Google My Business (GMB): How to Use Attributes When Creating a Business Profile
According to Hootsuite, prospective customers are 70 percent more likely to visit local businesses with a GMB profile.
Google sent me a Box Today: Project Beacon
Meet Project Beacon – Google’s New Program
We were lucky enough to receive a beacon from Google’s new program: Project Beacon.
This exciting new program is now available for businesses in the US and the UK and it
helps make businesses with physical locations more visible (like a beacon) to customers with mobile
devices (read pretty much everyone.)
The setup was laughably simple: requiring only that you remove the device from the box,
place it somewhere in your place of business, then activate the device via this website:
goo.gl/beaconsetup. Activation requires a code that is conveniently located right on the
shipping label. The device itself is small and white with a triangular prism-shape and
rounded edges. It also comes with an adhesive covered by a strip that you simply peel off
to apply.
So how exactly does this thing work? After installation, the beacon transmits a unique,
one-way code to your customers’ mobile device. If they have their location services
turned on, your business will appear at the forefront of relevant searches that they make.
For example: if Joey searches for “bars near me,” within range of your beacon, the
chances of your bar showing up in his search is drastically increased.
The beacon itself does not store customer information and does not tie particular visits to
the individuals that made them. This is to ensure that your customers’ privacy is given the
respect it deserves. Once enough of your visitors’ devices have detected visits to your
store, you unlock even more aggregated features such as popular times to visit your
business.
This new program may prove especially useful to businesses that want to make better use
of Google’s current location-based services such as having higher visibility on Google
Maps, helping to provide more insight on how customers interact with your business, and
allowing user-generated content (like reviews and photos) to be gathered right from the
people that share them.
Best of all? The program is completely free! That’s right, all you have to do is contact
Google and request a beacon for them to send one right to you. With mobile devices
being more prevalent than ever, this device could help provide insights for your business
that would have been impossible before.
Untappd Events Plugin for WordPress
If you own a bar with more than 4 beers on tap you’ve probably heard of Untappd, if not I’ll give you a little info.
Untappd is essentially a beer tracker for people looking for certain beers at bars in the area. The consumer opens the Untappd app on their phone, the phone then geo locates bars in the area and the beers that they have on tap. If you’re a beer nerd looking for Pliny the Elder this is essentially the ONLY way to find it in real-time.
So, for bars you can clearly see the benefit. Put a bunch of rare craft beers on tap and watch the hoards roll in. Untappd offers the bars a website dashboard where they can enter the beers on tap which will not only be posted to Untappd but will also be updated on the bar’s personal website, pretty cool right! What bar owner or manager wants to login to their website AND Untappd to update their beer list, especially when that list is changing 3 times a day!
Now we know that Untappd makes updating beers on your website super simple, but they also have an events section that owners can upload upcoming events to. This isn’t just beer events (although that’s what initially Untappd intended) you can also add other events such as DJ night, quizzo, comedy night, karaoke, etc.. The only issue with the events section of Untappd is that it’s very secondary to the beer list. When you embed Untappd into your bar website the events do show up but very small on a side tab, see below;
See how they kind of hide it on you, all the way on the right past the menus. This makes sense since they’re trying to sell beer, but I thought to myself there has to be a way to make uploading events just as easy on the bar owner as updating the beer list. So I emailed Untappd and asked if they had a similar widget or plugin that we could embed on this customer’s website that would ONLY bring in their upcoming events. Untappd replied and said that this doesn’t currently exist however they do have an open API that would allow me to build one myself if I felt so inclined.
After a few days with my awesome developers we came up with a shortcode enabled widget that would only pull in a bar’s events. Now the bar owner only needs to login to Untappd to update their beer list AND their upcoming events. It’s all in one place, easy peasy! If you or someone you know is using Untappd for their bar (which they should be because it’s a great driver of new business) have them hit us up to install the Events page plugin. Here’s what it looks like for our client Teresa’s Cafe in Wayne PA.
