When Carmel Ruggeri opened the doors of her new Sydney restaurant yesterday, the Twittersphere almost certainly lit up. After all, almost unbelievably, the restaurateur has built her entire business on the back of it.

From wine suppliers to website designers, photographers, and even tweets from celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, Ruggeri has built the business in 140-character instalments.

“It’s quite funny when I really start to think about it how many people I’ve found on here,” she says, referring to suppliers, supporters and followers who have already booked for tables via Twitter. “It’s mind-boggling. I don’t think people realise the true power of Twitter.”

Continue reading . . .

Pizza Hut's Big Italy Pizza

Pizza lovers who believe bigger is better will say bravissimo! to the launch of Pizza Hut’s new Big Italy Pizza – which measures nearly 2 feet long and is bigger than two medium Pizza Hut pizzas. To kick off the launch of the Big Italy Pizza in a big way, Pizza Hut is giving away 1,000 $15 Pizza Hut gift cards to Pizza Hut’s loyal Facebook fans (Facebook.com/PizzaHut) with the Big Italy Pizza Big Giveaway.

“The launch of the Big Italy Pizza calls for a big celebration,” said Brian Niccol, Chief Marketing Officer at Pizza Hut. “That’s why we’re giving away 1,000 pizzas to our loyal Facebook family. When it comes to feeding a hungry crowd, it doesn’t get better – or bigger – than our new Big Italy Pizza.”

The Big Italy Pizza features Italian spices baked into Pizza Hut’s signature Hand-Tossed Style crust – a delicious base for any pizza fan’s favorite toppings from Pizza Hut. The oval-shaped pizza has 18 slices – enough for the whole family – and is just $12 for up to three toppings. The Big Italy Pizza is a limited time offer.

What’s Cooking in the Social Media Kitchen

Pizza Hut fans who are hungry for more information about what’s going on Under the Roof at Pizza Hut now have one place to go for all of the latest news, http://social.PizzaHut.com. For the first time ever, Pizza Hut will provide fans, followers and friends with the latest and greatest from Pizza Hut social media in one place. The hub will host all updates, photo sharing and deals for Pizza Hut fans. With the launch of Under the Roof, social-savvy Pizza Hut aficionados will never miss out on an exclusive mayorship deal or a first peek at news.  

How to Enter the Big Italy Pizza Big Giveaway

Pizza lovers can enter the Big Italy Pizza Big Giveaway by visiting Facebook.com/PizzaHut, becoming a fan of Pizza Hut and submitting to become an instant winner on the Win Big Italy tab. Fans can enter one time per day and winners will be notified instantly. The giveaway runs Sept. 7-16, 2010. Official rules are available on the Win Big Italy tab at Facebook.com/PizzaHut.

Big Italy Pizza Big Giveaway Prize

1,000 pizza fans will win free Big Italy pizzas (in the form of a $15 Pizza Hut gift cards). 100 gift cards will be given away each day from Sept. 7-16, 2010.

For more information on Pizza Hut, visit PizzaHut.com or interact with Pizza Hut at social.PizzaHut.com.

A colleague of mine who raves about Ottawa’s Play Food and Wine recently tweeted to her followers that she was looking forward to her Friday night dinner reservation. Much to her surprise, just minutes after settling in, a restaurant manager she had never met came to the table to thank her for always tweeting such kind words about the popular spot.

She was delighted.

Over the past year the marketing world has seen some incredible PR campaigns strategically harness the power of social media – it is an important tool that can be used by businesses big and small.

Well-known Ottawa restaurateur Stephen Beckta opened Play in January, 2009. Grayson McDiarmid, Play’s wine director and service manager, decided it would be fun to sign-up for Facebook and Twitter about 10 months ago. At the time of this column, Play had almost 500 Twitter followers and about 665 Facebook fans.

Continue reading . . .

Tony Crolla has won plaudits and prizes for the quality of his log fired pizzeria, La Favorita and for the Italian cuisine on offer Vittoria on Leith Walk and Vittoria on the  Bridge.

Now he is ensuring the dining experience extends well beyond the three venues by become the first Italian restaurants to interact with customers on their favourite online venues.

Tony has launched both Twitter and Facebook pages for La Favorita and Vittoria, giving his customers the chance to keep up to date with the latest restaurant news, events and offers.

The social media sites also give his customers a platform where they can express their views on the restaurant, inviting them to make suggestions and improvements, ensuring that they get the ultimate dining experience.

Continue reading . . .

