Facebook for Your Restaurant

RESTAURANT FACEBOOK FOR ��YOUR

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INTRODUCTION TO FACEBOOK

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FACEBOOK FOR YOUR RESTAURANT

Facebook has over 1.15 BILLION monthly users

with 699 MILLION active users every day.

Source: Facebook INC.


10.8% of total online minutes are spent on Facebook.

80% of Facebook’s daily users are from outside the US and Canada.

and a 76.1% penetration among smartphone users aged 18 and up.

Facebook is the top ranked app with 819 million mobile monthly active users

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Source: comScore, Facebook INC.


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TS Given these statistics, it’s easy to see how valuable Facebook is for any business, but what about

restaurants in particular? Facebook isn’t just about posting vacation pictures and complaining about politics. Restaurants stand to see an increase in traffic and sales with a properly updated Facebook page, especially with these new features:

•  In a recent partnership with OpenTable, mobile Facebook users are now able to book a reservation right from the restaurant’s Facebook Page – giving guests instant access to all 20,000 restaurants in North America currently listed on OpenTable.

•  Users can order food on Facebook through third party applications. This added usability has

shown growth in check averages, order size, and increased visibility through added social media impressions.

Do we have your attention now? With this book we aim to arm you with the most valuable information to get your Facebook page up, running, and making you money. Let’s get started.

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GETTING STARTED

www.aaronallen.com

First things first. Does your restaurant have a Facebook Page yet? If yes, feel free to skip to Chapter 2: Admin Panel. If not, here’s how to get your page started.

20 minutes your restaurant’s Facebook Page will be up and running.

In

You just need: •  Your company email inbox open and waiting •  Your cover photo: a picture of your establishment that is 851 pixels wide by 315

pixels tall (less than 1 kilobyte) •  Your profile picture: A logo image that is 160 pixels by 160 pixels •  A comfy chair •  This handy guide


GO TO www.facebook.com

This is the main page for Facebook and the portal

where you will sign in every time you want to update

your information or post a new picture.

Beneath the green “Sign Up” button, click “Create a Page for a celebrity, band or business.

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CLICK LOCAL BUSINESS OR PLACE 2


ENTER YOUR RESTAURANT’S INFORMATION 3

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•  Content posted to a Page is public and can be seen by everyone.

•  Data collection (a valuable marketing tool) must be

disclosed to users as originating from your business and not Facebook.

•  Ads and commercial content must follow Facebook’s

Advertising Guidelines. •  Offers must be available for a limited time only. •  The lawful operation of any promotions on Facebook

are the responsibility of the restaurant or business running it – not Facebook. This includes official rules, terms and eligibility requirements, and compliance with any governing regulations

Note: it’s important that you read and agree with the Facebook Pages Terms. Some highlights of Facebook’s regulations are:


LOG INTO FACEBOOK 4

Your Facebook Page must be associated with a Facebook account. You can either associate the page with your personal account (not recommended) or create a business account. This will keep your personal life separate from your business and avoid any sticky situations like personal comments accidentally posting to your business page.


ENTER YOUR BUSINESS EMAIL ADDRESS 5

Note: the date of birth is only necessary to ensure you are over the age of 13. (Are you?) You can hide this information from your page later. Be sure to read and accept the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy before clicking “Sign Up Now!”


CHECK YOUR EMAIL 6

You will receive an email from Facebook with a link. Click the link (seen below in blue).


OPT IN (OR OUT) OF FACEBOOK ADS 8 You can start running your ads right away or hold off until your page is more developed. To opt in: set your budget and audience then click “Increase Page Likes”.��To opt out: click “Skip”.

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…AND YOU’RE DONE!

Here is your “Admin Panel” where you can see all your new messages and notifications as well as control who sees your content, manage or add new admins, create ads, and set up offers for your guests. More on this in Chapter Two.

Don’t forget to add your cover photo here. This will greatly improve the aesthetics of your page and create a more personal and inviting experience for your guests.