Social Influencer Network
Do you have a lot of friends on Facebook, followers on Instagram or Pageviews on your Blog? Join our Social Influencer Network and get rewarded for sharing sponsored content to your followers!
The way is works is very simple. You fill out a form with a little info about yourself and we’ll pair you up with a brand or local company that we’re representing that would be a good fit.
Examples could include:
- A local foodie is paired up with a Philadelphia restaurant
- Someone who likes to go out at night is paired up with a new nightclub
- A contractor is paired up with a local cabinet company
- A fashionista is paired up with a new hair care product
- A beer advocate is paired with a new brewery
- A dirtbike rider is paired up with an energy drink brand
Once a good connection is made between the brand and the influencer we then discuss monetary compensation or product trade.
If you have a large following online Click Here and fill out our quick questionnaire.
What we’re looking for:
- Influencers with more than 3,000 followers on a single social media platform
- Influencer with more than 5,000 page views per month on their blog
- Acceptable social networks are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Youtube, Vine and Pinterest
- A good profile on Yelp, Tripadvisor and Google is also a plus but cannot be directly compensated
- Please note that anyone with a purchased following will not be approved
If you’re a brand or local business interested in finding influencers to drive sales for you contact us today
Snapchat Creative Marketing
There’s money to be made through Snapchat filters
Remember back in the good old days when nightclub promoters would wage war on one another by handing out flyers at competing clubs? With Snapchat geofilters the game is back on and we’re seeing some huge results. Imagine spending $9 and getting your flyers into the hands of 13,000+ people!
Here’s the results from a recent $8.75 filter that we placed on Snapchat…
You can see that the amount of people using and viewing these snaps are astounding and this was only over a 4 hour period. You’ve seen the reach, now you need the strategy.
Snapchat filters are easy to setup; you create an account HERE, download the template, make a simple ad with your branding in photoshop or illustrator, upload your ad, set the date and length of time that you want it to run, draw a map around the area you’d like to target, insert your credit card info and you’re good to go. Ads typically take 24 hours or less to be confirmed or rejected. While they do have a terms of use section I’ve found that it’s more of a test and measure situation as there’s a lot of inconsistency on their end.
Now for the fun part. Anyone can drop a filter over their own business but try to think outside the box when placing your filter. Is there a huge concert in town and you want to drive people to your bar after the concert? Try making a filter that says “After Party at.. (your bar’s logo)” and placing it right on top of the concert. Everybody at the concert will be on Snapchat and your bar will be the first thing they see!
If you have an Art Gallery in Old City Philadelphia it might be smart to drop a filter over Old City during first Friday to get people to come to your gallery first.
Are you trying to sell your business to business product to a large company? Drop a filter over their building with your logo. Yes, people are on Snapchat at work and yes, they’re gonna know who you are and they’re gonna talk about it.
Being that our business is deeply entrenched in the hospitality marketing space our most effective tactics come from targeting crowded areas with like minded consumers and the results have been astounding. It’s not that hard to setup for yourself but definitely takes some time to manage. If you want some help from us hit up a member of our team HERE.
Collect more Emails
One of the first questions I get asked when working with a new client is, “How can you get me more emails?” It seems that business owners understand the impact that email marketing can have on their bottom line but can’t figure out how to consistently collect emails to add to their database. In the article below I’ll give you a few tips that can help you build that helpless email list into an online marketing powerhouse. Using email marketing tools and software, like those from Epsilon, can help a business to utilize its list of email addresses in a more effective manner.
Loyalty Programs through WIFI
When someone enters your business one of the first questions they’ll ask is, “what’s your wifi password?” Utilizing a Wifi Loyalty program like Zenreach you can turn your wifi customers into return customers through email marketing. The process for customers is simple; They pull up your wifi network on their phone, tablet or computer, click your business name and when they’re prompted they either enter their email and birthday or login through Facebook. Once they enter the info you can export those emails and add them to your email marketing software. Zenreach also has a great full suite of loyalty program features that goes far beyond simple email marketing. This is an effective tactic that consistently adds emails to our customer databases. Contact us for our special affiliate pricing with Zenreach.
