Strange. I’ve seen spam and auto-responders, but are we now seeing auto-blockers on Twitter too?
- Scenario #3
This final scenario involved me and a fight, and it wasn’t even my fight.
A couple friends of mine got into a heated argument on Twitter. One of them is an entrepreneur, the other an Internet savvy fellow who runs an online media service. I was stupid enough to jump into the conversation to try and explain a point my entrepreneur friend was trying to make.
My plan immediately backfired. I got shot down by my Internet savvy friend even before I had the chance to take off. He took it that I was taking sides, and he said it in a way I don’t ever want to read again in a post from a friend. The experience really left a bad taste in my mouth.
When you put your restaurant out there to the world, something’s bound to happen. Not everyone is going to like what you say. You might even make some enemies instead of friends and customers.
I guess these scenarios depict perfectly the other side of social media. As a restaurant operator, be prepared to get your pride scarred here and there. Some people will un-follow you. Some might even block you. The answer is to keep it honest. Twitter is both a social media and a free business/restaurant marketing platform, so you need to learn to be subtle in your approach. Too much direct selling never works, both online and offline.
Learn from these situations. Learn to use Twitter as a free restaurant marketing platform to the fullest.