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ADMIN PANEL

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THE ADMIN PANEL

The Admin Panel is where you can control everything about your page. Here you can manage messages, check your notifications, start an ad campaign, or edit anything and everything about your Page. The most important thing you can do when you start your page is to create a branded domain name. This will ensure that your Facebook Page shows up when people search for it. Note: this requires a mobile phone number to be associated with the Page. This number can be hidden from your audience.

Just go to Edit Page then Update Page Info.

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THE ADMIN PANEL

From there click “Enter a Facebook web address under “Page Address”.

You will be asked to verify your account with a mobile phone.

Once that is completed you can choose the name you’d like for you restaurant (we advise using your full restaurant name to help guests find you) and you’re all set.

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THE ADMIN PANEL

IMPORTANT FEATURES Below is an explanation of the important features you can edit from your Admin Panel. Under Page Info •  CATEGORY: Be sure that you are listed as a Local Business – Restaurant/Café. •  TOPICS: This will help you come up in specific searches. What cuisine/style of dining is your

restaurant? •  START INFO: Adjust this to input the date your restaurant was founded and other information

around your history. •  ADDRESS: Keeping your address accurate will help you come up in searches and keep a map on

your profile to help guests find you. •  SHORT DESCRIPTION: Use this space for a very short description and be sure to include your

restaurant website’s URL hyperlinked to improve search engine optimization. •  LONG DESCRIPTION: This is a great place to share your restaurant’s story, but be sure to include

any important keywords early on, as this section will appear as your Page’s meta description on Google and other search engines.

Under Settings •  POSTING ABILITY: Change this only if you do not want to let guests post on your Timeline

without your approval. •  MESSAGES: Turning this off forces users to engage on your restaurant Timeline and prevents your

inbox from being flooded with private messages •  PROFANITY FILTER: For a family-friendly environment, turn on this feature.

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THE ADMIN PANEL

Beyond that, Facebook’s automatic settings should work for your restaurant. The Admin Roles tab lets you give others access to your Admin Panel. Only share this role with trusted people and employees who are specifically working on your Facebook Page. The More subcategory is where you can manage all the applications available on your Facebook Page. If you set up mobile ordering, for example, you could edit the app here. Now your Page is finally set up. Let’s get to posting.

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TIMELINE


TELL YOUR RESTAURANT’S STORY

SO WHAT SHOULD YOU DO WITH YOUR TIMELINE?

Your guests won’t see your Admin Panel when they visit your Page. But they will see your Timeline: a compilation of all of your posts, milestones, and photos brought together into one chronological webpage. Your Timeline is how guests can learn more about your business before ever stepping foot in it.

When did you first open? When did you expand to a second

location? When did Cheesy Fries become your signature dish? Guests want to know all about your restaurant to feel more engaged with the brand, to feel like their money is going toward someone – not something.

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INTERACT WITH GUESTS 2

Don’t let the conversation be one-sided. Guests want to hear from you (or they wouldn’t have written to you in the first place). Don’t miss an opportunity to create a personalized experience for your guests through Facebook.


DRAW THEM IN WITH GREAT PHOTOS 3

Photos are your friend on Facebook. Be sure to have a killer cover photo, an appropriate profile picture (this will show up on all of your comments, so your restaurant’s logo is the best fit here), and be sure to upload beautiful photos of events and new dishes regularly. This is what makes guests click “like”.


KEEP YOUR STATUSES SHORT 4

Lengthy posts are a turn off for guests. Be pithy with your posts. Guests will appreciate it. If you have a lot to say, make a post directing them to your website and go into specifics there.


DON’T BE A SALESMAN 5 Users aren’t on Facebook to be marketed to. If your Page is just a series of posts telling guests to come to your restaurant, they won’t bother with your brand. Instead, engage them in a conversation. Ask questions and opinions. Post a restaurant-related joke if it fits into your brand personality. Facebook turns your brand into a friend. What kind of a friend does your restaurant want to be?

