Meet the Restaurant Social Media Index

On October 28, 2011, in Advertising, Brand, Communication, Communication design, Design, Graphic design, Mass media, Online social networking, Restaurant, Restaurant Social Media, Restaurant Social Media Index, Social information processing, www.nrn.com, by HRBAudit

When Chili’s Grill & Bar decides to pull national television advertising for three weeks in September, and instead use social media efforts to drive attention to its brand, it couldn’t be more obvious that restaurants are increasingly living in a digital world.

Television, billboard, local and in-store marketing still drive the majority of restaurants’ marketing budgets, but social media efforts are getting all the attention. Executives still are striving to find what customers want through social media platforms, and what can build larger social communities of consumers that translate to restaurant sales.

With that in mind, Nation’s Restaurant News partnered with DigitalCoCo, a leading analytics and digital branding firm in the restaurant space, to develop the Restaurant Social Media Index.

We want to provide readers with information on the top social media restaurant brands, and analysis on what makes them tick. The Restaurant Social Media Index is the industry leading, most comprehensive tracking system for social media efforts in the restaurant industry, aiming to help businesses understand and compete in the social world.

These first results, looking at third-quarter data, is our first of many top 100 listings, analysis of movers and highlight of segment stars. Just as social media techniques, platforms and efforts continue to evolve, so will the Restaurant Social Media Index, or RSMI, and its coverage in Nation’s Restaurant News.

Today, the RSMI already moves beyond the standard tally of Facebook fans and Twitter followers. It looks at social media efforts on those two largest platforms but also on Foursquare, Google+, YouTube and others. It quantifies brand content, consumer engagement, consumer influence and overall reach of the brand. The RSMI also factors in third-party indexes, such as Klout, which quantifies Twitter influence, and then applies DigitalCoCo’s own Social Insights algorithm.

More than 100 restaurant brands have submitted their profiles to the index — which already tracks 600 brands — since NRN and DigitalCoCo announced the project in August. If you haven’t already, submit your brand today. The more brands tracked, the more accurate results become.

We’re excited about this project and the value it can bring the restaurant industry and especially its social media and digital branding professionals. Learn more on the RSMI microsite, dive into third-quarter results and contact me with any questions or ideas.

Meet the Restaurant Social Media Index, including methodology, top 5 brands, and more information.

• Third-quarter top 100 social media brands
• Third-quarter overview by Mark Brandau
• A look at ROI by Ron Ruggless
• A Q&A with Domino’s franchisee Ramon De Leon

 

Sarah Lockyer
Executive editor, NRN.com
Twitter: @slockyerNRN
sarah.lockyer@penton.com
 

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Top 10 chefs using social media

On October 14, 2011, in Andrew Zimmern, Anthony Bourdain, Blog hosting services, British people, Cooking show, Employment Relation, Everyday Italian, Food reality television series, Giada De Laurentiis, Gordon Ramsay, Iron Chef, Jamie Oliver, Mario Batali, Mark Bittman, Online social networking, Television in the United States, Top Chef, Web 2.0, www.nrn.com, by HRBAudit

Klout, the social-media analytics firm, has ranked the top 10 most influential chefs using social media, with television chefs getting the highest scores.

Andrew Zimmern, the host of television’s “Bizarre Foods” on the Travel Channel, was named the most influential in the Klout Top 10 chef rankings, which were released this week. Klout first began tracking chefs in March, when the ranking firm debuted its first top 10 list.

Zimmern was followed by chefs Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, Anthony Bourdain and television personality Giada De Laurentiis. Klout ranks social-media users on a scale of 1 to 100, measuring influence across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube.

“As tastemakers within the food industry, these chefs influence everyone from expert restaurateurs to the casual cook at home,” San Francisco-based Klout said on its blog.

Three newcomers arrived on Klout’s Top 10 list: Mark Bittman (@Bittman) at No. 7, “who often tweets his favorite recipes”; Jay Terauchi (@Chef_Jay) at No. 8, “who blogs about his food adventures”; and chef Mario Batali (@MarioBatali) at No. 9 for his prowess at responding “directly to his fans’ questions on how to pair ingredients or what restaurant to try.”

