In an article entitled 9 Tips For Marketing Your Restaurant With a Facebook Business Fan Page, Mark Ijlal provides some great tips for restaurants and eateries hoping to use Facebook to increase clientele. Here is his 

In an article entitled 9 Tips For Marketing Your Restaurant With a Facebook Business Fan Page, Mark Ijlal provides some great tips for restaurants and eateries hoping to use Facebook to increase clientele. Here is his list of 9 suggestions (slightly altered) that he gave to a friend who started his own restaurant.

Read through these and let us know any you might add.

1. Give real world guests a gift certificate to become Facebook Fans

[Mark's friend's restuarant] serves around 600 guests every week who have already experienced his food and his place and if they are even 75% satisfied, it is worth every effort to get them to go home and Fan him up. Right now he is giving them a little business card with his Facebook URL and a promise to be invited to future wine tastings. Not good enough. Make a gift certificate for his guests who go home and Fan him up (free dessert or free appetizer next time they visit) and email them the gift certificate once they have fanned him up and emailed him. Personalize the gift certificate (Microsoft Publisher / Save as PDF) so guests know that this was made just for them.

2. Build an email list

Don’t ask guests when they are doing #1 to just email you. Let them opt-in via a simple three-line form (first name, email, did you just fan us up on Facebook?) before you email them the gift certificate so now you have added them to your email list also. In 12 months he should have couple of thousand names in his database.

3. Throw the business card away. Give out an Invitation Card to your Facebook Business Fan Page

American Express Black Card. Tiffany Blue Box. Packaging matters. Instead of giving them a cheap business card with the Facebook URL printed on it, that he got printed at Staples, let’s print a small 4 by 6 invitation card, in a linen cream color envelope, to be given to the guest. It should look so classy that a guest with a pulse would have a hard time tossing it away as soon as they leave and it is big enough that they cannot stick in the wallet and forget all about it by the time they get to their car which I suspect is happening right now.

4. Make your fans hungry. Show pictures. Daily.

I took some pictures last time I was there and put them on their Facebook Fan Page. They had guests that night and three nights later who were coming in asking for “that chicken dish that is on your Facebook”. They have daily specials. Typically two appetizers and three dinner items. They have a board in their place where they write the items up in white chalk and then the waitress recites the specials to every guest. Every night take the picture of the dishes that they are planning to put on the board as specials and at 4pm – post the picture on Facebook. Most people check their email before they leave work for the last time. Get a good looking dish in front of them before your fans make the dinner plans for the night.

5. Do 2 Wall Worthy Videos every week that have nothing to do with your restaurant

Michael did a video for his restaurant and he was actually very good in it. Not over the top Jim Kramer type but more Charlie Rose “Hey I know Italian Food” type. Restaurant kitchens are a great place to shoot videos because they have good lights, strong visuals of food being made, people moving etc. There is motion. Shoot two videos every week (Kodak has a great HD camera for around $150) that actually do not promote your restaurant directly but have wall worthiness written all over them so your existing fans might embed them in their own walls OR forward them to their friends.

Here are the first 6 short under two minutes videos I outlined for him:

• Dry pasta vs. fresh pasta?
• What do chefs order when they are in mood to eat steak?
• How they eat pasta in Italy?

6. Test Facebook coupons that only last 24 hours

Michael hates using coupons to bring people to his restaurant. His objections have to do with discounting yourself to shutting down the place and his brand. I agree with him on both of these accounts. Cutting price to bring people in is the easiest thing to do and hence every restaurant does that even to the point where they start losing money. Not a good business model. But what I want to test is how fast his Fans notice something new in their Newsfeed. I want to test online coupons using Sprout coupon builder that actually shows up in his Wall and in this Fans Newsfeed and see how many of them come in then next 24 hours.

7. Do a specific event JUST for your Facebook Fans

He has only 185 fans right now. Even if 20 Fans show up for the first wine tasting that is fine. Shoot a couple of videos. Take tons of pictures. And put it all up. You will have 40 next time. 100 on your third time. Print 2 good pictures and add them to your Facebook Business Fan Page Invite envelope. Show your guests that when you say you treat your Fans with love and special care, you are serious about it.

