My First Look at How This Social Media thing Works

In two months of studying Social Media for Marketing, which is two months more than I’ve put into anything related to social media in my life up to attending NWTC, I’ve learned that there’s simply no way to become a success in the fields I’m interested in (photography, videography, journalism, podcasting) without utilizing social media, and a plan for interacting on social media, in place.

One of the most stand-out revelations I will be taking away from SMM is that staying relevant and regular is everything when it comes to social media and engaging the audience you seek. One of the things I kept asking myself as my partner and I were working on our SMM Strategy project was “Why haven’t these people posted anything to their Facebook page in over a month?”. The more I began to understand as to the importance of a company or group’s social media presence, the more I became baffled by what seems to be a very casual approach to maintaining that presence for more than a few establishments in our area.

Being a complete novice to social media, this class was eye-opening on several levels. 

It’s clear to me now that a company’s reputation can hinge on what is happening on social media.

“Out of all industries, consumers read restaurant reviews more than any other industry.”

My partner and I took a look at Angelina Restaurant for our summary and some of what we saw was interesting to say the least and I can’t help but wonder why an industry that seems to be so tailored for social media campaigns could be so seemingly overlooked in the Green Bay area.

There simply aren’t a lot of enthusiastic social media campaigns happening among the restaurant community in this area and it strikes me as a colossal waste of opportunity. We focused on Angelina Restaurant’s presence on Facebook specifically and we were shocked to see that they haven’t touched their page in more than a month. That aside, a look at AR’s Yelp page paints the same picture of wasted opportunity. 

That right there is a GLOWING, maybe not grammatically stable, review. And there’s a lot of information we can unpack from a taking a quick glance at AR’s Yelp page. The rave review by James K. from Marinette was posted nearly a month ago and it’s the most recent one on the page, the next most current post, another five-star review with great comments, comes nearly a month prior. It makes me wonder why AR doesn’t take the time to have more of a social media presence. Their customers are clearly willing to engage on social media, but they’re doing all the work and here’s an example:

User submitted phots, five stars on a well-written, to-the-point paragraph. And it went unacknowledged by the folks at AR, just as every other friendly review posted to their Yelp profile.

Why?

Meanwhile, here’s what we see when that same reviewer posted a very similar (more photos and it’s well-written) review for another restaurant not all that far from here.

Now, my family and I used to live up there and I can tell you without any doubt that Angelina Restaurant far exceeds Menominee Michigan’s Ogden Club as far as places you want to go eat…by a million miles. I’m positive, however, that the owners of Ogden Club got a little mileage out of that Yelp review whereas AR just sort of blew it off. 

Think about how much more likely Heidi is to recommend that restaurant to everyone she knows after Robin G. reached out and thanked her for the great review. It only took a second and I’m pretty sure these Yelp reviewers check back on their posts frequently. A look at Heidi’s Yelp reviews shows quite a bit of responses to her posts by respective restaurant owners, all of whom took the time to express their appreciation 

“A one-star increase in a restaurant’s Yelp rating can result in as much as a 9 percent increase in revenue.”

Again, seeing statistics like this, coupled with what I now know about the tendencies of local restaurants as far as social media is concerned, really makes me wonder why a place like AR isn’t making the most out of this marketing tool. Especially seeing as how activity on social media is stagnant across the board for the restaurant business in our area…why not see what happens if you were to really make a push at your social media marketing efforts?

As far as applying what I’ve learned in Social Media Marketing to my own endeavors in digital media, it’s been made crystal clear to me that if my side projects as a podcast host or freelance photographer/journalist are to have any sustained success, they will have to be backed up by a presence on social media.