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GETTING POPULAR

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www.aaronallen.com FACEBOOK FOR YOUR RESTAURANT

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Now that your initial profile is all set up and you’re ready to start posting, you have to make sure what you post actually gets seen. Those with prior experience on Facebook will have heard of EdgeRank, an algorithm used by Facebook to determine which posts a user sees in his or her News Feed. Why does Facebook choose what posts users see? Simply put, Facebook is too popular. Without some sort of a metric, users would miss the important news (like a friend’s engagement) over a photo of an acquaintance’s lunch. When EdgeRank began, it used three categories to determine a post’s validity to a user : Affinity, Weight, and Time Decay. Affinity determines which Pages and users are most important to a user based on interaction. If a guest is “liking” or sharing your photos and statuses, your posts are more likely to show up in his or her News Feed. Weight determines how applicable a specific post is to users. Photos and videos usually hold the most weight, but a text comment with more likes trumps a photo with no engagement. How old your post is factors into its Time Decay. Facebook wants to keep a user’s feed fresh and relevant, so older posts lose value in favor of the new and exciting.

GETTING POPULAR

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THE NEW EDGERANK Fortunately, or unfortunately for those not in favor of change, Facebook has amended its metrics and now has as many as 100,000 factors playing into a Page’s EdgeRank. (It should be noted here that EdgeRank is no longer the proper vernacular. The new algorithm, including these many weights, has yet to be named.) Affinity, Weight, and Time Decay all play a part in this new formula, but many more factors have now entered the game. Ads clicked, relationship settings, and spam reporting are just some of the new ways Facebook takes user interactivity into account. CHECKING EDGERANK While Facebook does not disclose an individual Page’s EdgeRank, there are third party programs that can calculate this for you. Be aware, they generally cost money to use. For the best gauge of your Facebook reach, talk to your fans. Engagement is the best way to see who’s listening and improve your reach.

GETTING POPULAR

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WHAT IS VIRAL CONTENT? Viral content on Facebook is any status, photo, or video a user posts that is shared across the internet, beyond the initial reach of said user. For example, say you post an amazing picture to your Page. John Smith sees it and shares it, then five of his friends share it, then five of their friends share it (and so on and so on). Soon, the whole world is seeing your photo. On a slow news day, media outlets might pick up the story and then your photo is not only popular on Facebook, but to local, national, or even international markets. Sounds like a dream right? What marketer doesn’t want to get free media attention? Unfortunately, posts that go viral are not always posts about your restaurant that you yourself put out there – and they might not be the most positive messages you’d want spread about your restaurant.

As we’ve discussed getting your Page seen and the important factors for a post, we should remember that anything put on the internet can be seen by everyone – and will be interpreted in millions of different ways. A light-hearted post could have extreme consequences, as seen by numerous examples of viral content.

GETTING POPULAR

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One associate went above and beyond for a guest’s last request. The family, moved by the associate’s kindness, posted their story to the Panera Bread page, garnering 812,348 “likes” for the restaurant chain, with the story getting picked up by AdWeek as well as other blogs.

GETTING POPULAR: THE GOOD

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When the owner of Rainy Days Caffe posted “Like to take a moment right now to thank our customers whose kids don’t make a mess,” accompanied by a picture of the messy floor left behind, she never expected to become an international news story. But guest outrage transformed this post into a viral freight train. Picked up by the NY Daily News, the Huffington Post, and the Daily Mail, this status – that was meant to be snarky and funny – caused the owner to receive death threats. Judging from this example, it’s probably best to leave guest criticism off your Facebook Page.

GETTING POPULAR: THE BAD

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THE “OH MY GOD, DID THEY JUST SAY THAT?”

Controversy abounds for Sava!, an Italian restaurant from Amarillo Texas. A photo of a sign posted in the, now closed, restaurant’s window has garnered a bit of negative attention.

“Good luck with your pre-packed frozen [expletive] in this town…We are off to make money in a town whose average IQ is above room temperature! “

The restaurant’s owners, who have moved their establishment to Lubbock, Texas, maintain that the sign is not real and people shouldn’t “believe all [they] hear and see...” Of course, that hasn’t stopped The Huffington Post, Gawker, Grubstreet, and the Inquistr from picking up the story, garnering some bad press for the newly re-established restaurant.