8. Run Facebook Ads in a 10 mile radius

I spent 10 minutes on Facebook and the list of keywords that Facebook is generating is amazing. From the obvious Italian food to like discovering new restaurants. CPM’s are around 30 cents. Test it out for 90 days with a small ad budget, maybe around $5 per day.

9. Make a very very good offer on your landing page / custom tab

He has a decent landing page custom tab right now with FBML switching pictures and thanking people who become his fans. Nice but I would like to add an offer for his non-fan, just found you, via a Facebook Ad traffic. He does not want to do a coupon. But I believe that we can bump up conversions if we have a good exact offer besides the fuzzy fan-us-and-we-will-invite-you-to-future-wine-tastings type of thing.

One of Fluid’s client, Orbit Irrigation Products, Inc., recently sponsored the Farmington Junior Tennis Tournament.

Fluid assisted in creating the banner for the event.

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Top row left to right: Andrew Eyring, Zachary Delbos, Michael Bargeron, Carson Lord, Blake 

One of Fluid’s client, Orbit Irrigation Products, Inc., recently sponsored the Farmington Junior Tennis Tournament.

Fluid assisted in creating the banner for the event.

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Top row left to right: Andrew Eyring, Zachary Delbos, Michael Bargeron, Carson Lord, Blake Harris
Middle row left to right:  Sara Marple, Ashley Eyring, Ben Smith, Nicholas Lebaron, Spencer Hafen
Holding sign left to right:  Kristine Smith, Haleigh Downing

The Farmington Junior Tennis Tournament 2009 was held June 23rd – July 2nd at the Knowlton Elementary School Courts in conjunction with the Farmington Festival Days (July 6-11).  The sponsors for this year’s tournament were Farmington City, Orbit Irrigation Products, Inc., Smith’s, & Lagoon.   The participants, both male and female, ranged from 12-18 yrs old.   All players received a gift bag and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place entries received medals.  First place winners received a Lagoon Day Pass, 2nd and 3rd place also received prizes.

This tournament has been held in the past but just started up again after a several year hiatus.
Medal recipients were:
Spencer Hafen
Nicholas Lebaron
Zachary Delbo
Connor Carlini
Andrew Eyring
Blake Harris
Carson Lord
Ashley Eyring
Haleigh Downing
Sarah Marple

How Much Can You Afford To Spend On Customer Acquisition?

As sales and marketing teams  I found a great article from Go-To-Market-Strategies. It is vital that a company knows how much they can spend in acquiring new clients. See below:

How Much Can You Afford To Spend On Customer Acquisition?

As sales and marketing teams develop and implement marketing budgets, they rely on many metrics to guide them. What was spent last year? What does the industry typically spend as a percentage of revenue? How much is needed to implement the planned activities? And so on.

What is often not asked is perhaps the most critical metric of all. How much can you afford to spend to acquire a new customer? The path to answering this question boils down to knowing your Lifetime Customer Value. The Lifetime Value (LTV) of a Customer is built from the following equation:

LTV = (Frequency of Purchase) X (Duration of Loyalty) X (Gross Profit)

How frequently does your customer buy?

How long does your customer stay with you?

What is your profit? (average order size minus average order cost of goods, fulfillment,
and service)

Take the average for each of these three questions and plug that into the LTV equation, and you have your Lifetime Gross Profit contribution of a customer. From there you can answer the question “How much can you afford to acquire a new customer?”

A good rule of thumb to follow when answering this question is 1/3 of the LTV can be spent to acquire a new customer. This assumes you have a retention rate within normal ranges—most companies experience 20-25% attrition each year. If your customer attrition rate is much higher than 25%, you may have a brand loyalty problem that should be addressed immediately. Remember, it costs 5x more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. Also, if 1/3 your LTV is less than 10% as a percentage of sales, you may have an overhead expense problem that needs to be addressed.

Calculating your Lifetime Value of a Customer will not only help you determine what you can afford to spend on sales and marketing, but it also will help you identify other issues you may need to address outside of the budgeting process (e.g. attrition and overly burdensome overhead costs).

http://www.gtms-inc.com/tip_customerlifetimevalue.htm

The charts below are very interesting in what they reveal.

