I work in a wine bistro. We sell lots of wine (about 100+ by the glass and 300+ more by the bottle) so I drink wine, like wine, like to learn about wine and talk about wine. But wow, I could looove this job. The Murphy-Goode Winery is doing a social media contest to “look for someone who really knows how to use Web 2.0 and Facebook and blogs and social media and YouTube and all sorts of good stuff like that—to tell the world about our wines and the place where we live: the Sonoma County Wine Country. In exchange we’re offering a “Really Goode Job” – a six-month job paying $10,000 a month plus accommodations!,” (Nowak, 2009).
So Sonoma Grille has carried Liar’s Dice Zinfandel and we currently have the Fume’ Blanc on hand. The wine is good, and I know (or at least am learning) how to use all this ‘new-fangled interwebs nonsense’ as my SO (significant other) likes to joke, so why not me? I can drink wine with the best of them. I like to talk about wine in a casual, easy-going, really-want-to-learn-more kind of way. Wine is not a hard to approach subject, though many think so. All you need to know to learn about wine is (1) a $20 a week budget, (2) a couple friends who also want to learn (3) an open mind and (4) a willing spirit. So I think I’m going to enter. For more info and to see the front-runners, click here:
So what do you all think? Is this a great job or what? Here’s what they’re looking for:
http://www.areallygoodejob.com/who.aspx
On a side note, this reminds me of the new Hyundai ads for the new Hyundai Assurance program. They are offering a deal to new car buyers who agree to ‘talk’ to others about their new car in exchange for $250 in payment or cash back for 6 months! In addition, they will take the car back with no issue on your credit if you lose your job, (Hyundai, 2009).
Here’s how the offer works: http://www.hyundaiusa.com/financing/specialoffers/HyundaiMonthlyCashBackLeaflet.pdf
This is a great way to get people talking about the cars, and buying, then talking some more, in tough economic times!
References:
Hyundai. (2009). “Assurance.” Retrieved June 8, 2009 from http://www.hyundaiusa.com/financing/specialoffers/hyundaicashback.aspx
Nowak, P. (2009). “Murphy-Goode is a Social Media Success & Contest Isn’t Even Over.” Retrieved June 7, 2009 from http://socialmediaunraveled.com/2009/05/25/murphy-goode/
After a long conversation with a friend of mine Friday night (after the IMC Dinner in Morgantown) and over many glasses of wine (it was her birthday and she is moving to Portland, OR this week), we got into a big discussion about social media and Twitter. She is on tweets for her dad’s business (Pet Flora), her own natural line of cosmeceuticals (naturallylela.com) and for the bartendingbliss (random notes from a bartender-she’s been one for about 11 years or so: Me-I’m going on 17 years.) So I broke down and did it…I am a twitterer! I see how it is all consuming. I see how you just get into it. I can understand, as the messages are short and fun and people can follow you. (Follow me on http://twitter.com/shorty1973!)
Then someone I do not know found me, after only about 1.5 days. And his posts are relevant to social media. And low and behold I found some very interesting articles via his tweet.
LetsEat.at
This is a free website builder made specifically for smaller family owned restaurants that can’t afford professional web design services, (Parr, 2009).
This service allows any small restaurant to post menu items, (with prices and descriptions), logos, integrates with OpenTable (mentioned in a previous post), and you can make it mobile-friendly. All the better for the people (like me) who look for restaurants on their phone while travelling…whether that travel is 5 hours away or 20 minutes.
Carl’s Jr. teams up with Stars from YouTube
Casual eatery Car’s Jr. is marketing their latest product, the Portobello Mushroom Six-Dollar burger and needs the help of YouTube Stars, in fact 9 of them. Do you all remember when they made a controversial splash with an ad featuring Paris Hilton?
“Carl’s Jr. is hoping that the YouTube celebs hold enough influence over their respective online communities of fans that the Portobello Mushroom Burger message not only gets wide distribution, but also engaged viewers who respond with their wallets and their own YouTube videos. Additionally, since these are paid endorsements, not unlike controversial sponsored blog posts, they do come at a small risk for the social media stars who have opted to participate,” (Van Grove, 2009).
So, what’s the worst that could happen? Carl’s Jr. gets into some trouble over paying for endorsements. Or they create some ads that throw a whole variety of people up in arms. It is pretty clear that this chain is not afraid of bad publicity. In fact, it seems they believe in the old adage ‘all publicity is good publicity.’ Back in 2005, the restaurant chain showed no remorse for the above mentioned Paris Hilton commercial. In fact, they seemed to love the attention garnered from protests by the PTC, Parents Television Council.
Carl’s Jr.’s message to the PTC: The group needs to “get a life,” said Andy Puzder, CEO of Carl’s Jr., [stated] “This isn’t Janet Jackson — there is no nipple in this. There is no nudity, there is no sex acts — it’s a beautiful model in a swimsuit washing a car,” (Silver, 2005).