Report from the Department of Inevitabilities: Michael McCarty, the 57-year-old owner of the eponymous New York City restaurant that feeds $36 Cobb salads to the expense-account-fortified media elite, is getting into the content generation business.

This year, he launched a blog and a YouTube channel that airs, for instance, videos with the sommelier. Like any who’s who in media, Mr. McCarty has started contributing to the Huffington Post. A recent entry described a dinner party he cooked for his son’s college buddies. (His son called him, said, “Wassup this Saturday?” and Mr. McCarty served wild salmon and white wine to a crew more used to Taco Bell and Budweiser.)

Continue reading . . .

“We’re pretty small and nimble. Up until [four] weeks ago, I was a one-man show for our digital marketing efforts,” said Natalie Bass, Houlihan’s digital marketing manager. Last month, it brought in a contract worker to assist.

With 100 restaurants, Houlihan’s competes with the likes of Applebee’s, which has more than 2,000 restaurants, and T.G.I. Friday’s, which has more than 900 restaurants – and presumably bigger marketing budgets.

Developing a digital marketing strategy at Houlihan’s has meant making tough choices. Houlihan’s did not plunge into developing a branded Facebook page or Twitter account – it just launched @houlihans and plans to roll out a national Houlihan’s page on Facebook in the coming week. The company’s initial social efforts centered on an invite-only online community, called HQ, established in January 2008. And a year later, Houlihan’s expanded into mobile promotions with its Foody Call Club.

Continue reading . . .

An organic burger restaurant in midtown Manhattan is using social networking for menu development, marketing, entertainment and even social change. Its delicious plans suggest ways that businesses of all kinds can transform themselves by “crowdsourcing” not only marketing, but product development as well.

When the 4food eatery opens its doors at the corner of 40th and Madison on July 6, it just might usher in a new era in the integration of social networking with the real world.

A 240-square-foot monitor in the restaurant will constantly stream Foursquare check-ins, tweets from Twitter, and restaurant information. In other words, the restaurant itself will be a social networking application.

Continue reading . . .

Social media continues to gain ground for those in the restaurant business during the 91st annual National Restaurant Association (NRA) show running Saturday to Tuesday in Chicago. There were video screens on the show floor with live Twitter feeds, and educational sessions designed to help educate restaurateurs and vendors on capitalizing the different digital marketing options.

Social media isn’t just a marketing strategy for full-service restaurant operators. Quick-serve restaurants are increasingly tapping into new media strategies to drive traffic and loyalty. 24 percent of adults surveyed by the NRA in November 2009 say they would likely sign up for email notifications of daily specials, and 17 percent are likely to sign up for text message notifications.

Quick-serve restaurateurs are listening. More than half of quick-serve operators plan on adding a Facebook page in the next two years, and 38 percent plan on launching blogs about their restaurants, according to the NRA.

Continue reading . . .

On May 17, the Charlotte Observer published a story about North Carolina-based pizza chain, Brixx and its firing of an employee who insulted a customer on her Facebook page while invoking the company name. Since then, the Associated Press and Huffington Post have recirculated the story, which has since gotten thousands of comments and tweets.
 
If it’s suffocation of free speech that has people buzzing, it’s for naught: In fact, the employee, Ashley Johnson, went against the corporate policy she signed when first hired, according to concept owner Jeff Van Dyke.
 
Van Dyke said the social media dictate is part of the regular policies and procedures of working with the chain. It states that employees shouldn’t give the impression that they represent Brixx as a company on their personal online outlets, nor say negative things concerning the chain in this realm.
 
“And in this particular instance, this server didn’t get as big a tip as she had hoped, even though they tipped her 17 percent,” he said. “And she posted some very negative stuff on Facebook and on a discussion page, and somehow that was sent back to a store, and it was a clear violation. She was let go.”

Continue reading . . .

Ashley Johnson had a good job making good money as a waitress at Brixx Pizza on Sixth Street in uptown Charlotte.

But that changed about a week ago, when a couple came in for lunch and stayed for three hours – forcing her to work an hour past her quitting time.

And they left her a tip she thought was pretty measly – $5.

Johnson did what most folks who need a good rant do nowadays. When she got home, she went on Facebook. “Thanks for eating at Brixx,” she wrote, “you cheap piece of —- camper.”

And like a growing number of workers, she found out the hard way that what you say on social networks can be used against you, particularly if you’re in a position of public trust or public service.

Continue reading . . .

Restaurant promotion is going high-tech.