The Contact Form on your Website
People come to your website, browse around and if they have more questions they fill out the contact form on your website. If you’re like me you’re getting quite a few of these everyday which end up just sitting in your inbox. It’s a huge waste of time to go back and save each email individually. The answer for this is form software. Companies like Wufoo and Jotform can collect these emails for you at a very minimal cost and you still get all inquiries right to your inbox. Once or twice a monthly simply login to your form software and export your emails to a CSV and upload to your email software. Here’s a tutorial on how to export your contacts with Wufoo. Think outside the box with this one, you can also use this type of software for private party requests, guestlists, surveys and more.
Giveaways, Contests and Events
Using the same form software that I mentioned above you can utilize a call to action that will encourage consumers to signup to receive something. When people signup for something they generally understand that you will be remarketing to them, however the first email you send them should say something like, “Thanks for attending XYZ event, be on the lookout for more great events sent right to your inbox each month.” I’ve used this strategy to collect hundreds of thousands of emails for our clients.
Export your Contacts from LinkedIn
Most people involved in business will have a LinkedIn profile. Not only does this help them to appear more professional, it also helps them to connect with multiple other business people. By using LinkedIn, you have the ability to actually export your contacts so you add them to your CRM or mass email software. It’s really easy to do, just click here and download as a CSV. This can help businesses to grow their potential clients, possibly resulting in more sales. To learn how to fully utilize the services of LinkedIn to benefit a business, Check our LinkedIn training courses.
Export your Contacts from Facebook
I will preface by saying that this is a very controversial topic. Facebook doesn’t want you to do this and it takes quite a bit of work around to actually export the emails but yes, it can be done. I’ll just leave this link Here
Buying an Email List
You just started your business and you’ve seen websites that sell targeted email lists, it seems like a great idea but this is bad news. Most of the emails on that list will be outdated or fake. By using these types of addresses, you could be setting yourself up for failure, and even worse, trouble as you could get penalized for this. That’s why using an email checker that is reliable beforehand can help you to find the email addresses that are invalid so you can focus on the accounts that will really make a difference to your business. So, you should always be careful about which accounts you decide to use. I strongly suggest staying away from buying emails.
You don’t have to just “LIKE” a FB post anymore w/Facebook Emoji Reactions
Thanks to the Global Launch of Facebook Emoji ‘Reactions’…You no longer have to just “LIKE” a post!
The “LIKE” button has finally evolved. Facebook unveiled five animated emojis you can choose from instead of just the standard “LIKE” including Love, HaHa, Wow, Sad & Angry
By popular demand, Facebook is going beyond the ubiquitous thumbs-up button with a new shorthand to express your thoughts and feelings.
Acknowledging that “LIKE” isn’t exactly the right sentiment for every occasion. The new Emoji’s rolled out to Facebook’s nearly 1.6 billion users around the globe Wednesday February 24th.
After more than a year of research, focus groups, surveys & more done by Facebook…You now have more authentic ways to quickly and easily respond to posts, whether they are sad, serious, funny or happy.
Facebook will continue to gather feedback on the feature and could tweak it down the line. While the company doesn’t have plans right now to expand “Reactions” to other Facebook-owned apps like Instagram, the feature could carry over to other apps in the future.
Here’s how to use Facebook Reactions
-Hovering over the like button on your computer allows you to use Facebook reactions on Mac or PC. If you don’t see the option, you will need to wait a little while, but it will be available to all Facebook users shortly.
-Long pressing on the Like button on iPhone or Android will open the Facebook Reactions options on Android and iPhone.
-You can simply press the like button to leave a normal like and there will be fast access to the three most common Facebook reactions.
Pick the one you want & boom..POSTED!