Puzder went on to comment that he had shown the ad to all three of his kids (aged 12, 9 and 7 at the time) and they showed “no signs of being corrupted,” (Silver, 2005). Either this guy is just outlandish and obnoxious…or he loves the attention the ad is garnering. It seems that the commercial, and the later added ‘extended ad’ featuring the hotel billionairess and reality star on her own mini-site was a big hit with hungry young men because the mini-site they created, www.spicyparis.com, crashed hours after new ads the ads were shown and took several hours to get back up, (Carl’s Jr. Press Release, 2005).
I know we just commented last week about marketing in good taste, and especially when children are involved. But these ads were shown in certain time slots and during shows where kids are not the target audience, (such as Desperate Housewives and The Apprentice). I think its ok for a company to make a racy ad that pushes the envelope and doesn’t cross it, as long as it’s placed appropriately. Shock value still holds a great deal of draw for consumers.
That’s all I got for Now! This is Rachel, reporting from the SIN…OVER & OUT!
References:
Carl’s Jr. Press Release. (2005). “Explosive Response to Paris Hilton Ad Crashes Carl’s Jr. Web Site.” Retrieved June 1, 2009 from http://www.carlsjr.com/company/releases/explosive-response-to-paris-hilton-ad-crashes-carls-jr-web-site/
Parr, B. (2009). “LetsEat.at Helps Local Restaurants Build Targeted Websites.” Mashable: The Social Media Guide. Retrieved June 1, 2009 from http://mashable.com/2009/06/01/letseatat/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_content=twitter&utm_campaign=twitter
Silver, C. (2005). “No Apologies for Sexy Paris Hilton Ad.” CNN Money. Retrieved June 1, 2009 from http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/24/news/newsmakers/carls_ad/
Van Grove, J. (2009). “YouTube Stars to Endorse Carl’s Jr. Burgers.” Mashable: The Social Media Guide. Retrieved June 1, 2009 from http://mashable.com/2009/06/01/youtube-stars-in-carls-jr-ads/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_content=twitter&utm_campaign=twitter
There’s a recent trend in eateries that equal savings to friends of the establishment. A sales promotion ran January in the LA restaurants Whist and Blue on Blue during the “Nine Days of 2009” that allowed free food and discounted drinks if you were able to show proof that you were a Facebook Friend. This also happens in San Francisco’s Zare’, Mermaid Café’ in NYC and Rocca in Boston, (Grayson, 2009).
The Publican in Chicago offers promotion via Twitter and the Philadephia pub McGillin’s recently “packed the house” with 350 RSVP’s for a Friday the 13thparty, by sending only 700 Facebook invites to fans of the pub. Their owner, Christopher Mullins, says “social network sites give us direct, two-way communication with guests and save us a lot of time and money…we know that they [fans of the restaurant] are engaged and interested…the response is so direct and so immediate, (Grayson, 2009).
And one of the coolest aspects of this jump by the Food Service Industry into the social networking world is that they are able to create business where there was none, and are not hurting the existing business. By inviting Facebook fans an invite to a party to be held when the restaurant is not normally open allows them to make money when the space is already available and non-fans would not be dining there. The events also can be planned and promoted very quickly and the addition of Twitter allows complaint resolution to happen even quicker; “We had a guest tweet on Twitter that he had had a bad experience at the bar. Within minutes of him posting that, we were able to contact that customer to apologize and correct the problem,” states Mullins, (Grayson, 2009).
The most important thing to remember is that these tools can be of great benefit to the establishment, but they also can hurt them. Your Facebook or Twitter page must “look professional and convey the image of the restaurant…The last thing you want to do is run off half-cocked and hurt the brand,” (Grayson2, 2009).
The Cheers magazine mentioned below is a restaurant industry trade magazine which is sent free to qualifying managers, operators, franchisers and owners.
P.S. Here’s a big shout-out to Anna…I found this article through FohBoh.com!
For two other interesting posts on the use of social media in the Food Service Industry, go to:
This is a very cool concept. Imagine walking into a swanky Vegas restaurant and seeing an “entrance staircase wind[ing] around a 42-foot-tall glass-enclosed “wine tower” filled with Lucite wine bins. Two “wine angels,” young women clad in black cat suits, retrieve the bottles inside,” (Steiman, 2000). Welcome to Aureole in the Mandalay Bay Hotel. This restaurant started by featuring a system in which the wine steward “crawl[ed] into a harness that is hooked on to hoist on the sides of the tower and is lifted swiftly to the correct level. The harness is equipped with an intercom and up and down controls,” (Prial, 1999). Now the work is done by “professional dancers, rock climbers and acrobats,” using a very efficient computerized POS system, “taking about three minutes from the moment the waiter punches in the order till the wine arrives at the table. During that short time, the order is output by a printer in the wine tower, one of the “wine angels,” … reads the bin number on the order, retrieves the wine, sets it in her holster, and descends with the goods,” (Food Arts, 1999).