Franchise restaurants have long tried to drum up business on the local level with newspaper ads and with mass mailings of coupons and other promotional offers.

But now franchisers have a host of new ways to drive business to individual stores, thanks largely to the explosion in recent years of technologies that recognize a user’s location.

Among others: Burger King Holdings Inc. is test-marketing an iPhone application that helps users find its restaurants and view local deals, and Quizno’s Corp. and Applebee’s International Inc. are readying similar apps.

Mooyah, a regional burger franchise in Texas, is offering location-specific giveaways and specials to its followers on Twitter, while Papa Murphy’s International Inc., a pizza franchise based in Vancouver, Wash., with restaurants across the country, plans to offer location-specific deals to customers nationwide by using technology that recognizes the whereabouts of visitors to the company’s website.

“It’s like modern-day ZIP Code marketing,” says Darren Tristano, executive vice president of Technomic Inc., a food-industry research firm in Chicago.

Continue reading . . .

Managers can expect workplace issues with social media to become more frequent since employees are spending more time on social media sites.

Employment attorneys say they expect the issue to be confronted in the courts. In a groundbreaking case last year, servers at a Houston’s restaurant launched a password protected MySpace group where they vented about work.

Sometimes the online remarks became offensive and sexual. A manager gained access to the MySpace group and began monitoring the posts. He fired the servers, who responded by filing a privacy lawsuit against the company.

The servers said they were “just joking,” according to court documents. A New Jersey jury sided with the employees and found a company was guilty of violating privacy laws since the group was password protected.

Some companies are writing clearer policies and are cautioning employees about putting work gripes online.

Still, there are some employees who view social media as a personal outlet for complaining.

Continue reading . . .

Edlynne Laryea swears she’s not a geek. Before last spring, Laryea, 33, had never met a stranger from the Internet in person. But few of her offline friends share her passion for food, so Laryea, a digital marketing strategist, started discussing her culinary adventures with fellow food lovers on Twitter.

Now she spends a lot of time with friends she’s made online. “I never thought I’d say it, but I’ve made a lot of good friends through Twitter,” said Laryea. She and a group of five other foodies on Twitter organized an eating club to test out dim sum restaurants. Later they set out on a mission to discover the city’s best burger.

Many foodies in Toronto have taken to the web to connect with others and set up dinners and trips to local markets on sites like Twitter and Meetup.com. In May of last year a group called Foodie Meet held its first event at Brassaii on King St., which was attended by Laryea and about 100 other foodies.

Continue reading . . .

Some of the biggest brands — once known for favoring mass over efficiency — are turning the marketing matrix on its head by targeting promos at consumers using social media exclusively.
No TV. No radio. No print ads.

Instead of mixing traditional and non-traditional media, they’re focusing very targeted promotions via Twitter, Facebook or even Foursquare on a small number of consumers who they hope will reward them with social buzz.

American Express is doing it with the cult hit TV show Glee via Twitter. Papa John’s is using its Facebook page to prompt fans to create, name and earn a slice of profits from the sales of a consumer-designed pizza. And Pepsi, which shook Madison Avenue by spurning the Super Bowl for social media, has asked Mountain Dew’s Facebook fans to help it create, name and market a new Dew.

“Social media is the hottest thing out there,” says Janet Fouts, a social-media coach. “The ones who succeed are the ones who will land the tech-savvies, the Gen Y’s and the Gen X’s.”

Continue reading . . .

When deployed strategically, social media can increase sales and bring more customers through the door of a small business.

There’s now hard evidence that affirms social media isn’t just for Fortune 500 companies. And it was a small business in Long Beach that proved it.

The Kreisler Group (TKG), a full service advertising agency with three employees, had been specializing in telling the stories of large companies for more than two years when the economy started taking its toll in 2009 and the agency’s national accounts began shrinking.

Julie Kreisler, founder and CEO of TKG, said at the end of 2008, companies’ advertising budgets were cut and there was an urgency to receive more exposure with less money. Kreisler was facing a similar situation within her agency and needed to leverage her own resources to remain afloat.

“The goal was to develop multi-platform (public relations) campaigns by using social media to grow a business’s audience,” Kreisler said. “We had started to do some social media campaigns on a national level for our clients, but to really market it as a viable service, we needed more facts and evidence to show that (social media) was worth the investment.”

TKG didn’t have to travel far to find a willing participant for their social media case study. Alegria Cocina Latina restaurant, 115 Pine Ave., the restaurant on the ground floor of TKG’s office building, was the model for the 10-week study from Aug. 30, 2009, to Nov. 7, 2009. In exchange for the possibility of increasing business, Alegria’s management agreed to provide TKG with sales data from 2008 and 2009 while the study was conducted.