Falling out of the Top 10 since the March listing were: Bethenny Frankel (@Bethenny) of Skinny cocktails fame and notoriety on “The Real Housewives of New York City” reality television show; Cleveland-based “Iron Chef” Michael Symon (@ChefSymon); and Nadia “Nadia G.” Giosia (@BitchinKitchen), the host of the “Bitchin’ Kitchen” Canadian TV cooking show, chef and comedienne.

See the top 10 on the following page and click through for a closer look at the top 5.

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The top 10:

1. Andrew Zimmern 
 @AndrewZimmern
Chef, writer and host of Bizarre Food on the Travel Channel
Tweets: More than 6,202
Followers: Over 260,000

 

2. Gordon Ramsay
@GordonRamsay01
Global restaurant owner and chef, and host of Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares, among other TV programs
Tweets: More than 2,160
Followers: Over 465,500

 

3. Jamie Oliver
@JamieOliver
Restaurant owner, chef, and creator and host of TV program Jamie’s Food Revolution
Tweets: 6,940
Followers: Nearly 1.6 million 

4. Anthony Bourdain
@NoReservations
Chef, author and host of No Reservations on the Travel Channel
Tweets: More than 4,090
Followers: Nearly 580,000 

 

5. Giada De Laurentiis
@GDeLaurentiis
Chef and host of Everyday Italian and Giada at Home on the Food Network
Tweets: More than 3,500
Followers: Nearly 418,000

 

6. Paula Deen
@Paula_Deen
Chef and host of Paula’s Home Cooking on the Food Network
Tweets: More than 2,300
Followers: Nearly 544,000 

7. Mark Bittman
@Bittman
Cookbook author and columnist for The New York Times
Tweets: More than 3,130
Followers: Nearly 189,000

8. Jay Terauchi
@Chef_Jay
Chef and culinary social-media expert
Tweets: Nearly 29,000
Followers: 9,630

9. Mario Batali
@Mariobatali
Restaurant owner, chef and host of Molto Mario on the Food Network
Tweets: Nearly 2,600
Followers: Nearly 171,000

 

10. Tom Colicchio
@tomcolicchio
Restaurant owner, chef and host of Top Chef on Bravo
Tweets: Nearly 3,850
Followers: More than 216,000 

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A closer look at the Top 5:

No. 1
Andrew Zimmern
@AndrewZimmern
Klout Score: 78
Klout Style: Celebrity
Twitter bio: “Chef, Writer, Traveler & TV Host of Bizarre Food. ***Catch New Episodes of Bizarre Foods Tuesday Nights @ 9pm E/P on Travel Channel!***”

Andrew Zimmern, host of “Bizarre Food” on the Travel Channel, is highly engaged with his Twitter followers, directly replying with many. He also posts personal pictures and shares glimpses of his daily life, such as the private jet he’s taking to a Toyota advertising shoot.

His Klout score is based on: Twitter, Facebook and Klout
Twitter followers as of Oct. 14: 261,076.

Sample Tweet:

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No. 2
GordonRamsay
@GordonRamsay01
Klout Score: 76
Klout Style: Thought Leader
Twitter bio: “Somewhere always near food.”

As the host of “Hell’s Kitchen” and a global restaurateur, Gordon Ramsay engages his followers with comments and personalized replies while subtly linking to his own recipes. He also provides a glimpse at his personal life with photos and observations.

His Klout score is based on: Twitter
Twitter followers as of Oct. 14: 465,293

Sample Tweet:

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No. 3
Jamie Oliver
@JamieOliver
Klout Score: 75
Klout Style: Thought Leader
Twitter bio: “The Official Jamie Oliver twitter page”

As the host of television’s “Food Revolution” and veteran of British cooking shows such as “The Naked Chef,” Jamie Oliver mixes direct conversations with his Twitter followers with links to information, a few promotions of his cookbooks and shows and observations of his world. He’s also a user of Instagram, the social-media iPhone app for photographs.

