Folding when the taking is still hot.
My dad is a great poker player. When I was growing up, we would take a few trips through Nevada every year so he could join in some of the big games in Vegas, Reno and Winnemucca. Every morning he would give me a stack of silver dollars from his winnings. Part of playing poker well is knowing when to fold and when to stay in the game. It takes guts to keep your cards in the game, especially when it looks like the odds are stacked against you.
I have been thinking a lot about poker as I have watched businesses fold here in my hometown, Corvallis Oregon. It is a shame to see good businesses falter as their income dwindles. One reason I got into social network marketing was to help others get the most out of their dream business. Over the past weeks, I have often wondered how I could have helped the businesses now closing their doors. Many owners brush off tools like blogging, twitter, and facebook as passing fads. It is times like these that can convince them to take a risk on something new. Explaining the difference between interruption marketing and permission marketing usually gets their attention. Interruption marketing usually gains a 1% return on the dollar spent compared to ~5% return for permission marketing p.59 Meatball Sunday, Seth Godin. Permission marketing is so cheap that it hardly seems like a risk at all.
Social networking is really just another way to mobilize their greatest marketing tool, word of mouth. Little do they know, many of them are already benefiting from it without buy in.
Here are a few examples:
A few weeks ago my friend Lance posted on twitter that he was enjoying the coffee and internet at a local shop called The Vibe. Soon a few others were joining him. I myself went there for the first time today. My wife and I liked it so much we tweeted about our experience. The rest of the story is yet to unfold, but I know it has only gained them more followers than they would have without this publicity.
Another story started the old fashioned way. I was taking my daily coffee walk to the Great Harvest when we began to talk about where we have been eating out. One of my friends mentioned that my favorite restaurant, Big River, had a weekday entre menu where every item was only $9.99! This news made my day, and I decided to take my wife there on Wednesday. Tonight we both enjoyed a meal off the special menu. They kept the great quality, and it was such a remarkable experience I decided to post the menu to twitter and make sure others knew about the deal.
Neither of these establishments is willfully involved in social networking. The possibilities could be endless if they were to engage. Luckily, I don’t see Big River hurting for business. As our economic situation grows direr, many businesses that are still thriving today may find a similar fate as the ones currently folding. Engaging in the tools of today may be their only shot at getting their message out before they are forced to close their doors as well. Being a little gutsy early in the game may allow them to be the ones still holding their cards and cashing in on the pot.
Other than poker my Dad loves to entertain guests at his Mountain Lodge and Resort Callahan’s Siskiyou Lodge
This post keeps getting new traffic over time so I thought I would do a revisit.
My friend Kevin Miller posted a really good video on his blog: Restaurants should own their local market
with his permission I have embedded it here. Enjoy!
Free Agent Underground: Restaurants should own their local market from Agent Kevin Miller on Vimeo.
Popularity: 26% [?]
Great post. I agree. It’s hard to see great local businesses go under so quickly.
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.
Hi Sandra, I am always curious how people find me. What was your path.
Cheers,
John
The Vibe has gone out of business. This fact might make your article less believable to some readers.
Wendy, The vibe did not go out of business due to their use of social media. I really don’t see the connection. Care to elaborate?
Wendy, I have to agree with Flurry. I personally did everything I could to promote the Vibe via twitter and other means.I liked Beth. They had a bit of a following of loyalists. I held countless business meetings there,gave people hand written gift certificates from there, even helped organize a Young Pros event there. The concept (food, comfy chairs, art, and good coffee) was good, the execution was exceedingly poor. That is why they failed. They had a host of things going for them, but they lacked the commitment and/or the “secret sauce” to take full advantage of their “great idea”.
I’ll tell you this. I probably would have never went to the vibe the 2-3 times I did without seeing Chris et all talking about it publicly.
Hearing all those Portland folks talk about @whuffies makes me want to try them something baaaaaaad!
Perhaps what the Vibe failed to do was to invest enough resources into communications, relationships and the customer community.
Social media is merely a tool that can help with items. It is not a magic pill. It cannot make a person or business appear to be something they are not. In fact, social media is really good at giving others a transparent view.
One last point. If I am ever part of a failed business, I would not want to be haunted by the thought of anything that I could have done but didn’t. “What if I had just used social media tools more…”
Loyan, Your last comment is great. I wrote this in hopes that current restaurants would see the value in connecting with their community.
Chris Nordyke said: RT @johnflurry: Why Restaurants Should Get on Board with Soc. Media http://bit.ly/4AngGu and my own take http://bit.ly/3oWypC me:both good! [...]