GETTING POPULAR

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GRAPH SEARCH

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The Graph Search feature on Facebook is an integrated search engine that draws answers to user queries from social media information provided on Facebook. Results can be filtered by location, photos, videos – even the habits of online friends. Graph Search is a new way to “get found” online and, as the information database grows, so too will Graph Search’s importance.

For example, guests can search for “Restaurants my friends like” in Graph Search.

GRAPH SEARCH

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This br ings up a l i s t o f restaurants a guest’s friends have “liked” on Facebook – meaning the “likes” you get are even more important now than they were before.

GRAPH SEARCH

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While the technology is still new and Facebook’s database is ever-evolving, there are some important steps you can take to make your Facebook Page more visible.

1 Fill Our Your Profile to Completion Leave no box unfilled. Make sure that your location, restaurant description, website, hours of operation, photos, and videos are all up. The more information you put out there, the more likely it is you will be found.

2 Ensure Your Information is Correct A simple typo can put your restaurant in the wrong state or drive traffic away with the wrong phone number listed. Be accurate in all your information.

3 Get Those “Likes” More likes means more visibility. In our example of “Restaurants my friends like” 1 like means you can show up in 510 searches (the average number of friends Facebook users aged 18-24 have1.)

1Source: Arbitron and Edison Research

GRAPH SEARCH

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4 Have Guests “Check-in” With Your Brand Check-ins are another way guests can search for your business. Incentivize check-ins with promotions like a free appetizer with check-in and get more people talking about your restaurant.

5 Upload Those Photos and Videos Photos and videos are a great way to interact with your guests – and another way they might search for you restaurant. Did you hold a special promotion night? Guests want to see. Be sure to tag your business in the pictures as well.

Now that guests (and their friends) can find your Page, let’s talk about reaching the audience who has yet to enjoy your restaurant.

GRAPH SEARCH

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ADVERTISING

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56%

of those surveyed said their ROI increased “somewhat” to “dramatically” from Facebook ads. 43%

of respondents will be increasing their Facebook ad budgets.

And when those surveyed listed the top six advertising sites in order of importance, Facebook came in second only to Google.

In a recent study of 1,200 advertisers:

Source: Ad Age

ADVERTISING


Beyond the opportunity to engage with guests for free, Facebook offers a number of options for those interested in buying advertisements. Studies show that increased ad frequency on Facebook brings higher conversion rates for advertisers.

FACEBOOK ADS CAPABILITIES

•  Target audience by gender, age, and location •  Gear campaigns toward a company goal: increased Facebook likes,

increase attendance, get new users, etc. •  Run test campaigns to find the most successful option •  Set advertising budgets •  Monitor advertising success

Facebook offers two ways to advertise: through their marketplace and with Facebook Exchange. Marketplace ads are great to increase traffic to your Facebook page, while improving brand awareness. These ads are easy to set up and take about 15 minutes with the instructions following later in this chapter. Facebook Exchange is more sophisticated, allowing advertisers to post ads in users’ News Feeds and featuring a real-time bidding for advertising real estate. This method is more suitable for advertisers looking to direct traffic away from Facebook and must be set up through a third party.

ADVERTISING


With two real estates available – the right-hand column and News Feed – Facebook advertisers are seeing a steady ROI.

As shown above, the News Feed option features a large image with options for users to “like”, “share”, and “comment” on the story.

