One Smart Cookie Marketing» Food Companies

10 things I learned at Foodportunity

Karen Rosenzweig — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 21:35:24 +0000

I have a soft spot for a very special food event called Foodportunity. It’s produced quarterly by the fabulous Keren Brown (@franticfoodie on Twitter), and brings together a variety of restaurants, food companies and Seattle-area “foodies”. It’s an opportunity to meet and greet, try samples of fabulous food and just generally indulge. It’s the venue I found my very first two social media consulting clients - thus the soft spot! – and the gathering always inspires and motivates me. And makes me very, very full.

I recently ventured back for my fourth visit to this fab event and found it my most rewarding time yet – and felt compelled to share with you the top 10 things I learned at Foodportunity this go-round:

[meteor_slideshow]

Social media relationships come to life when you actually get to meet IRL (in real life!). There were a handful of Twitter followers I had only interacted with online, albeit frequently! But Foodportunity delivered them in living color, right before my very eyes! I finally was able to chat IRL with fab photographer Jackie Baisa (@JackieBaisa), food writer Julien Perry (@tastebud1), Seattle Times writer Marc Ramirez (@typewriterninja) and Taste director/chef Danielle Custer (@dcbites).
Many of my Twitter friends had new jobs - and I had missed the memo! But finally getting in the same room caught me up to speed quickly – one has left social media freelancing for a full-time Yahoo gig, another is switching newspapers (and cities!), and yet another has moved from her solo PR gig to helping a local cooking store with marketing and events. But remain connected through this funny little thing called Twitter.
A la Mode Pies (@alamodepies) is the bomb! This amazing little company had slipped under my radar, even though I was following them on Twitter – but I am now their #1 raving fan! Imagine fresh baked pies DELIVERED to your door (free in Seattle and Bellevue)…amazing flavor combinations…and the best, PIE ON A STICK! Yes, the LolliPie is sure to be a new wedding/party favorite and destined to kick cupcakes to the curb. Okay, maybe not that last one, but this Pie on a Stick concept has some serious potential. Stay tuned…
You can send a beer to a friend – even if they live hundreds of miles away. Huh?? For real – check out Beer2Buds and check out this cool and frosty concept. There are almost 40 bars/restos in Washington signed up now - who knew?!
I have a groupie (LOL!) and she is a very nice person. Yes, it’s true – the lovely Jenn Davis (@AmateurGourmand) had told the world recently that I was her “Twitter Idol”, much to my surprise. I was a little taken aback, yet flattered, and very curious…and when I finally met her at Foodportunity, she couldn’t have been any nicer. And someone I am proud to boast as my groupie – and it isn’t creepy at all.
Many people are afraid to approach chefs and/or authors one-on-one, even when the event is set up for that format. I talked with several repeat attendees who longed for the “old days” of Foodportunity, when the 4-5 featured speakers were on a panel and took Q&A from the entire group for 20-30 minutes. The current set up had featured guests in a separate room and you had to be bold/brave/dumb enough to walk up and talk with them directly. I think most would prefer hearing all the questions and responses in a public way, to gather the most of the awesome knowledge/talent in the room. We aren’t all as bold as you think. Me included.
Some of my “old” friends made via Twitter, that I hadn’t seen in awhile, are alive and doing well! (as I expected…) That would be you @jeffreykingman, @taylor_tweets, @carissaang, and @yasharwinemongr, to name a few.
Many foodies and restaurants are still not sure how to make the most of their efforts on Twitter – and several might be inclined to use my consulting services in the near future. I am ready and waiting for your call…you know who you are.
The most popular bites of the night were the Beef Tongue Crostini from Luc/The Chef in the Hat and the Pork Belly Banh Mi from Matt’s in the Market. Hands down, no questions asked - nearly every attendee commented and tweeted about these tasty treats.
Keren is taking her Foodportunity show on the road, debuting in Portland on Sept. 13 (@foodportunityOR). I’m thinking an Amtrak kind of weekend might be in store…

So, if you were at Foodportunity, I’d love to hear what YOU learned…the forum is open below!

