Good Eats, Cheap Beer…Sh#@^& Parking!

Organization Name: Sammy’s Rec Room

Industry: Food and Beverage

Web references: Facebook, Twitter, SocialMediopolis, Fast Company. College Ranker,

Sam and Merri-Lynn MacKinnon: Owners

For the past 12 years, Sammy’s has been located in a working class neighborhood of Brantford, Ontario, at 10 Mount Pleasant Road. Sammy’s is a quiet small Bar/Restaurant that caters to families.  You may visit with your family for a birthday party or you may be there for the famous cardiac platter.  Either way, they go the extra mile to make your Sammy’s experience enjoyable.

Roadfood-junkie called Sammy’s a favorite Brantford restaurant.  So far, Sammy’s has relied on the old “word of mouth” advertising and it has been the key to their success.  The key to their future success will be the new, digital “word of mouth,”  Social Media!

In this study, the highest amount of time online is spent on social networks and it has been increasingly growing.

source: Mashable

Are your customers active on Facebook and Twitter?

Businesses small and large need to know how to use tools like Facebook.  In this podcast, Mari Smith talks about using Facebook to service and support customers.

Why should small businesses get online with social media?

Although Sammy’s has a pretty active Facebook page as far as customer and employee engagement, they could take a page from Tabasco when it comes to engaging with their customers and using the available tools to market them.  Perhaps their campaign could be as simple as posting recipe’s, cooking tips, or even popular beer flavors and drinking games.   Who has not played beer pong or quarters.  I mean, people do say that beer is the nectar from the gods after all.  Sammy’s could use social media as a tool to listen, talk, and share information. In this interview with Sean Moore, Sammy’s social media contact person, Sean talks about how they could take advantage of social media in the future.  He also discusses that they are still in the early stages of getting on board and they are making some mistakes and learning from it.  The future plans as far as Sammy’s twitter account is to obtain more followers and perhaps begin to post specials and other information that followers may need.  Off camera I asked Sean what he believes the future of social media will be and the impact that it could have on a small business like Sammy’s and he quick response was “social media will be totally mobile in the future and look around the tables now…almost everyone is on a device of some sort.  I think as a business, we need to grab the opportunity and run with it.”  I also asked what are his future goals and Sean says: “right now, my goal is to grow the fan base of twitter and Facebook and possibly start an actual marketing campaign to drive followers and likes.”  I also discussed an opportunity to  work out some sort of deal where I may help with the social media campaign in trade for a couple cold beers while watching Sunday Football.  Sean’s response was simple, “we could use the help.”

In the U.S, 75% of households used social media and 68% of small business used social media marketing and experienced immediate results.  This is enough evidence to say that small and large businesses should get online.

There are many reasons for small businesses like Sammy’s Rec Room to use social media marketing.  In this video, Tim Salmonson talks about 10 reasons your small business needs to use social media marketing.

Where is Social media going in the future

When CNBC interviewed several experts about what they think the future will hold, they   compiled “11 predictions for social media in 2039.” Some of the responses are  interesting, like the quote from Cory Bergman, BreakingNews Co-Founder, which says “when news breaks in the future, it will be covered by a multitude of eyewitnesses streaming live video.  These streams will knit together into a single immersive video, enabling the viewer to virtually experience the event in real time.  For better or worse, the world will feel like it’s right around the corner.”

source: CNBC

Technology has offered an inexpensive way to communicate with customers.  The basics of marketing as far as gaining and keeping customers has not changed but the tools certainly have.  This video with Hans Leijstrom, Digital Strategist at the Swedish Web Agency Sublime Consulting.  Hans talks about everything one day being connected to social media in the future.

Are Smartphones and mobile devices going to lead the future of social media?

Smart phones are portable, convenient, and are attached to us by the hip.  The future of social interaction is here. Small and large business are forced to hop on the social media train.  Recently, while stopping for a coffee at our local Tim Horton’s, I could not believe what I saw.  Every table was occupied with groups of people, but the interesting part was they were all engaged with their smart phones instead of each other.  Now there was the odd time that one would look up from their Samsung, but only to show a picture or video on their phone.  I wrote an interesting blog in August of 2015, as a result of a family trip to Darian Lake.  On that trip, I noticed people were on their smart phones more than they were enjoying the amusement park.

The continuous rise in mobile devices since 2007 is showing no signs of letting up leads me to one conclusion: get your small business mobile ready, and on social media to interact with your current, and future customers.

 

 

Lessons for others

• your customers are on social media and you should be too.  You can interact, share information, and listen to feedback.
• You can target your content to the people that matter most.
• your growth and sales can be impacted by what people say about your business on social media and, thus, it is important for you to know.
• Evaluate all the engagements made.
• Social media is forever changing and you will need to adapt with it.
• Don’t fall behind the social media eight ball.
• Make sure your website is mobile ready, because if trends stay the same…everyone will be using mobile devices for all their social media engagements.

Submitted By: Ken Lupton