  Businesses use social media like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn for a variety of reason.

The charts below are very interesting in what they reveal.

An Twitter-exclusive promotion brought in 15% of their day’s business, an associate of Naked Pizza told Advertising Age. “Sure, there’s the brand marketing and getting-to-know-you stuff…but we wanted to know: Can it make the cash register ring?”

Apparently it did.

Recently, Ad Age offered five tips for marketing on social media platforms:

* Track sales made on social media.
* Don’t use Twitter as Facebook (and vice versa). Know what each can do and the strengths/weakness of each platform.
* Create a conversation with friends and followers.
* Sell last-minute inventory.
* Alert followers to changes.

Fluid Studio was invited by KUTV Channel 2 (Salt Lake City) to present on Twitter.

We helped Mike and Lindsay, the news anchors, get set up on Twitter.

I have my personal favorite tools that augment Twitter’s capabilities. However, I stumbled upon this extensive list from Online Best Colleges and thought I had to share it with others. The list makes a great resource. 

I have my personal favorite tools that augment Twitter’s capabilities. However, I stumbled upon this extensive list from Online Best Colleges and thought I had to share it with others. The list makes a great resource.

If your goal is to be popular and influential on Twitter, be sure to check out these tools that will tell you how you’re doing.

1. Twitter Grader: Learn your Twitter grade, your local Twitter Elite, and find new people to follow through Twitter Grader.
2. Twitterholic: Check out the top Twitter users and find out your Twitter stats on Twitterholic.
3. TweetStats: TweetStats offers a graphical analysis of your Twitter stats.
4. Twitter Friends: Carefully measure your Twitter conversations using Twitter Friends.
5. Twinfluence: Twinfluence will measure your Twitter influence based on reach, velocity, and social capital.
6. Tweetwasters: Find out how much time you and other users waste on Twitter.
7. Tweet-Rank: Learn about the quality of your tweets by finding out which ones won or lost followers.
8. Mr. Milestone: Get a tweet when you reach various milestones using this Twitter tool.
9. Retweetrank: Find out how many retweets you and other Twitter users have through this service.

Information Gathering

With these tools, you and gather information for market research, blog posts, and your own simple curiosity.

1. Tweetbeep: With Tweetbeep, you can set up alerts that will help you keep track of keywords on Twitter.
2. @myflightinfo: Use @myflightinfo to stay updated on your flight’s status.
3. Twitterverse: Check out archived timelines and tweets through Twitterverse.
4. Twitscoop: Twitscoop shares what’s hot on Twitter at any given moment.
5. Twitbuzz: Twitbuzz tracks the latest conversations as well as popular Twitter links.
6. StrawPoll: Use StrawPoll to make sharing your opinion as easy as sending an @reply.
7. Retweetist: This service ranks the hottest links being retweeted on Twitter.
8. Monitter: Get real time keyword monitoring on Twitter from Monitter.
9. TweetNews: TweetNews ranks stories based on the amount of related tweets.
10. TwitterBuzz: TwitterBuzz will tell you what’s being linked to the most on Twitter.
11. Tweetscan: Set up Tweetscan to make sure you don’t miss any @replies, and to get alerted of your search queries.

Network Building & Management

Find more relevant Twitter users with the help of these tools.

1. Twitter Local: With this service, you can see tweets from Twitter users in a specific location.
2. Twubble: Twubble will expand your Twitter bubble, picking out people you may like to follow.
3. MyCleenr: Sort your friends by their last tweets, and you can get rid of the inactive and useless accounts you’re following.
4. Follow Cost: This tool will tell you how much effort it takes to follow someone.
5. Tweepler: Use Tweepler to organize your tweeps based on whether you’re following them or not.
6. Just Tweet It: Find Tweeple, tools, Twitter bots and more through this directory.
7. TweetWheel: TweetWheel will help you discover which of your Twitter friends know each other.
8. SocialToo: SocialToo will help you keep track of all of the people who have followed or unfollowed you.
9. Twitoria: Reduce your clutter on Twitter by finding your friends that haven’t tweeted in a long time.
10. TwitDir: With TwitDir, you’ll be able to search for people, and exploring categories including top followers and updaters.
11. Who Should I Follow?: Using this site, you can get good recommendations for Tweeps to follow.
12. Nearbytweets: Learn about all of the Twitter users in a specific area with the help of Nearbytweets.
13. Twellow: Find Twitter users in a specific industry using this service.
14. Mr. Tweet: Mr. Tweet is a personal networking assistant for Twitter, helping you find relevant followers.
15. Qwitter: Qwitter will help you manage your network by sending an alert when a person unfollows you.