Beyond corned beef and cabbage – please!

Karen Rosenzweig — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:36:56 +0000

I’m doing some research for a client for their St. Patrick’s Day menu, and I’m a bit stumped. It seems there are a few dishes that are a “given” for that holiday, but I’m looking for something a little more inspiring. Can you help?

Obviously, corned beef and cabbage would make the list, along with some form of potatoes, green beer, Guinness in one of many forms (beverage, stew, cake) and of course, the highly coveted Shamrock Shake (from McDonalds!)

But I’m hoping you have some new creative ideas for a fun new decade. What says “St. Patricks Day’s” or “Irish Food” to you? Please add your thoughts to the comments below and let’s see what we can whip up – that goes beyond the old green food coloring trick!

NOTE: You might be amused by the “Find the Shake” web site that posts “sightings” of the Shamrock Shake across the country…but I have to wonder, is it really an endangered species?! And yet, such a great childhood memory…

Dine out – save a life

Karen Rosenzweig — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:31:00 +0000

Today I stumbled across a reminder about a great organization/event for restaurants looking for a way to give back to the community – and really, shouldn’t we all be doing that?

The event is called Dining Out For Life, and it’s produced by the Lifelong Aids Alliance, which provides a variety of care services to people living with HIV/AIDS and other illnesses.

Now in its 17th year, Dining Out For Life takes place Thursday, April 29 in Seattle. To support this worthy cause, all you have to do is dine at a participating restaurant, grocery store, cafe, or bakery on this day, and 30% of your purchases will be donated to Lifelong AIDS Alliance, and the fight against illness and hunger in our community. There’s also a special prize drawing for two free tickets on Alaska Airlines, for those that dine at a participating restaurant that day.

There are about 90 local merchants signed up already — we can do much better than that! – and you can view the entire list here. I’ve already forwarded the information to all my clients (and several others!) and I encourage you to do the same. This is a great opportunity for restaurants to help their communities and build goodwill with their customers. As they say, it’s a “win-win” for everyone.

For more information, contact Trevor DeWitt at 206.957.1638 or TrevorD@llaa.org to sign up your restaurant today! Individuals can also participate as a volunteer. I hope to see you out and about April 29!

FROM DOFL: Dining Out For Life® is an annual fundraising event involving the generous participation of volunteers, corporate sponsors and restaurants. In exchange for their financial support, restaurants are listed in a city wide marketing campaign in an effort to increase customer traffic.

In 1991, Dining Out For Life® was created by an ActionAIDS volunteer in Philadelphia. Dining Out is now produced in over 55 cities throughout the United States and Canada.

More than 3,500 restaurants donate a portion of their proceeds from this one special night of dining to the licensed agency in their city. Nearly $4 million dollars a year is raised to support the missions of agencies throughout North America. With the exception of the annual licensing fee of $1,000, all money raised in these cities stays there.

Celebrating birthdays in the Seattle foodie scene

Karen Rosenzweig — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:55:16 +0000

My nephews send the best birthday flowers!

Yes, it’s my birthday today and as much as I wanted to skip writing a post today, I didn’t.

And why not, you ask? Because I’m committed to honoring my “31 posts in 31 days” project, and today is only the second day – I can’t break the streak so soon!

So today I will write about celebrating birthdays in the Seattle food community with a special focus. What do local restaurants offer customers who are celebrating their birthdays? I know there are web sites that list lots of national chains and their offerings, but I was looking for local and/or what I was sent personally to my email.