Blog References:
USAToday.com
Forbes.com
GottaBeMobile.com
Real-Time Advertising on Facebook & Google
Your definition of real-time marketing is about to change. While real-time marketing will still revolve around social, new elements are hitting the scene. While real-time marketing on social media is efficient, it may not reach the top retailers you need to properly expose your brand. RangeMe allows direct contact with top retailers, with the opportunity to promote to places such as Target for target partners online. Despite this, real-time marketing is still a vital part of an advertisement.
Both Google and Facebook recently announced new real-time marketing additions. Google, of course, has been the key platform for internet marketing for a while now, with all brands and businesses looking to perfect their SEO so that they can perform best on Google. This is often done by professional SEO teams such as bigfootdigital.co.uk that help their clients become higher ranked on search engines. However, it seems that both Google and Facebook are developing their presence in the online marketing world. Unsurprisingly, both arrived just in time for the historic Super Bowl 50 on Feb. 7. Now both platforms can roll out their new features to eagerly awaiting brands and fans by seizing the Super Bowl’s momentum.
The 2015 Super Bowl was the most tweeted ever with more than 28.4 million tweets. Facebook also saw record-high numbers with more than 265 million posts and conversations about the Super Bowl.
The significant bump in both traffic and engagement drastically affected the ads running on Facebook. Click-through rates for Facebook ads were up 9 percent, while conversion rates increased by 415 percent compared to the Sunday prior, according to Marin Software data.
Super Bowl organizers announced this year’s NFL title game will be the most technologically advanced game ever played. With this in mind, the opportunity to generate mobile ad revenue is undeniable. I’m guessing it will be the most social game ever too.
Here’s what you need to know about the new real-time marketing additions. Follow along with the features as you tune into Super Bowl 50.
Google introduces real-time advertising
- What: Real-Time Ads let brands publish advertisements live.
- Why: Google wants “to help brands be a part of live events conversations in a way that’s timely and relevant.” Ideally, your message should “tie directly to the big moment consumers just experienced.”
- Where: Your brand can instantly run real-times ads on YouTube as well as the apps and 2 million sites in Google’s Display Network.
- When: Right now, this new addition is still in beta. Its first major test will be during Super Bowl 50. Later in 2016, the feature will roll out more broadly.
- How: If you’re thinking, “How could I create and publish a relevant ad during a live event?” Google wants you to know that while the ad will run it real-time, “right now, the content is typically preplanned.” Phew! However, for some businesses, Google ads are not used because of rule changes, bail bond ads are one of these chosen. You can see why Google banned bail ads and what to do if you need to advertise in alternative ways. by looking at sites such as bailwebmasters.com.
- Advantage for your brand: Real-Time Ads allow you to connect and talk with consumers when you have their full attention. So, make use of it. Oreo’s 2013 viral tweet about the Super Bowl power outage is a perfect example. Your brand can quickly chime in on real-time happenings. Or, you can amplify the same message that’s already running on other platforms.
Facebook’s new Sports Stadium can show live updates of the game as well as comments from friends. (Image: Facebook)
All about Facebook’s new real-time additions
- What: Facebook Sports Stadium displays all content related to the game in one place. Specifically, you’ll see friends’ comments, experts’ commentary, live scores and game info. The game unfolds with a live play-by-play, even allowing you to comment on and share individuals plays.
- Why: Facebook declares itself “the world’s largest stadium” with over 650 million sports fans. Now, they want Facebook to be your go-to place to watch and talk about the game.
- Where: Search for the game in your search bar on iPhones. Facebook Sports Stadium will roll out on other platforms in the next few weeks.
- When: It’s live! Right now, Facebook Sports Stadium is broadcasting American football games.
- Advantage for your brand: There aren’t too many ways for your brand to participate in Facebook Sports Stadium – yet. For now, your best bet is to run Facebook ads during big football games to get your message out to a captive audience. Maximize your momentum by creating football-centric content.
