I’m
finding myself more and more using the murky crystal ball as a metaphor for
trying to peek into the [foreseeable] future – to predict breakout social-media
names that might pose some sort of a threat to Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and
Instagram. I think for many, particular those who own and/or are responsible
for managing the marketing over the social media.
I
think what is becoming obvious is the threat to companies that don’t fully
commit to using the better known social-media platform and holdout for the next
next new thing.
It
doesn’t matter if we are running a restaurant, a recruitment company, or a law
firm; we have to become good at [using] the platforms our customers are using,
our employees are using, and what other people in related sectors are using.
For restaurants for example, I think Twitter is probably the best platform
positioned to drive traffic to their website and other social channels. It’s much more timely and good for current
events and conversations.
Potential
guests are broadcasting their thoughts and crowd-sourcing their dining decisions
more than ever before.
Paul Barron, founder and chief executive of the
Miami-based DigitalCoCo agency, which produces the Restaurant Social Media
Index says Twitter is getting better at verticals and can potentially become
more real-time for restaurants, like chatter boards, feedback systems and maybe
even reservations. So restaurant brands are still figuring out how to leverage
Twitter to its fullest.
And
according to BTC Revolutions, a social-media consultancy restaurateurs are looking
at the ratio of followers they have on Twitter versus fans they have on
Facebook and see Facebook as the stronger tool to reach their audience when, in
most cases, the reality is there are more people ‘Talking About’ or mentioning
their brand on Twitter that they can directly reach in real time than they can
on Facebook.”
As
an example, on Facebook a brand can only “tag” or reply back to someone who has
come to the page and left a comment. However, the brand can search Twitter for
comments and engage any Twitter poster that has mentioned the brand.
Twitter
allows you to have a two-way conversation with anyone, not just those that
reach out to you.