I also posed the question on Twitter several times, and much to my surprise, received fewer than five replies. And as someone with a fair number of followers (and I follow nearly 200 restaurants locally), I was a little disappointed. There are probably several reasons for this, but first let me list what I did find:

Epulo Bistro (Edmonds) – free cocktail or dessert on your birthday
Dukes Chowder House (several locations) – free entree within the month AND free dessert for my entire birthday party up to six people
Lombardi’s Neighborhood Italian (3 locations) – free entree within birthday month to VIP Club members
Waterfront Seafood Grill (Seattle Pier 70) – $25 dinner coupon
The Herbfarm (Woodinville) – personalized birthday greeting in silver frame to take home
Tom Douglas Restaurants (6 locations) – free dessert, must sign up in advance, valid for one month
Dairy Queen (national) – free 16 oz Blizzard (valid for one week)
Melting Pot (national) – free chocolate fondue for two (on next visit)
Baskin-Robbins (national) – free scoop of ice cream (valid for five days after birthday)

And I’m done now. Really. That’s all I came up with – but I’m sure there are more out there, but they just didn’t see the request for the info…or worse yet, they aren’t on Twitter. Gaaaasssspppp! True, some aren’t.

What’s my point? Since I am focused on helping restaurants communicate and promote themselves effectively (especially via social media), I think it’s a huge missed opportunity to not reach out to birthday celebrators! Why? For the cost of an entree or dessert, you earn loyalty, appreciation, and most likely some great recommendations via Twitter and Facebook. And, possibly more importantly, those birthday boys/girls usually bring FRIENDS with them when they come to celebrate - turning a small investment by you into a big return thanks to a large dinner party who might not have dined with you otherwise.

And for those of you who DO have birthday clubs and promotions, but make them so darned hard to find on your web sites, etc., please make it easy for us to come celebrate at your establishments! Put it right up front on your home page or send it to us via email or post it occasionally on Twitter. You know customers love “free” and it looks good on you to make us feel special on our birthdays.

And I promise, we’ll come celebrate with you on your birthday too – no sign up required!

Good things come to those that Tweet – 2009 review

Karen Rosenzweig — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:23:28 +0000

It’s that time to review highlights of the past year, and it’s very easy for me to identify the overarching bright shiny object for me – Twitter!

I reluctantly and skeptically entered the Twitterverse March 18, 2009 (I checked!), largely due to the advice from one of my highly respected advisor/friends, Betsy Talbot. The thought of expanding my personal chef business through this 140-character universe was intriguing and promising, but I ended up with something much different.

The short version is that I quickly identified a much better use of Twitter than I expected - by combining my former public relations background (15+ years) with my personal chef knowledge and experience (5+ years), I could help restaurants and food companies build their businesses in a powerful way. And off I went!

Without all the gory details of the ups and downs as I learned to use this fascinating – often time-sucking! – social media tool, it’s been a career-changing discovery that’s been an amazing surprise every day. I’ve met fascinating people, learned about incredible events, discovered cool products and generally felt my whole world grow exponentially.

So, I’d like to present a few quick highlights from the past year on Twitter – and I apologize to anyone in advance that I may have forgotten, overlooked or snubbed (ha!). If you ask me, I’ll just tell you that you were #6 on my list…

The Homegrown sustainable sandwich shop in Fremont

I Like The Way You Tweet (restaurant division)

I Like The Way You Tweet (non-resto division)

Chef Wayne Johnson, Andaluca

Cool People I Never Thought I’d Meet in Person

(but I did after “meeting” them on Twitter)

Great Advisors or Role Models in Building My Twitter Biz

Who doesn't love a Big Gay Ice Cream Truck? Too bad it's in NYC...

These Tweeps Are Having Way Too Much Fun (national division)

These Tweeps Are Having Way Too Much Fun (local division)

Always An Entertaining and/or Helpful Read

Try a Naughty Nellie at The Pike!

You Are What You Tweet (companies I’ve consulted with)

You Are What You Tweet (actual clients of mine)

The free-spirit Married With Luggage team - Betsy and Warren Talbot

Good Friends I love to follow

And there you have it…a look back at my Twitter world in 2009. I’ve posted nearly 3,000 tweets (okay, that does sound like a lot…) and have nearly 1,000 followers. I’m so excited for what 2010 and beyond will bring, and I look forward to meeting many more exciting people along the way.

Please leave any comments on your “top categories”, or additions/omissions from my lists or just to say whatever the heck you want! Happy New Year to all!

