Using social media to attract customers to your cafe

Pretty much everyone you speak to is on Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, LinkedIn or some other social networking site.

But did you know these sites can be used to promote your business too? Indeed, food and drink based businesses ideally suit the short, snappy nature of social networking sites. Here, we will look at what sites you can use, and give you some tips on how best to utilise these sites to increase your turnover.

Cafes and food or drink businesses can benefit highly from a media presence, even if you do not have a specific website (which we will consider in a later post). You can post daily soup flavours or cake choices, speciality drinks, even special offers exclusively for your social media friends.

Posting such offers allows you to track the success of your campaigns. It also allows your customers to contact you, for example to place orders, to query your menu, or simply to say hello.

It is important to identify how you should use various social networking sites differently

It is important to identify how you should use various social networking sites differently too. Ensure your style fits with the style of the site. Spend some time building your network and watching how other businesses interact. Work out what you like and what you don’t like about their approaches, and use that as a basis for your own online personality.

Here are a few tips for using the main social networking sites:

Twitter

You can have unlimited followers, and follow anyone. Search by your area or by keywords, to ensure your connections are going to be responsive to your tweets.

For example, if you are a cafe in Bristol, ensure you follow other local businesses and local residents. Usually, individuals will “follow you back” if they have an interest in your business. You can build up your client base from here.

Tweets are limited to 140 characters, making them ideal for snappy comments and observations. Perfect to keep your customers informed about your products, new lines etc.

Make sure that you promote your account instore too, and encourage your customers to follow you for such information.

Personally with twitter, my favourite accounts are those which combine business and personality. All business tweets are dull and faceless, and all personality is pointless if you have a business you are trying to promote.

Keep in mind a split of tweets of about 40-60 in favour of personality, to ensure your followers are kept engaged and interested in you.

Post links to other sites you think your followers may be interested in too. This increases your chance of getting “retweeted” by others, which then helps increase your followers. Most importantly, keep your followers engaged and interested in you and your business.

Facebook

There are several different ways of having a Facebook account for your business. You can have a Page, a Group or a Profile page. Whichever you choose is up to you, but it is advisable to only have one. Otherwise, your “friends” will quickly become confused about which one to join, or annoyed with too many updates.

I prefer the Fanpages for business, as updates appear in the timelines of all your “Likers” and you have the flexibility to add a number of extra “widgets” to the page, such as a Twitter tab, Reviews board, Discussion page etc.

There is no character limit to updates, so you can go into slightly more details that you can on Twitter. This is useful for posting details on special menus you may have, or special events etc. From your page, you can also create events to invite your customers too, such as late night opening or charity events.

Facebook pages can be set up for free, and you can choose to add other programs to the basic page at a cost. You can also advertise the page (also for a small cost), by aiming it at targeted people (such as those in your area, or those that list “coffee” as an interest, for example), therefore increasing your Likers.

Facebook pages should be run purely for updates relating to your business in my opinion (you have your Profile page to be personal on), and updated less frequently than your Twitter profile.

They can act as a website should you not have one, and Facebook pages are quickly becoming the first point of call for potential customers to find out more about businesses.

Make sure yours is fully updated, interactive and interesting, and encourage your existing Likers to “Suggest” the page to their friends too.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a business networking site where professionals post their extended personal CV and bio, focusing on the individual, rather than the person’s business.

It is useful to help build networking connections, rather than promote your actual business, so it may or may not suit you.

It is more suitable for those in the food business if you do outside catering, or if you supply goods or consultancy services, as it can help build your name.

There is no ability to post updates however, so if you do use this site, ensure you use it as a springboard to point people in the direction of your other sites (website, Twitter and Facebook).

Chinese social networking firms eye U.S. IPO gold: sources

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – One of China's largest social networking companies, Oak Pacific Interactive, has hired investment banks for an initial public offering in the United States next year, the first in a rush of Chinese Facebook clones looking to list.

Oak Pacific Interactive (OPI) has hired Credit Suisse Group AG and Deutsche Bank AG to underwrite its IPO slated for the first half of next year, sources close to the matter told Reuters on Friday.

The firm owns China's largest online social networking site Renren and Nuomi, similar to the popular U.S. website Groupon featuring daily deals and entertainment community Mop.

TaoMee, a social networking site for children, was also planning to list late next year and would conduct its "beauty parade" for investment banks in the first quarter of 2011, said a source familiar with the situation.

Social networking site Kaixin001 also plans to list but has not gone through the process of selecting banks, said the source, who declined to be named as the matter was not public.

"The question is whether these companies are really going to become the Facebook of China," said Paul Wuh, a Hong Kong-based analyst with Samsung Securities.

"How they are going to monetize: through advertising or through gaming, that's the question, which one will be the most successful will depend on the business model they choose," said Wuh.

OPI's Renren website is similar to Facebook as it allows users to share locations with friends, "like" something and post updates. Renren has about 100 million registered users.

Kaixin001 posted revenue of just over $10 million last year and the company expects 2010 revenues of up to three times that level, the firm's chief executive Cheng Binghao told Reuters in October.

Profits for Kaixin001 are also growing quickly, tripling to about 30 million yuan in the third quarter from 10 million in the second, Cheng said.

Chinese IPOs in the United States have hit a record high of 35 this year. Based on the number of offerings, Chinese issuers account for 23 percent of U.S. market IPO activity, up from 1 percent in 2000, according to Thomson Reuters data.

More than half of this year's Chinese IPOs in the United States come from high technology, consumer products, industrials and retail sectors.

The Chinese social networking firms will be following in the footsteps of online video site operator Youku and online retailer Dangdang, which saw their stocks soar in this week's debuts.

Youku's triple-digit first-day pop was the biggest since 2005, when Baidu Inc rose 354 percent, data from the New York Stock Exchange showed.

A source said the amount to be raised by OPI had not been finalized. OPI and the banks declined to comment.

RISKS

Social networking sites have grown in popularity in China in recent years, garnering most of their revenue from online advertising. They also benefit from an ecosystem closed to major foreign competition. Facebook and Twitter are banned in China.

But the market is increasingly competitive with more than 100 social networking sites operating. Two social networking sites shut earlier this year due to cash flow issues, local media reported.

The industry is also fraught with regulatory and legal risks as China seeks to control the flow of information online.

"As long as they conduct their self censorship well, there shouldn't be any problems," said an analyst with a major European investment bank, who declined to be named given the sensitivity of the matter.

Analysts also said the IPOs were more of a way to provide an exit to the venture capital firms who have backed these firms and to provide incentive to their workers.

"A lot of these Chinese Internet companies are net cash, they don't need to list for funding purposes," said Wuh of Samsung Securities.

China is the world's largest Internet market by users at 420 million. About half of them use social networking sites, government data showed. (Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Muralikumar Anantharaman)