His Klout score is based on: Twitter
Twitter followers as of Oct. 14: 1,559,187

Sample Tweet:

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No. 4
Anthony Bourdain
@NoReservations
Klout Score: 73
Klout Style: Thought Leader
Twitter Bio: “Enthusiast”

As author and host of “No Reservations” on the Travel Channel, Bourdain posts photos and videos of his life and travels, lifting the kilt on many of his travels and projects. He has a way of playing a little blue that titillates as much as his on-screen persona.

His Klout score is based on: Twitter
Twitter followers as of Oct. 14: 579,668

Sample Tweet:

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No. 5
Giada De Laurentiis
@GDeLaurentiis
Klout Score: 71
Klout Style: Pundit
Twitter Bio: “Food Network Chef, Author, Mother and Paddle Surfer!”

Giada De Laurentiis, as the host of “Giada at Home” on the Food Network and “Everyday Italian” on the Cooking Channel, interacts with her followers personally and promotes her appearances and shows.

Her Klout score is based on: Twitter
Twitter followers as of Oct. 14: 417,624

Sample Tweet:

Contact Ron Ruggless at ronald.ruggless@penton.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @RonRuggless

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Questions are most effective way to engage Facebook fans

On September 21, 2011, in Blog software, Company Customer, HRBAudit Blog, Mike Heffring, Online social networking, Social information processing, Web 2.0, www.nrn.com, by HRBAudit

Restaurants seeking engagement with their Facebook fans are most likely to achieve their goals by asking customers to offer their opinions, according to new research from Expion.

The consulting and social-media software provider perused all the Facebook posts made over the summer by the 50 most well-liked restaurant brands to determine which messages elicited the most comments from Facebook users. By a vast majority, open-ended posts asking people to answer questions or give feedback provoked more responses than posts in which a brand merely touts a new menu item or promotion, Expion found.

The approach a restaurant takes on Facebook should depend on where that brand is in its social-media lifecycle, Mike Heffring, chief strategy officer for Raleigh, N.C.-based Expion, said.

While promotional posts usually don’t get the level of response seen for more engagement-oriented messages, he said, they typically are the tools for building a restaurant’s fan base. But he suggested asking for feedback — along the lines of “What’s your favorite thing about this brand?” — as that roster of fans grows.

“The first thing for me would probably be to do something promotional, because you know what works with that already,” Heffring said. “Then I’d get people to talk more about what they like about your brand, be it the menu or the atmosphere or whatever.”

EARLIER: Study: Technophile Millennials eager to interact in digital domain

Expion’s study of the most engaging Facebook posts was limited to the 50 restaurant brands with the most Facebook “likes.” Between June 1 and Aug. 31, those 50 chains made more than 3,600 posts on Facebook.

To compile its rankings, Expion tracked only the number of comments — “likes” for individual posts were not counted — each message received.

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The post that earned the most comments this past summer came from Buffalo Wild Wings, which drew 6,521 responses by asking this fill-in-the-blank question: “Beer is _________.”

Expion took a closer look at the top 100 most-commented-upon posts of the summer, from Buffalo Wild Wings’ message down to post No. 100 from Domino’s Pizza, which elicited 1,342 responses.

Those top 100 posts came from 18 restaurant chains. Buffalo Wild Wings led all brands, with 20 of the top 100 messages, followed by Pizza Hut, 14 posts; Taco Bell, 13 posts; Starbucks, nine posts; and Applebee’s, eight posts.

But enough about me

The firm then took those 100 posts with the most total comments and divided the number of comments for each message by the number of Facebook “likes” that brand has, in order to normalize the results among chains with as many fans as Starbucks Coffee’s 24.9 million people or as few as Jack in the Box’s 444,373 people as of Aug. 31.

Based on this comments-per-Facebook-fan ratio, Chili’s Grill & Bar had the most comments on a normalized basis with a promotional post from June: “This is the last weekend of Margarita Madness! We’ve got two $150 party packs for lucky, random fans.”