Ok, so this is all very cool, but what about the emerging media?
Well this very trendy wine restaurant doesn’t print their wine list on paper; too many trees would lose their lives that way. Instead they present it to diners on “lightweight, wireless, portable computer tablets…[with] a stylus to peruse pages, mark favorites and make final selections,” and cost about $100,000 to develop, (Whitley, 2003). The eWine Book weighs about three pounds and provides as much information about the wine as the consumer wants to know. This includes wine reviews, graphics showing the flavor profile of the wine, stories about the winemakers and is constantly updated, allows for easy inventory as well as a camera that shows the customer a video of his/her wine being retrieved after ordering, (Whitley, 2003).
All of you out there may think this is cool technology, but how useful is it, really? Well I can tell you personally that it is irritating to the staff and the guest to have to wait for a manager to go to another floor to tell you after about 15-20 minutes of time that the wine the guest ordered is out of stock. Sorry, OOPS, try again. And Sonoma Grille only stocks about 400 different wines, imagine if we stocked 2,000 kinds? And inventory is done once per month, and it only takes about five to seven hours to complete! With this system, inventory would be updated instantly!
I will finish this post with a quote from Wine Director at Aureole, “”I can capture instant feedback. If a diner is thrilled by a wine choice, he can use the tablet to message wine staff to e-mail him the name of the wine and where consumers can purchase it,” (Whitley, 2003). The eWine Book also displays featured wines, upcoming special events, or just about anything the managers at Aureole want to tell the customers about. “You sort it the way you want it,” Bradbury says. “This way, you’re putting the consumer first,” (Whitley, 2003).
Once again, this is Rachel, reporting on news from the Service Industry Front, OVER & OUT!
I started looking around at my daily life to see what kinds of new media and technology are being used to replace the old systems. Since I work in a restaurant, I started there. The place I work, Sonoma Grille, books their reservations through a software system called OpenTable. It is not only a software system but a website. The organization of OpenTable serves over 10,000 restaurant customers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the U.K., Germany, France, Spain and Japan and “replaces pen-and-paper at the host stand,” (About OpenTable, 2009). This system offers search capabilities for number of diners, cuisine style, day, time and “reflects real-time availability” with immediate reservation recording at the restaurant of choice, (About OpenTable, 2009). This is a free service for consumers as the restaurants who use the system pay for the software.
I have talked to persons in the business world about how they like this type of reservation system, and it seems this is much easier when you are trying to accomodate a large group of visiting business people. It makes the lives of administrative assistants easier, as they can search availablity for say, 15 people, and not have to make all those individual calls to each restaurant to see who has an opening for that day at that time and can fit in the whole group.
This service recently was announced as being included in the Webware 100, a list of winning web applications chosen by the people who use these apps. There are several categories; audio & music, browsing, commerce, communication, infrastructure & Storage, location-based services, photo & video, productivity, search & reference, social & publishing, and editor’s choice, (Webware 100, 2009).
Hi, my name is Rachel, but I go by Christie to most everyone. I am originally from Wetzel County, WV then moved to Clarksburg, Fairmont and Morgantown and have lived in Pittsburgh for the last 8 years. I graduated from Liberty High School in Clarksburg, WV, then went to Fairmont State College and received a BA in Theater/Speech Communications. I came to Pittsburgh because of a work transfer (I used to be a restaurant manager) and then worked in sales for 6 years. I recently left the corporate work force through a series of odd circumstances, (i.e. I was downsized) and now work fulltime as a bartender at an upscale wine bistro, Sonoma Grille in Downtown Pittsburgh.
I have two cats, Scooby & Jenna. I adopted them in December and they were ‘hard to place’ because they came as a pair; Scooby has a hole in his face due to being shocked by biting through a wire as a kitten, and is also missing half his tongue. Jenna is his adopted sister, and groomed him as a kitten when they were placed in the shelter together. Jenna had a digestive issue, finicky tummy, and had to have special food. Being a sucker for a good story, I adopted them and have since weaned Jenna off the expensive prescription food (at the advice of the vet) and everyone is happy and healthy!
As far as emerging media is concerned, I have been living under a rock. I do not have a Facebook or MySpace page, I don’t Tweet and I don’t have my own website. I started a blog once, but I obviously didn’t know what I was doing as no one could post comments on it; my friends tried and it didn’t work. I just don’t know how people have the time to do things like this…I don’t work in an office currently. When I did, I was a great multi-tasker and was able to do research for school in the background on the computer while I was working. Currently I tend bar, and so there is no multi-tasking, except to check on this table’s order, while I make this table a pomegranate cosmo, a mojito and 4 glasses of wine, answer the phone, ring in a room service order and check the score of the hockey game for the guy at the table who cannot see the score for himself. Whew…now do that for 10 hours and tell me how ‘socially networked’ you feel!
Any suggestions from anyone out there on how to make things work on this site is very much appreciated.