ADS

ADVERTISING


ADS

When compared to the right-hand column advertisements, News Feed ads saw:

17x

lower cost-per-click 48.4%

197.3% higher ROI

higher click-thru rate

Source: Ad Week

ADVERTISING


If you didn’t create an ad when you started your restaurant’s Page, setting up your Facebook ad is still just as easy – and many businesses do it themselves.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED •  A 600 x 225 Pixel Photo (or Choose an Existing Photo on Your Page) •  A Headline (25 Character Maximum) •  A Tagline (50 Character Maximum)

ADS

ADVERTISING


CLICK “INCREASE PAGE LIKES” ON YOUR ADMIN PANEL 1


CLICK THE GEAR BUTTON 2 This screen should look familiar. If you are only interested in increasing your likes, you can Click the blue “Increase Page Likes” button and be done. If you’re looking for more advanced options with more specific audience selections, continue on.


CLICK “ADVANCED OPTIONS” 3

This will take you to your main Ad Hub.


SELECT “GET MORE PAGE LIKES” OR “PROMOTE PAGE POSTS” 4

“Get More Page Likes” will show ads featuring your chosen image, headline, and tagline on users’ News Feeds and right-hand columns. If you’ve chosen this option, proceed to Step 5. “Promote Page Posts” will make a selected post – perhaps one advertising a contest or promotion at your restaurant– appear prominently in your audience’s News Feed. Many posts are filtered out of users’ News Feeds as so much information is posted all at once. In any given day a user could potentially see 1,500 posts. Promoting Page Posts ensures that your audience hasn’t missed your message. Proceed to Step 7


UPLOAD OR SELECT YOUR AD PHOTO 5

You can have up to six campaigns going at the same time, but only one photo per ad.


INPUT YOUR HEADLINE AND TAGLINE 6

You’ll also need to specify your ad’s “Landing View”. This is the page where guests will be directed to when they click on your ad. If you have a specific event you’re publicizing, direct them to the event’s page. If you are advertising a photo contest, send them to the photo album. To simply drive guests to your Page, choose Timeline.


OPT IN (OR OUT) OF SPONSORED STORIES 7

Sponsored Stories is a way to get your brand in the News Feed with a personal recommendation from a user’s friend. When someone likes your page, their friends will see it prominently displayed. This will cut into your ad budget, but shows up as a personal recommendation from a friend to other users, rather than an ad run by your restaurant.


SPECIFY YOUR AUDIENCE 8

Does your business cater to the over 21 crowd? Are you trying to drive more women into your restaurant? Having a Singles event? Specifying your audience can be extremely important to the success of your ad campaign. Remember though, the more specific you make the audience, the more expensive the cost per click (or impression) will be.


SET YOUR BUDGET 9

If you click “Switch to Advanced Pricing” you have the option to optimize for “likes”, clicks, or impressions. Selecting impressions will ensure that the people most likely to “like” your page will see it. Optimizing for clicks is less effective for gaining “likes”.


REVIEW YOUR AD 10 Check over your ad to make sure you not only like the aesthetics of it, but that you haven’t missed some key typo or forgot to add an audience constraint. You can edit your ad later if you like, but it’s best not to waste your money having an error go out. Read the Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and the Advertising Guidelines then click “Place Order.” You’re done. Congratulations on your ad.

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FACEBOOK COMMERCE


FACEBOOK COMMERCE

Facebook offers two interesting revenue sources for restaurants in particular : Gifts and Online Ordering.

GIFTS Facebook monitors profiles and statuses, so that on birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, and other important life events, the website knows to offer users the option to buy their friend “Gifts”, a gift card to popular places of interest. The restaurants currently enrolled in the “Gifts” program are: Starbucks, Domino’s, Outback Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Jamba Juice, and Burger King. This program is still in its infancy, premiering to select audiences in September 2012. It remains to be seen whether this application will take off or fall flat.


FACEBOOK COMMERCE

$30 billion In 2012,

was spent on gift cards with guests spending

15 percent more on digital gift cards than traditional plastic ones.


FACEBOOK COMMERCE

ONLINE ORDERING In a recent study, 69 percent of those surveyed said they have ordered food through a mobile device. Guests are looking for the easiest way to get their meals – and making it so they don’t even have to leave their current webpage makes it even easier.