Perfect event for "non-Twittering" restaurants, chefs, food-companies!

Karen Rosenzweig — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:24:44 +0000

YOU ARE WHAT YOU TWEET!
Using Twitter as your recipe for online success

Monday, October 19, 2009
Mayflower Park Hotel, Seattle
6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
$50 for early-bird registrations (by Oct. 9); $65 after Oct. 9/at the door (if space available)
http://youarewhatyoutweet.eventbrite.com/

As a restaurant, chef or food company, do you dream of:

Being “the” neighborhood destination for socializing, eating and drinking
Connecting with customers and your community
Making more money
Multiplying repeat business
Making frequent customers feel special
Attracting a steady stream of new customers
Getting name recognition for making delicious food

If so, we have an event for you! Using the micro-blogging tool “Twitter”, you can accomplish all these things and more! This is a customized event for restaurants, chefs, wineries, breweries, and food-related companies that are not using Twitter – but that are pretty sure they should be! If you are scared, curious, skeptical or not sure about what Twitter can do for your business or how to get started then this is the event for you!

You’ll hear success stories and sage advice from featured panelists:

Chef Wayne Johnson, Andaluca Restaurant
Nancy Leson, Seattle Times Food & Restaurant Writer
Linda Stratton, Asst. Marketing Director, Pike Brewing Company
Clay Loges, Taste and Tweet/CEO of Yodio.com
Moderator and Presenter – Karen Rosenzweig, Incredible Chef/Social Media Strategist

We’ll show you how using Twitter effectively can deliver:

“Talk of the Town” status
Access to your customers through engaging conversations and feedback
Full restaurants/stores with adoring fans
Loyal customers as you provide inside info and/or special offers
“Raving Fans” by acknowledging and interacting with your customers
New customers attracted by recommendations and special promotions
Positive feedback about your food in a highly visible and viral platform

And the end result of this event? You’ll be inspired and motivated to take the plunge and join us on Twitter, thus creating a more robust community for all of us in the Puget Sound food scene. Information will be provided on programs available to help you start Tweeting! We look forward to seeing you there!

TO REGISTER: http://youarewhatyoutweet.eventbrite.com/

Hosted by the Mayflower Park Hotel and Andaluca Restaurant

Food and beverages provided by: Andaluca Restaurant, Woodhouse Family Winery, Buchanan Chocolate

http://youarewhatyoutweet.eventbrite.com/

Tour Seattle like an insider

Karen Rosenzweig — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:51:59 +0000

I’ve always wanted to be like those characters on the old TV show “Cheers”, or to be more specific, I wanted what the theme song promised “you want to go where everybody knows your name”.

And so that is why I now want to be Angela Shen (right) when I grow up. Seriously. As the founder of the nationally-celebrated Savor Seattle Food Tours, she can’t seem to go anywhere (at least in the downtown Seattle food world) without everyone greeting her, hugging her, giving her food – you get the picture. You can feel the love a mile away.

It is this “feeling” that helped propel me into my recently-launched Social Media for foodies business, because I am all about enjoying great food, being connected with the purveyors and enjoying the flavor of Seattle. Angela has that. I want it. And you can get it by going on one of her tours. Follow along…

I have known Angela for several years through a local networking organization (BNI) and I have watched her grow her seedling business from a solely-owned and operated one-tour pony into an eight-employee, multi-tour Triple Crown threat (excuse the horse racing analogy; that’s another of my many past lives). She has been celebrated in Bon Appetit magazine, USA Today, and Frommers Travel Guide. But, believe it or not, I had never actually been on the tour until recently, when I signed up for the Gourmet Food & Cultural Tour.

I gathered along with 7 other hungry tour-ists (but not all tourists!) at the Mayflower Park Hotel lobby, set for our three-hour tour of 8 delicious food establishments in the downtown area. We were outfitted with sound equipment, which I was skeptical of at first, but later found out was essential given the noise on downtown streets and in some of the bustling restaurants.