Article originally posted by on Emma Fitzpatrick on Exclusive.Mulitbriefs.com
New Website: Travel Services Company
With the threat of Mobilegeddon looming our newest client needed a responsive 2.0 website asap. While most of our clients are in the bar / restaurant industry we decided to take on the challenge. After just one month of planning and design they had a shiny new site built on the wordpress CMS. The client has been very happy with the project so far as we’re already seeing significant gains in SEO and traffic to the site.
If you or someone you know is thinking about a new website but doesn’t know where to start, please contact us for a free consult!
Here’s the new Travelservicescompany.com
The Complete List of Bar & Restaurant Social Media Tips
Every business could use a boost in marketing, whether it’s selling a product or a service. In the case of restaurants, it happens to be both food and service. Running a restaurant can be immensely challenging. Using the best Restaurant Equipment would help make everything run smoother. Being able to show people that your restaurant is the place they want to eat (with Instagram pictures of fantastic food and shiny Nella Cutlery), is the root of your marketing, and social media should be your main conduit. So if you wish to make your restaurant look the best it can be and bring in new customers via Social Media, then check out 30 tips and recipes for sweet Social Media marketing success!
Social Media Branding
The most fundamental part of your Social Media marketing is having the audience recognize your brand. By having a carefully designed brand to carry the good name of your restaurant in Social Media, you showcase an image of class and professionalism, which is very important.
Know Your Target Audience
Be aware of what kind of establishment you run and aim for the people who are most likely to visit your restaurant. Whether you are a diner or a fancy high-class establishment, you should always be building an audience-focused Social Media marketing strategy.
Scope Out Your Competition’s Social Media
It’s important to be aware of what your competition may be doing with their social media, what new ideas they’re incorporating, and whatever they’re doing better than you. Have someone do a Social Content Audit for your site and Social Profile Audit for your pages.
Maintain Visual Consistency
This goes with your brand as it helps customers quickly identify with your posts. The colors, fonts, image quality, and overall visual theme should go well with your brand and be consistent across all social media platforms you are in. If you don’t have time to create social media images, you can always hire good designers to do it for you.
Spruce Up Your Pages
Going with the previous tip, you should put up cover images and other stuff on your Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as fill in all the details to help your audience know what you’re all about, where you are, and so on.
Do Facebook Sponsored Posts
Sponsored posts are basically ads on Facebook that show up like any other post, but can be visible to a target audience as a suggestion for them to like and follow. Go to Facebook insights and pick the best stories among your posts. It could be a video showcasing your customers and members, news on your latest’s offers, or even a contest you want your audience to participate in.
Target Your Ads at Your Local Area
For restaurants, any Social Media platform’s geotargeting option may be the most valuable ad you could run. Market to places near where your restaurant is to get a higher conversion off your marketing. Consider moms, millenials and mobile diners to be your most valuable targets.
Pick Your Main Platform(s)
While the previous tip helps you become more visible online, you may want to focus your social media efforts in one or two of them for best effect. Facebook and Instagram seem to be restaurant favorites these days, with Snapchat jumping up in popularity as well.
Put Your Brand on Every Image and Video
Post It does not have to be a gigantic logo displayed everywhere. Just have it in a corner of an image, visible but discreet. As for videos, just have an intro that is a few seconds long.
Make Use of Different Social Media Platforms
Do whatever you can to reach as wide of an audience as you can. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are a given, but you can also get into Foursquare, Yelp, Groupon, Snapchat, and others to boost your chances too.
Some of the newest platforms, like TikTok, can help you to advertise your restaurant to younger audiences. You may even want to have a look at places similar to – https://bumped.in/buy-tiktok-followers/, to find out how you can find followers quickly, so you can create videos at your own pace.
Be Authentic
The one thing that will help your brand the most is authenticity. Being genuine with your intentions and your actions in the restaurant and in social media is a long-term strategy that pays great dividends in time.
