The State of Social Media: Restaurants in New York City

With Fall fast approaching and with it, my 2-year anniversary of being in business as a digital strategist looming ominously overhead, I’ve been wanting to do a taking stock post. Many of my clients over these few years have been restaurants and restaurateurs, and as a food lover and true denizen of New York City, the playground of social media is one that I’ve been focused on even when I wasn’t working on client projects in food. I suppose as I start to get a little nostalgic over the past couple of years, I’ve been wrestling with a summation of sorts, based on but not limited to the following questions:

• what has exactly gone on?
• Where were my predictions right?
• Where were they wrong?
• What did I completely miss?
• Where have I been surprised?
• What’s working and what isn’t?

What Has Happened to Restaurants and Social Media?

At least now, they all know what social media is, what it can do, what it can’t and whether it is for them or not. Going back a few years ago, my job was one first of education then of selling. I had to inform clients and the broader market about just what social media was. And of course, educating businesses and businesses people, and BUSY ones at that, was not and remains a difficult proposition. Half of that is because “social media;” its tools, outlets, protocols, apps and services are in a constant state of flux.

But I can say quite safely that the broader restaurant community in and around New York City has come quite far. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of restaurants actively using social media for a multitude of reasons and in unique and interesting ways. Also, there are tons using social media in predictable, boring, pedantic, even obnoxious ways. Takes all kinds…

So for every and Joe Campanale, for every and , there are plenty of restaurants doing nothing more than tweeting out photos of food, refusing to learn the various platforms and tailoring their activities in any specific way.

What Does Success Look Like for Restaurants Embracing Social Media?

A fraught question, because a straight marketer and business person would have to say “an appreciable increase in business correlated to the amount of time and energy we’ve put into it.” And that straight marketer wouldn’t be wrong.

Of course, we all know I am not a “straight” marketer, at least not totally. I am comfortable with questions about ROI.

But social media will always contain an element of “feel,” an aspect that isn’t describable or definable and certainly isn’t trackable. Whether measuring in Klout scores, retweets, mentions on Eater, mainstream press attention, etc.. success in social media is really a feel thing. Eventually we will have great tools that cross-reference actual POS sales against social activity, but until that day and even beyond that, whether or not a restaurant can be said to be successful with social media is going to be subjective.

It’s going to be in the ether, a matter for jokes and references among the fooderati (yes i said that). Success in social media will be defined by consistency, experimentation, tone and fun.

So Where Are We?

Right now I think that the restaurant scene in New York City, with regards to social media, is closing in upon a really great sweet spot. We have lots of voices already involved with the community, with more coming on every day. And as these new restaurants come on, they’ve had the time to understand what social media is and what it isn’t. Social media for restaurants is NOT about saving your business, or generating a quick sales boost. Enough restaurants have tried that route and ended up washed up in the rocky shoals.

Another reason we are close approaching that sweet spot is that restaurants are experimenting with newer tools like Foursquare, Instagram and Tumblr. Experimentation is a hallmark of the digital world, an understanding that trying and failing are good things in the long run.

This morning I checked into Murray’s Bagels on Foursquare, earned a badge and this is the tweet I got back in return:

That was ten minutes after I checked in and a nice surprise as I devoured a poppy seed bagel with Lox, onion and egg. (It’s called the LEO). This is the kind of thing that clearly communicates that restaurants, or the people they are hiring are really starting to figure out what a good social media profile looks like for a restaurant.

I’ll be doing a few more of these wrap ups in the coming days and weeks so keep an eye out. And please feel free to leave a comment if you want to add to the conversation, or if you feel I’ve missed something

Tagged as: New York City, Restaurants, Social Media