First stop – Andaluca and one of my favorite chefs, Wayne Johnson. Chef Wayne, who recently celebrated his 10th anniversary at Andaluca, paired an amazing crispy duck cake and apricot chutney (left) paired with a glass of sangria – a perfect way to start our afternoon trek! The marriage of flavors in the duck cake – which is perhaps the only of its kind in the area – was marvelous, and we were off to a wonderful start.

Along the short walk to our second stop, Angela filled us in on a bit of Seattle trivia and history (Doc Maynard, brothels, etc), most of which seemed new to me, even though I grew up here! But it was presented in a fun, lively, informative way that made me feel just like one of the tourists, here for a sunny afternoon tour.

Our second stop – Serious Pie. Not as in “dessert” but pizza made withserious ingredients. The chef appeared from the hot kitchen to describe their version of pizza, which ain’t your daddy’s pizza! The crust is incredibly light and thin, as a result of using a slightly wetter dough and cooking it longer (7-9 minutes) at a lower temperature (680 degrees) than their competitors (2-3 minutes at 1000-1300 degrees). This gives the crust a tasty slight char on the bottom, witha beautiful “structure” that features amazing toppings such as buffalo mozzarella with San Marzano tomatoes, or roasted chantarellemushrooms with italian black truffle cheese – wow!

In addition, Serious Pie’s other “secret” is to cook the pie until nearly done BEFORE adding the cheese – that way the cheese doesn’t burn or really even cook at all, but melts beautifully to maintain its artisanal structure. They also cure their own meat, make their own dough, buy all ingredients locally – and then do as little to them as possible. Seriously perfect.

Then it was time for more Seattle history – timber town, wooden buildings, the fire, “seamstresses” and taxes – you’ll have to take the tour to find out what that all means! So we came to the third stop at Il Bistro, a charming candle-lit restaurntin a cave-like space next to Pike Place Market. We tasted a creamy saffron risotto withmussels and clams, paired with a San Giovese (right) – buono! We also discovered an important fact – Il Bistro offers one of the best Happy Hour deals in town -there are 15-17 items on the menu with half-size portions at about 1/4 of the regular price! Note to self – return here many more times!

Then we made an unscheduled stop at the famous Pike Place Fish – where Angela is CLEARLY a favorite daughter! – and she arranged an impromptu fish-tossing moment for a couple on the tour who were celebrating their anniversary. The wife made a beautiful catch (above) while her husband documented it perfectly on his trusty camera. Nice touch, Angela!

Next stop was Creminelli Fine Meats, actually inside the Market, where we sampled several fabulous handmade artisan salamis and sausages (right). Then it was time for the longest stop on the tour, the Pike Brewing Company, where we were treated to a fascinating tour and great education from our vivacious tour guide Abil! We then sampled a couple of beer/cheese pairings, the best of which was the Tandem Double Ale and Beechers Flagship cheese - a combo that will be served at many future parties in my home!

The last two stops satisfied our sugar cravings, as we visited Fran’s Chocolates and Gelatiamo. Fran’s, located in the Four Seasons hotel, sampled four chocolates for us, including a pair of the amazing salted caramels – simply a must-try if you’ve never had one! My favorite is the dark chocolate gray salt version, but I wouldn’t turn down the milk chocolate smoked salt variety either!

The Gelatiamo gave us – unexpectedly – my favorite moment of the tour. Why, you ask? While Angela only planned to take us downstairs to see the machines that crank out the luscious gelato and sorbetto every day (always at least 16 flavors!), we were treated to an impromptu appearance by the owner Maria Coassin, an authentic Italian if there ever was one! All at once, she was gracious, apologetic, edgy, proud and generous about her products – which is EXACTLY what I want from a food tour! I want to see the raw emotion of the chef/owner and experience their passion for their food, even if it’s by showing us a fallen cake that wasn’t “perfect”, all while dishing it up for us to sample anyway! I heard her speak of her love for what she does, the many trips back to Italy to learn and return with new inspiration, and her devotion to a perfect product for her customers.