Social Media Content
This forms the meat of your social media marketing as you provide value to the audience by consistently posting high-quality content. In order to get value from the people, you must first give value to them through rich and interesting content.
Post Menu Items
You can post images of your menu items on Facebook and/or Twitter and include a link to the whole menu for those who may be interested.
Showcase Your Food and Services on Instagram
Since diners post pictures of food on Instagram nowadays, you should do so as well to show off what your restaurant has to offer. Other Instagram users can then see your food and be encouraged to check your place out.
Use Trending and Niche Hashtags
Hashtags are great for both utility and visibility. Trending hashtags expose you to a huge audience, while niche hashtags help potential customers within your area to find you.
Post More Videos
People always appreciate good video content. You can do things like showing how your cooks prepare your food or how your waiters conduct their service.
Practice Employee Appreciation
Similar to the previous tip, you can post content featuring your staff doing what they do. This lets customers see how much you care not just about your customers, but also the people who work in your restaurant.
Lists, Lists, Lists
Another thing people like are list articles. You can post something like “Top 5 Foods for Mother’s Day” or something else that is timely, offering information to the audience while still advertising your restaurant.
Images with Quotes
These are also popular in social media. While a picture is worth a thousand words, a quote can actually enhance the impact of that image. As long as it fits the image and resonates with the audience, it should do well.
Promos and Updates
Patrons of your establishment would like to know if you have new stuff going on, so provide updates on your primary social media outlets to let them know if you have a great discount or days when the place will be closed and so on.
Keep It Fun and Friendly
There is no need to be serious with your posts; restaurants are places where people go to relax and enjoy good food, after all. Inject some lighthearted humor into your content; casual, but not tacky. You’ll be surprised how well people take to it.
Be Consistent
Have a schedule for posting on social media. You may be able to automate your system, but it won’t do well if you don’t have a steady stream of relevant content at reasonable intervals. If you ever need a Social Content calendar, let us know – we have the best content chefs in town!
Social Media Engagement
Content may get the people interested, but it’s engagement that will make them stay interested and come back for more. Communicating with customers and showing that you care about them is an act that pays for itself and it adds ‘value’ to your overall branding.
Have Someone Read Comments
It can be tough to stay engaged since the negative criticism may get to you. If this is a problem, yet social media marketing is still important, then assign a social media manager to do it for you.
Let Customers Know You’re on Social Media
You don’t have to shout it out loud, but you can have your Facebook page or Instagram profile on your menu or on signs to make them aware of your online presence.
Ask Questions to Customers
Whether through comments or asking them to post with a specific hashtags, ask them about your service, their favorite menu item, and so on. You can learn a lot about your customers’ tastes and preferences this way.
Conduct Photo Contests
Have customers post their best pictures of your food online with a specific hashtag. You can then reward the winners with a free meal, gift certificates, or so on.
Have Giveaways
It’s one of the oldest, simplest, and most effective ways to get an audience engaged. For a restaurant, a giveaway should be done in a way that can be done seamlessly within the establishment.
Reward Customers Who Check-in with Location-based Networks
Show gratitude for those who check in with networks like Foursquare by providing exclusive discounts and other perks. This can encourage others to check-in as well.
Encourage Reviews
Customers appreciate establishments that value their input, so have them review your restaurant through platforms like Yelp in order to get feedback that can help improve your service.
Use Calls to Action
Humbly request your audience to follow, like, share, and comment whenever possible. Don’t be incessant about it; just drop it in whenever you have the chance and show them that you do care about your audience.
Keep Track of Your Followers
With the better analytics tools available in Facebook and other platforms these days, it’s much easier to track what they like and don’t like. It’s also a part of feedback in a way, so pay attention to that data.
Make Customers Feel at Home
What holds true in the restaurant is the same in social media. Being in the hospitality industry means being cordial and welcoming to customers. Thank them for their patronage and they will keep coming back.
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Originally posted by Kristel Cuenta of Kairay Media