Source: Interactive Advertising Bureau/Viggle

With third party applications like ChowNow, NetWaiter, and Exit41, guests can place online orders directly through the restaurant’s Facebook Page. The orders are delivered to the restaurant as if it was made in-store and can be processed immediately by the kitchens. According to NetWaiter, restaurants offering online ordering have seen a 42.5 percent increase in order frequency for takeout orders as well as a 28.5 percent increase in delivery orders.

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APPS


APPS

Applications, or apps, are a great way to customize your Facebook user’s experience. These appear on your “app bar” next to the About section on your Facebook Page. Online ordering is one such app specifically for restaurants, but what else can you use to drive traffic and brand awareness? •  EMAIL ADDRESS COLLECTION: Build your email base with a subscription app on Facebook.

Offering up a free appetizer usually inspires guests to sign up. •  JOBS: Your associates can be your greatest brand ambassadors. Be sure to make it easy for them

to apply on your Facebook Page. •  MENU: If you’re not offering online ordering, having your food listed in its own app only seems

natural for a restaurant. •  HAVE YOUR OWN APP?: Making your own content easily accessible for guests is the best

practice. Did you have someone design a mini game – like Domino’s “Pizza Hero” – for your restaurant? Let guests download it from Facebook.

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EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL POSTS


SUCCESSFUL POSTS

In 2012, Taco Bell produced 18 of the top 100 most-engaging posts from restaurants on Facebook. Their number one post?

Source: Expion

Promoting their “Graduate to Go” program, Taco Bell received the most user engagement on their post offering a $5 donation for every “like” to their page (up to $1 million). This resulted in 87,317 “likes” and 895 shares to date.

CAUSE MARKETING


SUCCESSFUL POSTS

Starbucks is the only restaurant rated in the top five brands on Facebook in terms of number of likes. They’re known for their visually striking photos, as seen below, with their top engaged post from 2012 garnering 60,714 likes and 1,724 shares to date.

Source: Mashable.

THE POWER OF PHOTOS


SUCCESSFUL POSTS

Red Lobster won the 2013 Gold Ogilvy for its “Sea Food Differently” campaign in 2012. Part of their efforts included a weekly photo contest (The LobSTAR of the Week). Guests submitted photos of themselves celebrating at Red Lobster, with the winning entries featured on the company Facebook Page. This effort saw a 445 percent rise in Facebook “likes” (330,000 to 1,800,000) and a monthly traffic increase of 42 percent to the Red Lobster website.

Source: Ogilvy Awards Case Study

PHOTO CONTESTS


Corner Bakery Cafe offers a trivia contest promoting their seasonal BBLT sandwich. With gift cards and sandwiches as the prizes, Corner Bakery engages with hundreds of fans every week, driving these fans into their restaurants.

SUCCESSFUL POSTS

TRIVIA CONTESTS


When Einsten Brothers offered a free bagel and shmear to anyone who “liked” their page on Facebook, they saw a 1000% increase in fans in the first week, gained 296,000 fans in one month and became the 54th most popular business on Facebook.

SUCCESSFUL POSTS

GIVEAWAYS


When guests check-in, they share that event with an average 130 friends. That’s why driving check-ins is so valuable for a restaurant. When McDonald’s launched it’s “Make it Better For Singapore” to promote their new Chicken McGrill sandwich, the fast food giant saw tens of thousands of Facebook check-ins in just one week.

SUCCESSFUL POSTS

Source: Mashable

CHECK-INS


Combining a guest favorite – like beer – with the direction to “like” the post, racked up 11 million “likes” for Buffalo Wild Wings. One of the biggest tips any social media consultant can convey is that, every once in a while, you need to tell your guests what to do. “Like this”, “Share this”, simple directions can get surprisingly big results.

SUCCESSFUL POSTS

MAKE ORDERS SIMPLE

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BEST PRACTICES


MAKE ORDERS SIMPLE Now that you know the ins and outs of Facebook, here’s a brief lesson on Facebook etiquette and how to deal with guests.

