Virtual Table Hopping

Last night I had the pleasure of sharing my thoughts around how restaurants can use Social Media to grow their business. I didn't have much time so the deck was short but the key idea was there.

The most powerful marketing tool any restaurant owner has is table hopping -- you know when the owner or chef works the room saying hello to guests, asking about their meals, etc. Here in New Orleans it's an art and the great chefs/owners use it to their advantage.

And that is the power of social media for restaurants -- it virtually eliminates the Achilles heal of table hopping -- that you can only do it with the folks in your restaurant. With Twitter, Facebook and the like, you can table hop whenever you wish to. Drop by a patron's Facebook to congratulate them on the birth of a new child or invite them to spend their birthday with you at your restaurant. Use Twitter to say hello to your guests and keep in touch with them. Maybe even use it to notify them that you're got a that special "off menu" item they love, tonight only. You get the picture. I think I might be on to something as I saw a lot of light bulbs going off last night and no, they weren't cameras!

Anyhow, like most decks, you lose a lot without seeing me present it live but I've uploaded the entire thing to slide share so that all of you can see it. Let me know what you think and if you have a restaurant friend, send them the slides and let me know what they think. I'm seriously considering blowing this up into a more formal, one day training class kind of thing so I'm really interested in seeing if folks, especially restaurants, would be interested.