Continue reading . . .

A crowd that showed up at a restaurant in south Corvallis on Thursday gave new meaning to the term “lunch rush.”

About 40 people converged on the newly opened Iovino’s location at 1835 S.E. Third St. between noon and 1 p.m. The gathering was a “flash mob,” advertised mainly by online social media.

The product of a loosely knit group calling itself the Corvallis Social Media Brigade, the date and time for the sudden gathering of people was announced several days in advance, but the location wasn’t revealed until Thursday morning.

Employees at Iovino’s didn’t know in advance either, offering customers in the packed restaurant bewildered smiles as they scrambled to fill orders.

Continue reading . . .

The best way to learn about the Sioux Falls dining scene is still probably word of mouth.

Your neighbor loved a recent lunch out. Your co-worker had a great date at a bar.

People love to share good food stories. And just like everything else now, they share a ton of them online.

Sioux Falls is no different. In addition to traditional advertising, businesses are using everything from Facebook to Twitter to a variety of local online dining guides to drum up business, spread the word and offer freebies.

Sanaa Abourezk of Sanaa’s 8th Street Gourmet regularly posts her menus on Facebook. Become a fan and you can find out if that day’s lunch is vegan or gluten-free.

The Phillips Avenue Diner runs occasional contests – recently asking for fans to share a photo of their kid eating at the diner.

Queen City Bakery lets Twitter followers know what freshly baked cupcakes, scones and muffins are on the day’s menu.

Woody’s text messages specials and deals to fans.

Continue reading . . .

Family pizza chain Peter Piper Pizza is undergoing a digital makeover to reinvigorate the Arizona-based company that has more than 130 locations. The more intriguing revelation, however, are the media consumption habits of their target demographic, young mothers.
 
The man behind the revamped strategy for Peter Piper is Charles Bruce. Bruce came on as CMO a year ago and immediately began vigorous research on the brand’s optimal customers, and the best ways to reach them. He also brought on full-service, Arizona-based Santy Integrated media company to produce the new advertising and online components, which will include online ordering and mobile marketing initiatives where customers receive special offers on their cell phones.
 
Bruce believes that brands that aren’t constantly evolving are dying. Such a black-and-white approach to marketing also predicts his adversity to disclosing anything close to the valuable specifics of the market research he’s been doing. “I can’t give away the family jewels,” he says.

Continue reading . . .

Until last year, James Flinsch’s contributions at Pazzaluna were strictly IRL (that is,’in real life’ in cyberslang).

As wine steward at the popular downtown St. Paul Italian restaurant, he often rescues diners at a loss for a killer pairing. Hired as a waiter in 1999, Flinsch still whisks dishes onto tabletops with some regularity.

While on paternity leave with a lot of late-night hours on his hands, though, he glimpsed another, online role for himself at his beloved restaurant. He noted that the establishment’s management company had created a Facebook fan page but failed to cultivate much of a following.

I can do that, he told his superiors. Let me do that.

Before long, Flinsch had become the eatery’s social-media liaison with virtual fingers in Twitter, Foursquare and YouTube as well as Facebook.

Flinsch and Pazzaluna are in growing company. Local restaurants, breweries, ice-cream parlors and the like are increasingly dabbling in social media to fortify connections with their clientele. Some hire public-relations firms to help. Others, like Pazzaluna, depend on social-media-savvy workers.

Continue reading . . .

Using social networking channels in overall marketing strategies is very cost-effective and has strong potential to grow business and profits for restaurants. Word of mouth has long been one of the most important drivers of restaurant traffic, and social media amplifies its effects and takes it to a wider online audience. Attendees at the 2010 National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show will learn how social networking can be incorporated into a restaurant’s customer outreach efforts from top social media and word of mouth marketing innovators. NRA Show 2010 will be held May 22-25 at Chicago’s McCormick Place.