However, such a high level of engagement with a promotion-heavy post was the exception, rather than the rule, Expion found. The top 100 posts had only nine messages classified as either product-focused or promotion-focused. There were 37 food questions like “My all-time favorite pizza topping is ______,” 22 fill-in-the-blank questions, 15 versus questions like “Soft tacos or crunchy tacos,” and 11 trivia questions.

“The idea behind social media is that it’s about things that I like … so start getting people to think about their preferences,” Heffring said. “Ask them if they like your chicken or your steak. Tell them you’re trying to figure out the food you offer today or could offer in the future, and that you’re listening for their suggestions on how to improve things.”

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Seven brands dominated the top 20 most-commented posts on a normalized basis: Applebee’s with eight, Chili’s with four, Outback with three, Buffalo Wild Wings with two, and one post apiece for Jack in the Box, Pizza Hut and Red Lobster.

Let’s talk about you

Heffring advised restaurants to keep things quick and simple when going for more engagement with the open-ended posts meant to spark discussion.

When restaurants try to use a conversational tone in their Facebook posts, they run the risk of making those posts too long and losing people’s interest, Heffring said. Short, snappy messages in fun formats get more engagement than a post that rambles, he said.

However, brands must take the time to vary their posts between promoting their products and engaging customers or among different post formats, Heffring said.

“Doing promotional posts all the time has the same wear-out effect as if you only used fill-in-the-blank questions,” Heffring said. “When are promotions most effective for you? Typically around annual events or seasons. The top post of all this past summer [when normalizing the number of comments for the size of the fan base] was from Chili’s, and all it basically said was, ‘This is the last week of Margarita Madness.’”

Expion’s restaurant industry clients include Applebee’s, Famous Dave’s, Hurricane Grill & Wings, Brinker International, Don Pablo’s, and Chevy’s Fresh Mex.

Contact Mark Brandau at mark.brandau@penton.com.
Follow him on Twitter: Mark_from_NRN
 

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Q&A: Jim Garcia, El Pinto Restaurant & Cantina

On September 14, 2011, in Blog software, Cantina, El Pinto Restaurant, HRBAudit Blog, Jim A. Garcia, John Thomas, New Mexico, Person Relation, Social information processing, Web 2.0, www.nrn.com, by HRBAudit

While many restaurants struggled through the recession, New Mexico’s largest operation, the 1,020-seat El Pinto Restaurant & Cantina, thrived by amping up its engagement with guests and tapping social media to enhance the relationship.

Sales at the family-owned El Pinto in Albuquerque, N.M., have increased in each of the past 10 years, said Jim A. Garcia, El Pinto’s director of operations. In 2010, for example, sales at the restaurant alone rose more than 7 percent to pass $6.2 million, he said, and that excludes the company’s popular packaged salsa products.

“We want to create evangelists,” Garcia said. “We want to get guests to tell other people about us.”

El Pinto, founded in 1962 and owned by twin brothers Jim and John Thomas of the original founding family, has emphasized the guest experience, producing a wait list for its thousand-plus seats nearly every night.

Garcia, who worked 10 years each with Bennigan’s and Olive Garden, said the guest experience starts with El Pinto’s 220 employees who “create the magic.”

They concentrate on creating a “wow factor” for the guest, and learn to do so in a training program created a year and a half ago.

Garcia talked with Nation’s Restaurant News about other El Pinto programs that contribute to the restaurant’s success:

How do you maintain your customer loyalty?

We decided we were going to create a remarkable experience for our customers, giving them not only a dinner, but an experience they would never forget. We knew our market was families and a variety of people who wanted to celebrate an occasion. El Pinto is a spot that has a lot of beauty and great things to look at. We started to animate everything that we did and animate their senses: the view, the chiles roasting and great food.

Hear co-owner Jim Thomas talk about El Pinto; story continues on page 2

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Did you make cuts during the recession?

We had a couple of price increases in the past couple of years, but customers kept coming. We knew we had to be different from everyone else. Everyone else was looking where to cut during the recession, and we were looking at how to entertain the guests more and making it an experience that was worth coming out for.