Twitter Management

Save your time and cull your Twitter list with the help of these tools.

1. Twitter Search: Retrieve information on Twitter quickly to search Twitter in real time.
2. Tweet O’Clock: Trying to reach someone? Tweet O’Clock will help you find the best time to get their attention.
3. Just Signal: Set up a filter using Just Signal to get only the tweets that discuss the keywords you’d like to read about.
4. TweepSearch: Put your Twitter network to good use and search your followers for specific parameters.
5. Friend or Follow: Manage your Twitter contacts and find out who’s not following you back through Friend or Follow.
6. TwitResponse: TwitResponse makes it easy for you to schedule the delivery of your tweets ahead of time.
7. TwitterSnooze: Put the pause button on a particular user for a while with Twitter Snooze.
8. Twitterless: Get notified when someone stops following you with Twitterless.
9. Twilert: Track specific keywords to receive alerts for using Twilert.
10. Tweetdeck: Tweetdeck has a groups function that will help you more efficiently follow the people you really want to listen to.
11. Twalala: Put the mute button on certain people and topics for a while if you are receiving lots of updates you’re not really interested in.

Sharing Tools

Promote your business, share photos, and more using these Twitter tools.

1. Tweetburner: Use Tweetburner to share links, and you can track their usage.
2. Twitpic: Twitpic makes it easy to take mobile phone photos and share them using your Twitter account.
3. TwitterHawk: Get targeted marketing on Twitter through TwitterHawk.
4. Acamin: Acamin makes it easy to share files on Twitter with your followers.
5. Glue: Post links to books, movies, restaurants and more on Twitter through Glue.
6. Ping.fm: This service will update all of your social networks at once.
7. TweeTube: TweeTube makes it easy to share videos on Twitter.
8. twiggit: Use this automated service to share the articles you digg on Twitter.
9. Twisten.fm: Share what you’re listening to on Twitter through Twisten.fm.

Organisation & Productivity

These Twitter tools will make your life a bit more streamlined.

1. Twittercal: Link your Twitter account and Google Calendar to easily keep up with your events and appointments.
2. Timer: Use Timer to get reminders about tasks through your Twitter account.
3. TwitterNotes: Organize your notes using Twitter with TwitterNotes.
4. Remember the Milk: Use Remember the Milk on Twitter to update your to do list.
5. Tweetake: Tweetake will back up your Twitter timeline for archiving and more.
6. Nozbe: Nozbe makes it easy to add and update your to do list on Twitter.
7. Toodledo: This popular to do list app integrates nicely with Twitter.
8. TrackThis: Send TrackThis your tracking number, and you’ll get Twitter messages every time there’s a change in location.
9. Joint Contact: Get project management productivity on Twitter using Joint Contact.
10. Tempo: This time tracking tool allows you to send in updates from Twitter.
11. Tweet Later: Tweet Later offers a great way to set up alerts, schedule tweets, send thank you DMs, and more.
12. OutTwit: OutTwit will make it easy for you to use Twitter inside of Outlook.
13. Jott: Jott makes it easy for you to tweet without ever having to type, transcribing your voice message to Twitter.

Life Tools

With these tools, you can work on relationships, life tracking, and more.