I’m feeling a little hungry now, how about you? And did I mention the $65 tour fee includes a handout with recipes, restaurant details AND a special discount card for 10-15% off products/services at more than 40 downtown merchants (including those on the tour)?

So there you go – an insiders tour of Seattle, giving you the “everyone knows my name” insights and discounted services to boot! I dare you to resist!

5 reasons why restaurants should use Twitter

Karen Rosenzweig — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 22:40:51 +0000

In my new venture of social media advising and strategy, many have asked me “why should restaurants use Twitter? What’s in it for them?” So I thought I’d share a few recent examples to illuminate my strong feelings about how they could benefit from this fantastic social media tool!

There are at least 5 major benefits restaurants (and food-related companies) stand to gain from investing time and effort into using Twitter:

Larger client base with deeper relationships
Increased visits, more sales, greater loyalty
Decreased marketing expense and greater overall ROI
Dialogue that leads to positive word-of-mouth marketing
Increased visibility for establishment, products, website

I have encountered at least a baker’s dozen real-life examples recently, where restaurants missed great opportunities to increase their exposure, gain new customers and learn more about their guests’ experience – all because they aren’t on Twitter.

You might wonder – what’s the big deal? What are they missing out on? So here’s what I’ve learned:

Restaurants have the opportunity to capitalize on the “buzz” being tweeted (discussed) every day as people make plans and debate where to go for happy hour, dinner, etc. They could even tweet back and offer a special deal or mention that night’s specials. During the recent 100-degree heat wave, smart restaurants on Twitter were reminding potential customers that they had air-conditioning, offering cool drink specials and just being a part of a “hot” conversation (pardon the pun)!

Once we, the diners, are actually in the restaurant, we will probably tweet updates during the meal and/or post photos, showing potential customers all the great items you have to offer. It’s not a bother – we like to do this! (A recent study by Socialnomics.net showed that 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices, showing that people update anytime, anywhere.) But we aren’t going to the trouble if you aren’t using Twitter and aren’t benefitting from it – we just aren’t. But for you, it’s free advertising: “Come eat here, eat beautiful food, be happy!” That kind of positive, instant word-of-mouth marketing is priceless.

And once you’ve delivered a great meal, your customers tweet to all their friends, along with thanking each other for the dinner, etc. It’s more exposure for your brand and practically invites new customers to visit. Back to the Socialnomics.net research, 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations, and only 14% trust advertising – so where do you want to put your marketing efforts?

And one smart strategy employed by some restaurants that use Twitter is to actually “thank” those customers via tweet! Talk about building customer loyalty – you just thanked me for spending money with you in front of all my friends! Where do you think I’m going out to dinner tomorrow? Yup, back to my Twitter-friendly restaurant!

Do you see the beauty of this? We, tweeters, want to patronize your establishment because you are “one of us” and we want to tell everyone how great you are. Is there a better reason to be on Twitter??

I want to wrap up by telling you about a fascinating concept called Taste and Tweet (Twitter @TasteAndTweet), The organizers, Clay Loges and Blaine Millet, invited a Twitter-happy group of foodies to El Gaucho Bellevue (Twitter @ElGauchoBell) to help raise awareness and increase visibility for the restaurant – which is not ideally located in a somewhat-hidden office building down a side street.

I was invited, along with 18 other active social media enthusiasts, to enjoy a multi-course lunch, in exchange for tweeting details as the event progressed. It was an amazing feast of four cocktails (yes, 4!) , four superb dishes and one lovely chocolate ganache lollipop for dessert. Chef Steve Cain came out to describe each dish and the pairing to the cocktail, and General Manager David Scherling (Twitter @DavidScherling) supplied additional details and answered questions constantly during the event.

So what was the result? For their investment of 2 hours and lunch for 19, the restaurant received nearly 310,000 unique impressions (323 tweets during the event, mulitplied by number of “followers’ each person has) on Twitter, along with a multitude of blog posts and other publicity in the week that followed. I’d say El Gaucho got their money’s worth – how about you?? And I probably don’t have to tell you about the buzz that’s now been created for future events like this – everyone wants to participate, restaurants and “taste-tweeters” alike!