How do you get your staff to enhance that?

We are in the business of making friends. We want to know your name, your wife’s name and who your kids are. We thank them by name.

How do you use e-mail and Facebook?

We decided to take Groupon out of the loop and do our own. Instead of conventional marketing, we decided to give that money to our regular customers. So we discount our regulars. We’re going to make sure those regulars get to make reservations when we don’t let the general public have reservations. If you sign up for our weekly newsletter, you get discounts e-mailed to you. We pop up on Facebook an offer “two-for-one” dinners. Those are real fans. We just put the offer up on our Facebook along with other events. We’ve maxed out at nearly 5,000 friends on Facebook. We also do book signings and get a dance studio to give free salsa dance lessons. It’s all for free. We don’t do any conventional marketing. My entire budget for radio last year was $16,000.

How does your staff get into the “friend-making?”

We teach our host staff to look at each customer and tell whether that customer has been to El Pinto before. When they first walk in the door and look at the big waterfall and pictures on the wall, our hostess will walk up to them and ask, “Hi, folks. Where are you all from?” They know they are new by the body language. So we start making friends right away and will give them a jar of bean chili or salsa. It’s worth the investment, because they’ll become a friend forever.

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You said cleanliness is important. How does the guest see that?

We are always tour-ready. We’ll get a manager, and take them through anytime. Our employees are used to seeing customers being escorted through the kitchen. We’re doing it because no one else does it. We’re animating all the senses to make the experience better.

Owners Jim and John Thomas are a unique selling point.

Jim and John have no script. They are humble. They can be welding in the back and then come out and meet guests or customers can go back at watch. People want an experience. We’re always looking for an opportunity to make the experience better, like adding a side dish to a table. That helps get people to come back.

You have five values that you run the business on. What are they?

We expound on them every day: Friendliness, cleanliness, service, safety and show.

How do you work with other local businesses?

We align our business with other business in the community, like the local baseball team, which averages 6,000 people a night. They can bring their ticket stub to El Pinto and get a free appetizer. They are marketing our business for us. And guests can take a lid from El Pinto salsa to the Albuquerque Isotopes, the baseball team, and they get a ticket to the game. They use their remnant tickets. If you align your business with others that might have the same customers, the loyalty will crossover right away.

Contact Ron Ruggless at ronald.ruggless@penton.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @RonRuggless

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NRN debuts Restaurant Social Media Index

On August 19, 2011, in Advertising, Christianity, Communication, Communication design, DigitalCoCo, Google, Graphic design, Index Librorum Prohibitorum, NRN.com, Restaurant, Restaurant News Restaurant Social Media Index, Restaurant Social Media, Social information processing, www.nrn.com, YouTube, by HRBAudit

Nation’s Restaurant News and partner DigitalCoCo, a digital branding and consulting agency, have created the most comprehensive tracking system for social media efforts in the restaurant industry to help businesses understand and compete in the social world.

The Nation’s Restaurant News Restaurant Social Media Index was developed to provide learnings that will help restaurants become more robust and effective in their use of social media, digital content and brand development. It gathers the basics of social media efforts, from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Google, and utilizes third-party technologies — from the highly-acclaimed Klout rankings to the social analytic system Social Insights from DigitalCoCo — to determine what brands and actions are moving consumers.

The Restaurant Social Media Index, or RSMI, will become the restaurant industry’s go-to source for the latest brand information on social media analytics. Learn more about the new tool and register your restaurant brand today.

“This industry-leading index brings social-media monitoring in foodservice to a new level,” Sarah Lockyer, executive editor of NRN.com, said. “The RSMI is a living, breathing, proprietary system that tracks consumer and restaurant brand engagement via social media networks and third-party sources. The data will reveal best practices, surprises and strategies that NRN is eager to present to the industry.”

Quarterly index readings, monthly findings and special reports based on the RSMI will be a larger part of industry coverage from Nation’s Restaurant News in the months ahead.