1. MyMileMarker: Keep track of your mileage with info sent via Twitter every time you fill up.
2. 21Tweets: 21Tweets offers personal coaching on Twitter.
3. TwtTRIP: Organize your travel plans and find other Twitter travelers on your way with TwtTRIP.
4. Tweet Answers: Twitter Answers makes it easy to ask questions and get answers on Twitter.
5. Twtvite: Twtvite is a simple event organizer that will help you create a tweetup.
6. Vacatweet: Set up an autoresponder for your Twitter account with Vacatweet.
7. plusplusbot: Share when someone goes out of their way to help you, or otherwise make your feelings known using plusplusbot.
8. TrackDailyGoals: Use this site and the #dailygoals hashtag to keep track of your goals every day.
9. ConnectTweet: Put the voices of your group or business together through ConnectTweet.
10. Tweeteorology: Find tweets about the weather in any location through Tweeteorology.
11. DreamTweet: Keep a reminder of your dreams and nightmares, and follow the dreams of others through DreamTweet.

Business & Finance

Use these tools to improve your business and finances through Twitter.

1. Chipin: If you’re raising funds on Twitter, make use of Chipin to set a goal and let your supporters track the progress of the campaign.
2. Xpenser: You can Twitter your expenses to Xpenser and they will be recorded for you.
3. Twittertise: Schedule your tweets and track their clickthroughs with this app designed for Twitter advertising.
4. TwtQpon: Create simple Twitter coupons for your business with TwtQpon.
5. CheapTweet: Get all of the deals, sales, coupons and more being discussed on Twitter through CheapTweet.
6. Tipjoy: Like Chipin, Tipjoy offers a way to create social payments for your cause, content, or people.
7. SalesTwit: Get contact management for Twitter with the help of SalesTwit.
8. Tweet What You Spend: Track your cash in a really effective way using Tweet What You Spend.
9. StockTwits: StockTwits shares the investment discussions on Twitter in real time.

Health

Track your health using these Twitter tools.

1. Qwitter: Update Qwitter to shame yourself into quitting smoking.
2. TweetPlot: Use TweetPlot to chart your food and fitness statistics.
3. Tweetwhatyoueat: Keep a food diary to track what you’re eating every day using Tweetwhatyoueat.
4. gtFtr: Use the gtFtr tool to record your exercise activity on Twittr.
5. SugarStats: Track, monitor, and share your blood sugar through Twitter with SugarStats.
6. FoodFeed: This Twitter-based food log makes it easy for you to track what you’re eating.

Blogging

Bring your blog life and Twitter life together with these tools.

1. Add to Any: Get your posts shared on Twitter by using Add to Any on your WordPress blog.
2. TwitThis: Make use of this plugin to send Twitter messages about your blog post.
3. MyTwitter: Use the MyTwitter plugin to display your Twitter status on WordPress.
4. Twitpress: Twitpress will send out a Tweet every time you post a new blog entry.
5. TwitterCounter: With this plugin, you can display the number of followers you have on Twitter.
6. TwitterFeed: Announce your blog post on Twitter with a customized message using TwitterFeed.

a) Do not think of social media as being hierarchical (e.g., speaker/audience); rather, it evens the playing field and makes all things egalitarian in  I recently read this article and love the points the author is making.

a) Do not think of social media as being hierarchical (e.g., speaker/audience); rather, it evens the playing field and makes all things egalitarian in many ways.
b) Step outside the box and innovate! Make people want to respond to you!
c) Be real and transparent online; people can sniff out a con artist or someone that is self-serving. Letting others know your INTENT can help make them CONTENT with your CONTENT.
d) Strive to be considered an expert with knowledge to share. If you are a knowledge broker, you do not have to sell your product or services–they will sell themselves. Rather, be discovered.

Coca-Cola is launching great idea with their new environmentally friendly plastic bottle that is partly made from plants- sugar cane and molasses.  Check out the complete article:

www.greenerpackage.com

Below is a link to an example of what we have done on our site to  Using a Twitter search query string and associated RSS technology tied to a traditional html blog post can increase your website’s search engine optimization!

Below is a link to an example of what we have done on our site to repurpose content and have it flow into our site. Having a presence like this helps our landing page be a resource to those who visit our site as well as help index us in the search engines using terms that we want to be found under.

See what we have done on our site by clicking HERE.

These earphones interlock.  I love the idea.  Check it out:

www.toxel.com