So now, do you think restaurants should use Twitter? I’d love to hear your thoughts below!

Twitterpated about food

Karen Rosenzweig — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:33:47 +0000

Twitterpated? Yes, Twitterpated.

In the Disney movie “Bambi“, the friend Owl explains “Nearly everybody gets twitterpated…you’re walking along, minding your own business. You’re looking neither to the left, nor to the right, when all of a sudden you run smack into a pretty face. Woo-woo! You begin to get weak in the knees. Your head’s in a whirl. And then you feel light as a feather, and before you know it, you’re walking on air.”

Yup, I was minding my own (personal chef) business and I was abruptly Twitterpated by the “pretty face” of food and social media! For the past few months, I’ve been immersed in all things Twitter, following food bloggers, chefs, restaurants, food companies, critics – you name it. I’m completely Twitterpated with the incredible possibilities for food-related companies and I want to help.

You may wonder, why should food companies use Twitter? And my response is, why shouldn’t they?

As Scott Ginsberg, of “Name Tag Scott” fame says, “Be out in the marketplace with your ideas or be OUT OF the marketplace completely.” If you are a food-related company and you are not on Twitter now, you are invisible, to a degree, and here’s why.

It’s an incredible opportunity to turn what has been a monologue for restaurants et al into a dialogue with their community, current customers, future customers, media, etc. Food-related companies can now interact in an even more personal way and open up avenues for new business, along with increasing trust and loyalty.

For example, here are three key “wins” in using Twitter:

Visibility: Twitter is a great way to meet new customers who don’t know you yet, especially if you can do business outside your local area. You can also create stronger bonds with current customers, and offer special deals to drive traffic to your website or storefront. And, if your competitors are on Twitter, shouldn’t you be there too?

Opportunity: Twitter allows you to stay on top of industry trends and observe your competition (see above!). It also provides quick and inexpensive market research, giving you insight on what your customers think and want. Forget the expensive and time-intensive focus groups – ask your Tweeple (Twitter followers) and get answers now!

ROI: Twitter allows you to create considerable “buzz” for your company and positive, rapid word-of-mouth credibility, virtually for free. This is a hot topic of debate, since while the Twitter technology itself is free, there is the cost in time and effort for someone to manage it. However, many would point out that most companies already have marketing staff and expense, and this is just a reallocation of their focus. And the ROI on a free tool is pretty much “sky’s the limit”!

As my friend and business coach Sara Yao, recently pointed out, the relationship in this type of marketing effort is best seen as “correlation not causation”. At the end of the month, if your sales are up 50%, aren’t you happy - wherever that came from? Of course you’d like to know the exact source so you can replicate it, but you can’t accurately track advertising now (billboards, ad, tv) as it is. At least with Twitter you can use code words to track traffic and sales through special offers and the like. While you might not be able to finger Twitter as the “causation” of all these sales, it’s certainly “correlated!”

In my Twitterpated state, I could go on and on about this topic, but I think you get the point! And I’d like to close with a brilliant excerpt from a recent Wired article by Joshua Davis. While the content had to do with “whether to friend your boss on Facebook”, I think it’s a perfect analogy to why you – the food company- should even be on Twitter (and other social media for that matter)

“If the rules of the jungle are any guide, you should definitely follow the Twitter feeds of all your superiors. Dominant monkeys occasionally send out troopwide alerts (i.e., yelps and screams) about the state of the jungle. Sometimes it’s information about predators; other times it’s about the direction the troop will move that day. The expectation is that all of these pronouncements will be duly noted, and we all know that leaders can get extremely angry if they are not heeded. Our closest animal ancestors laid down the law—we have no choice but to follow.”

Now, you know I’m not calling us all monkeys (!), but you get the drift – you need to know what’s going on in your jungle! So tell me now, why aren’t you on Twitter?? And if you are, please share a success story from your efforts below.