WHAT TO DO   Keep Statuses Brief   Ask for Guest Opinions   Post Daily   Thank Guests for Sharing Their Stories or Pictures   Update Your Page With New Events, Pictures, and Menu Items Regularly   Post Information on Specials and Promotions   Reply to Guest Complaints Cordially

WHAT NOT TO DO ✗  Overshare By Posting Multiple Times a Day, Everyday ✗  Ignore Guest Complaints or Questions ✗  Miss a Day of Posting ✗  Post About Events at the Last Minute – or Not at All ✗  Publish Incorrect Information (About Menu Items, Events, etc.) ✗  Yell at Guests ✗  Post Irrelevant Information of Photos

Our biggest recommendation, though, is to focus on photos as these posts are the most associated with high user engagement.

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FACEBOOK CHECKLIST


FACEBOOK CHECKLIST

PHOTOS INCLUDE   Inviting/Tempting/Eye-catching Shots of Restaurant’s Interior and Exterior  Tantalizing Food Photography  Smiling Associates  Guest Submissions  Photos of Restaurant Events (Fundraisers, Promotional Nights, etc.)

ABOUT SECTION  Restaurant Address  Hours of Operation  Link to Website, Twitter Feed, YouTube, Pinterest, All Other Restaurant-Related Sites  Company History

TIMELINE INCLUDES  Date Restaurant Was Founded  Dates Signature Dishes Were Adopted  Dates of First (Second, Third…) Expansions  Regular Status Updates

APP BAR INCLUDES  Map to Restaurant  Events Page  Online Ordering  Promotional Vouchers  Email Address Collection Form  Careers

To run a successful Facebook Page, be sure that you have the following elements:


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Third generation restaurateur Aaron Allen has held every industry position from line-level employee to unit manager. By age 19, he was running a $10 million food and beverage operation at a 625-room resort. By 20, he was overseeing a $4 million gulf-front Caribbean-themed restaurant that served more than 1,800 covers per day. Having cut his teeth in operations, Allen eventually transitioned to restaurant-focused marketing. In 2001, he founded his own consultancy. By 2008, he’d skyrocketed the company to become the world’s largest restaurant consulting firm. Major clients included esteemed brands such as Starwood Resorts and Hotels Worldwide, The Cheesecake Factory, TGI Fridays, FEMSA (Dos Equis), BJ’s Restaurants, Hofbrau, Land O’ Lakes, Marriott, SSP and dozens of other global restaurant chains, regional powerhouse brands, high-volume independents, food and beverage manufacturers, distributors, resorts, entertainment districts, hotel chains and more. Allen has become one of the most sought-after speakers and sources for restaurant industry media. He has been a go-to source for esteemed media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Smart Money, MSNBC, TIME, Forbes, USA Today, Nation’s Restaurant News, Chain Leader, Restaurants & Institutions, European Food Service News, Food Service Middle East, QSR Magazine, and hundreds more.

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Aaron Allen


Aaron Allen & Associates provides strategic marketing, concept development, and executive-level advisory services to leading foodservice and hospitality companies worldwide. We identify and distill the latest restaurant and hospitality marketing trends. We prepare tailored presentations for executive management of growth-minded companies, and then support the development and implementation of innovative restaurant marketing initiatives within their system. Collectively our clients post more than $100 billion in global sales and span more than 100 countries across all six inhabited continents. We have worked with a wide range of clients including high-volume independent operators, multi-billion dollar restaurant chains, hotels, contract foodservice providers, manufacturers, distributors, and trade associations. We have direct consulting experience in nearly all cuisine types and operating models.

ABOUT AARON ALLEN & ASSOCIATES

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www.aaronallen.com

www.aaronallen.com

United States 390 North Orange Ave Suite 2300 Orlando, Florida 32801 407-936-1010 (US) (866) 436-4002 (US fax)

Central Europe 1051 Budapest

Október 6. utca 17, Budapest, Hungary

+36-1-798-3578 (Europe)

[email protected]

© 2013, Aaron Allen

Facebook for Your Restaurant

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Transcript of Facebook for Your Restaurant