“People are increasingly using online communities to stay connected with friends, family and their favorite businesses, and savvy restaurant operators take their promotions to where their customers already spend their time, ” said Ira Cohn, Convention Chair for NRA Show 2010 and President of ARAMARK Business and Industry Group. “Using word of mouth marketing strategies and social networking channels can be a highly effective, fun and cost-saving way to supplement traditional marketing efforts to attract guests, as well as entice them to come back. ”

The NRA Show 2010 education sessions focused on word of mouth and social media marketing include:

Get Butts in Seats for Free with Word of Mouth & Social Media: Saturday, May 22, 12:00 p.m.: Learn simple, hands-on word of mouth marketing and social media tips and strategies to immediately generate traffic and get people buzzing about your business. Also, discover easy ways to use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and more to turn customers into fans and evangelists. Turn a loyalty program into a referral of “guest acquisition” word of mouth program. Moderated by word of mouth marketing expert Andy Sernovitz, CEO of Gaspedal, panel will include: Dunkin’ Donuts “Dunkin Dave” David Puner and Domino’s Pizza Ramon DeLeon.

Yelp and Your Restaurant: Harnessing Online Word of Mouth to Drive Customers Through Your Door: Sunday, May 23, 12:00 p.m.: Drive customers through your door by harnessing the power of online word of mouth. Luther Lowe of Yelp will serve up real world examples and explore the benefits, potential pitfalls, and overall best practices for restaurateurs hoping to utilize user-generated content sites such as Yelp.

Special Dealer & Distributor Session: Managing Social Media to Meet Your Business Needs: Sunday, May 23, 2:00 p.m.: Explore the ways foodservice professionals use this emerging tool from marketing to recruitment and much more to meet business needs. Learn about the significant upside for foodservice equipment dealers and consultants. Moderated by Joseph Carbonara, editor in chief, Foodservice Equipment & Supplies Magazine.

10 Lessons Learned from Igniting Word of Mouth Movements: Monday, May 24, 10 a.m.: Learn how word of mouth marketing works and get tips to identify movement-building opportunities for your brand, with authenticity and clear ROI. Word of mouth expert Geno Church of Brains on Fire and Fiskars’ “Fiskateer” ambassador and movement builder Angela Daniels will highlight successful word of mouth marketing case studies and arm you with strategies you need to begin a movement within your own organization.

Making a Big Production: Monday, May 24, 12:00 p.m.: Learn how to leverage your product or brand through personal relationships, traditional media, social networking and celebrity with moderator Billy Dec, founder/CEO Rockit Ranch Productions (Rockit Bar & Grill, Rockit Wrigley, The Underground, Sunda) with panelists Steve Dolinsky, ABC’s WLS-TV food reporter, Alpana Singh, Master Sommelier and Host of PBS’s Check, Please! and Richard Roeper.

Driving Foot Traffic with the Latest Social Media Tools: Monday, May 24, 2:00 p.m.: Heard the buzz around Foursquare and Groupon? Interested in taking advantage of the latest promotional social media tools to help drive business? Join moderator Rob Birgfeld of SmartBrief on Social Media and panelists Andrew Mason, CEO and founder of Groupon and Tristan Walker of Foursquare to learn what restaurants are doing (and should be doing) to take advantage of the fastest growing 2.0 tools.

NRA Show 2010 will feature more than 70 education sessions aligned in tracks by the National Restaurant Association’s industry imperatives: Jobs and Careers; Food and Healthy Living; Sustainability and Social Responsibility, and Profitability and Entrepreneurship. The sessions will address industry hot topics within the areas of jobs and careers, sustainability and social responsibility, profitability and entrepreneurship, and food and healthy living. In addition, the Technology session track will focus on the latest foodservice technology solutions.

Education sessions will be held in McCormick Place’s South Hall on Level 4, and in the Technology Pavilion on Level 3 in the North Hall, all four days of the Show. For a full schedule of sessions, visit www.restaurant.org/show.

NRA Show education sessions may be accepted as continuing education credits (CEUs) by certifying bodies of several associations, including the School Nutrition Association, the American Dietetic Association, Foodservice Consultants Society International and the American Culinary Federation. Check with the respective associations for the documentation needed to validate participation and credit.

The annual National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show is the largest single gathering of restaurant, foodservice and lodging professionals. NRA Show 2010 will be held May 22-25, at McCormick Place in Chicago. The event attracts tens of thousands of attendees and visitors from all 50 states and 100+ countries, and showcases more products, services, innovative ideas and other growth opportunities than any other industry event. For more information, visit the Show Web site at www.restaurant.org/show.   

Founded in 1919, the National Restaurant Association is the leading business association for the restaurant industry, which comprises 945,000 restaurant and foodservice outlets and a workforce of 12.7 million employees. Together with the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, the Association works to lead America’s restaurant industry into a new era of prosperity, prominence, and participation, enhancing the quality of life for all we serve. For more information, visit our Web site at www.restaurant.org.