The days of FREE post reach on Facebook are coming to an end
So after discussing the subject of social media marketing, specifically Facebook, with my friend Nick Fosberg we’re bracing for a huge change. Nick’s article on the death of Facebook marketing for restaurants and bars really made sense to me and reinforced the info I’ve been gathering from the public on what brings customers into a restaurant or bar .
This feedback is contrary to what most “marketing” people think. Marketers will stress the huge impact of things like hashtags. I had a sneaking suspicion that in the bar/ restaurant field, hashtags do not bring people in the door. After reading the poll results, I was right. Every one of these “new Facebook hacks” or “awesome new social media secrets” seem to be based more on hype than results. Marketers have a tendency to put a HUGE focus a sliver of a sliver of what brings people in, falling back on the “brand awareness” aspect when they don’t get the results they want.
Ask yourself how YOU find a new bar or restaurant
If you focus on YOUR habits as a consumer you’re probably getting warmer. Do YOU go to Facebook and aimlessly search for random restaurants when in an unfamiliar town? I doubt it. Most people in a tourist economy will use Yelp, Tripadvisor or Google. Or will of course ask a local. How would you see a social media post for a restaurant that you have no idea even exists?
Think of social media marketing as swimming in a very small fishbowl and getting your message out to a fraction of the people in the fishbowl. Your message is non-existent outside this fishbowl. Would you rather keep pushing your marketing message inside this fishbowl or in the ocean right outside it?? Yelp, Tripadvisor and Google are the ocean.