NRA Show Blog

The great debate: are Yelp reviews a good or bad thing?

 
By Jennifer McLaughlin, Contributing Blogger

Ever had a bad review on Yelp? If you are anything like Chef Stefan Richter, “Top Chef” runner up and restaurateur, you may have lost sleep over negative Yelp reviews. With 50 million unique visitors each month, it is hard to ignore the influence of Yelp. It has turned the tables on how diners discover new places to eat and how restaurants operate. 

At today’s education session, 2011 National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show attendees listened to a lively discussion with Stefan Richter, Luther Lowe, director of business outreach for Yelp and moderator Corby Kummer, senior editor, The Atlantic.

As a business owner, Richter opened the discussion with his own personal experience with Yelp. “I just opened my restaurant in L.A., and the first three Yelp reviews were horrible. They hated the place. The food was bad. Service was bad. Everything was bad. And you start to think, how could this happen? I cook everyday, I buy the best ingredients—it can make your head spin.

National Restaurant Association TweetUp today

Join us for our first-ever official National Restaurant Association TweetUp at 1 p.m. today in NRA Booth #6300 with social media gurus Rick Wion (McDonald's) and Jim Sofranko (Groupon).

Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/nrashow2010 and use hashtag #nrashow to stay up to speed on everything going on at-Show today and always.

See you soon!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

By Derrek J. Hull, Blogger-in-Chief

Original post ran February 15, 2010 in SmartBlog on Social Media by Jesse Stanchak, associate editor, SmartBrief on Social Media

Today’s post comes from Derrek J. Hull, voice of the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show and International Wine Spirits & Beer Event (IWSB) blog Floored!, as well as its Twitter and Facebook profiles.

Restaurants need a response plan that includes social media elements to cope with the fact that customers can leave negative comments almost instantaneously.  Having a plan in place before a situation occurs lets everyone on your team know who the point person is for the response, along with the chain of command and the plan for monitoring the conversation.

Everyone gets a good or bad review at some point. Embrace it — and in the case of a bad review, don’t sweat it. Look at every comment as an opportunity to have a conversation.

“If people are taking the time to give you feedback — even if it’s negative — that’s an opportunity for you to re-frame the conversation with them and hopefully turn the situation into a positive,” said Spike Jones, of word of mouth and identity firm Brains on Fire.

Nobody is perfect. A couple of bad reviews alongside highly positive reviews actually makes potential customers more likely to take you seriously, because they realize your page isn’t full of shills posting fake positive reviews. In the case of Yelp, business owners have an option to respond privately and publicly to reviews — this free feature can be unlocked by visiting biz.yelp.com.

10 Golden Rules of Responding in the Social Media Age

By Derrek J. Hull, Blogger-in-Chief

Converseon's Lindsay Lebresco recently spoke at Gaspedal's Word of Mouth Supergenius conference about "the golden rules of responding" in the social media age.

Lebresco dished out ten tips to join in the conversation:

• Respect (the venue, the participants, the importance of even a single comment)
• Expect everything to be public (even if you intended it to be private)
• Speed is of the essence (react in a timely and appropriate manner)
• Openness and Transparency are key (trust is paramount)
• Never conceal (who you are, who you work for and what your intentions are - FTC Guidelines)
• Do your homework (search, listen, read, know your communities first)
• Identify an engager (someone who will represent you well)
• Nothing builds credibility like action (do what you say or don't say it)
• Gather internal resources now (get them trained and ready to respond)

What's missing? Oh yeah, that's why Paying attention is so important!

Word of Mouth Tip #229: Say thanks!

* Word of mouth tip #229 is from word of mouth super genius Andy Sernovitz's book Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking

11 Great Ideas from Word of Mouth Supergenius Conference

Yesterday I spent a great day with loads of smart people at Supergenius, the Word-of-Mouth (WOM) conference hosted by Gaspedal.

After attending 11 amazing sessions, I decided to share my Top 11 Ideas here. One thing to note – many of the speakers were consistent in messages. So while I give credit here to these specific presenters, I heard similar themes throughout the day.

1. An army of fans becomes a permanent advantage. (from Andy Sernovitz, Floored!'sWOM contributing blogger)

Andy, with all sorts of passion, restated the basics – but often overlooked – aspects of WOM. Fans will always have a better message than a marketing team. A “Tell A Friend” form on your web site will produce higher quality leads that are free. The big question to ask yourself about your service, your product, your message or your company: Would anyone tell a friend!?