The Restaurant Social Media Index is a quantitative tracking effort of more than 600 restaurant brands, more than 23 million consumers, and thousands of keywords, menu items and restaurant terms — each of which has been indexed during the past two years. The RSMI will dive deep, not only into brand actions, but also into the interaction in brand content quality, consumer engagement, consumer influence and overall reach of the brand.

“Social media is converging into real social business for the restaurant industry, and tracking the social-savvy consumer and their interactions is now a high-level priority of every brand,” Paul Barron, founder of DigitalCoCo, said. “Understanding the metrics of the industry is what we are focused on here at DigtialCoCo and that means digging into thousands of restaurant brands’ data to index what is working and what is not.”

“As the founding sponsor of the RSMI, our goal is to help operators break down the areas where they can improve their social media efforts and convert it into social business,” Barron says.

The RSMI is built on a proprietary algorithm that analyzes several third-party social media indexes and then applies the DigitalCoCo Social Insights algorithm. This allows the RSMI to both identify top brands, but also to level the playing field between emerging restaurants and large chains, because the index does not simply tally numbers of followers or fans. The RSMI is built on an entirely new methodology that is surrounded by several trusted data sources that drive the social web.

Today, all restaurant brands have the opportunity to join this index and learn more about their own social footprint.

• Learn more
• Register your restaurant brand for the RSMI

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Study: Millennials want variety, value

On August 18, 2011, in Culture, Diner, Generation Y, Restaurant, Sharon Olson, Sociology, Value menu, www.nrn.com, Y-Pulse LLC, by HRBAudit

Young-adult diners choose restaurants based on value and menu variety, and favor quick-service restaurants and pizza chains, according to a recent poll by Chicago-based research and consulting firm Y-Pulse LLC.

In a survey of 315 consumers between the ages of 18 and 33, Y-Pulse found that Generation Y, also called “Millennials,” gravitates toward restaurants with many menu options and low price points.

“Young-adult diners are eating more often at quick-service restaurants than at any other restaurant type,” said Sharon Olson, co-founder of Y-Pulse. “At least half of all respondents reported never ordering food and/or drink at coffee shops, fast-casual and high-end restaurants in any given week. Meanwhile, pizza restaurants were the second place they are most likely to dine.”

Survey respondents ranked low prices, good customer service, and proximity to home or the workplace as the top three factors that influenced their choice of restaurants. Loyalty discounts and coupons were the next most popular factors, the data revealed.

Many restaurants have set up value propositions to capitalize on the desire for affordability among young consumers, who tend to heavily frequent quick-service and pizza chains.

Aggressive value menus to compete with the likes of McDonald’s Dollar Menu and Taco Bell’s tiered Why Pay More! offerings are becoming more common on quick-service menus. The pizza segment is also discounting around the $10 price point, such as Papa John’s large Double Layered Premium Pepperoni Pizza special and Pizza Hut’s any-pizza carryout special.

When asked about culinary and menu characteristics that factor into their restaurant choices, survey respondents said they picked where they would eat based on which establishment had food they most wanted to eat, followed by restaurants with a wide range of items. Free drink refills came in third on their list of factors, followed by to-go options, a variety of healthful and organic items, and ethnic menu options.

Social media and tech perks not as influential

Though the Millennial generation is depicted as extremely tech-savvy, the respondents to Y-Pulse’s survey did not rank free Wi-Fi or ample outlets for laptops among the most important factors. Eighty percent of respondents said they did not follow any restaurants on social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter. And more than half said they were not interested in using social media to find new restaurants.

However, word-of-mouth is important to this age group. More than 80 percent of the participants said they find out about new restaurants from friends and family, mainly because they trust the recommendations of people close to them.

“We found it interesting that high-school-aged respondents replied quite similarly to the older respondents on most every question,” Olson said. “Regardless of age, this generation seeks information from known sources, like friends and family, rather than following restaurants or social-media sites. They are discriminating in the sources that they trust for recommendations.”

Contact Mark Brandau at mark.brandau@penton.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @Mark_from_NRN

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