2. Movements never end. Campaigns are short-lived. (from Spike Jones)

Spike reminded us it’s about elevating the conversation. The talk is not about your product, it’s about what people do with your product – what do they achieve, what do they feel, and how can you provide space for your best customers and fans? Movements have inspirational leadership and active participants. To create this, there is actually a barrier to entry to a movement so you only get those who really want to be there and participate.

Greetings from Word of Mouth Supergenius Conference

A big hello and good morning from all of us at GasPedal as we get ready to kick off Word of Mouth Supergenius: The “How to be Great at Word of Mouth Marketing” Conference.

We’re thrilled to be bringing together such an awesome lineup of brilliant word of mouth marketers — and even more thrilled at all the other ones joining us in the crowd today. It’s going to be one intense day filled with 12 how-to classes, 12 real-world case studies, and 6 brilliant authors.

How to follow today’s Word of Mouth Supergenius:

National Restaurant Association's NRA Show 2010 and International Wine, Spirits & Beer Event "Tweet Team": @nrashow2010

Live blogging coverage: Click here
Twitter: Use the hashtag #Supergenius

Original post: GasPedal's Word of Mouth Marketing Blog

3 Ways to Protect Your Restaurant from Negative Word of Mouth Online

 
By Andy Sernovitz

People are going to say good and bad things about your restaurant. In fact, it might already be happening. And while you shouldn't expect to be immune to negative chatter, there are some basic ways you can establish to protect yourself.

Three safeguards to fend off negative buzz:

1. Build credibility before you need it.
Focus on being a regular participant in key blogs or forums that your customers follow. You can't be everywhere, but by building credibility with a few local critics, it'll make it much easier to share your side of a story if and when you’re being attacked.

5 big ideas from last week's "Getting Bodies in Seats" webinar

by guest blogger Andy Sernovitz

As a follow-up to the National Restaurant Association's Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show and International Wine, Spirits & Beer Event (IWSB) November 17 webinar, "Getting Bodies in Seats with Word of Mouth and Social Media," I thought I'd share some of the key takeaways from that discussion:

1. Happy customers are your best ads
 
No amount of fancy, big-budget marketing can beat real love from an army of true fans.

2. Word of mouth marketing isn't luck

Word of mouth marketing is really about two things: 1) Giving people something to talk about, and 2) Making it easier for those conversations to take place.

3. Your brand isn't what you say it is, it's what your customers say it is

People learn about and understand who you are as a restaurant not so much from your Web site or your commercials -- but rather from their friends, their co-workers, and from reviews from strangers. Your advertising might be what they see first, but it's your word of mouth that drives the sale.

Live coverage play-by-play: How to Get Bodies in Seats with Word of Mouth, Social Media

This is live blog coverage of today’s webinar, “How to Get Bodies in Seats Next Week with Word of Mouth and Social Media,” hosted by the National Restaurant Association's annual Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show and International Wine, Spirits & Beer Event (IWSB) . The presentation featured word of mouth marketing "supergenius" Andy Sernovitz and Derrek Hull, the NRA’s manager of marketing and communications and blogger-in-chief (Floored!).

1:00 — Maureen Sak, the NRA’s director of marketing, introduces Andy Sernovitz and Derrek Hull.

1:01 — Derrek Hull: Today we’re going to be talking about useful word of mouth marketing skills to get people talking about your organization.

1:07 — Derrek describes various social media tools, including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and recommends starting by finding out where your customers live online.

1:08 — Derrek stresses the importance of “not being a robot” when you begin engaging online. He recommends tools like Tweetdeck to organize and make sense of social media information.

1:10 — Derrek introduces Andy Sernovitz.

1:11 — Andy: The big idea here is that happy customers are your best ads. The more people who are out there declaring their love for you, showing their support for you — that’s the marketing that can’t be beat.

Free live webinar today: How to Get Bodies in Seats with Word of Mouth and Social Media

Join Floored!'s very own blogger-in-chief Derrek Hull for a free live webinar on simple, hands-on word of mouth marketing and social media tips you can immediately put into action to generate traffic — hosted by the National Restaurant Association's annual Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show.

I’ll be joined by Andy Sernovitz, CEO, GasPedal and word of mouth marketing supergenius and we’ll be covering:

• Practical, useful word of mouth marketing skills to get people buzzing about your operation
• Real-world word of mouth marketing and social media success stories from top restaurant companies
• Easy ways to use Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to spread the word
• Basics on how to create and promote your blog

Key details:

• Where: Webinar
• When: Today, 1 PM CST/2 PM EST
• Cost: Free
• Follow along throughout the presentation on Twitter at #nrashow
• Register