Off the Pass: week of August 2, 2010

Recently it has been getting more and more clear to me that marketing of local businesses online is changing. Quickly.

Why? Because Google is throwing a big part of their weight into the game, taking on the long time giants like Yelp in a battle to provide the most accurate information about a business you are looking for, just when you need it.

As an anecdotal example, this Saturday I was sitting at the (excellent) Vietnamese restaurant Cay Tre having dinner, and we decided to go see a movie afterwards. Preferrably Splice, but any Sci Fi related flick would do. Using my iPhone I managed within just a few minutes to pull up the movie schedules for all the major chains and find what we were looking for. And not even once did I have to visit the website of any of the cinemas.

I will say that again: Not even once did I have to visit the website of any of the cinemas. Which is fantastic, since the usability of those sites usually leaves a lot to be desired.

Using their amazing database of searchable information, Google automatically pulls together relevant content and serves it up either as part of their search results, or on special pages they create for every business they find, linked from their search results. They call these Google Place Pages. Launched about a year ago, they covered over 50 million local businesses from day one, and they have only grown more and better since.

As a consumer they are great. Rather than me having to click through to your restaurant’s web page and hunt around on different pages for the information I need (“Where are the opening hours…”) Google creates one quick loading, clear, information dense page (formatted for mobile phone viewing if that’s what I am using) with all the information required to decide whether or not this is a venue I want to visit, and then gives me the details to call them or go there.

Combine this with their strong focus on mobile, and it is pretty obvious that our ways of interacting with local businesses online is being transformed. Yelp, TripAdvisor, Urbanspoon, Toptable et al might not be amused.

You as a restaurant owner or marketing manager can claim the page for your business and make sure all information is correct and up to date. If you haven’t done so already, I suggest you take the afternoon to do it. The process is not too clear, especially not if you have multiple venues under the same brand, but a good starting point is simply to search for your brand name in Google and see if there is a Place Page already. More often than not there is. Claim the page by clicking “Business owner?” in the upper right hand corner. If you can’t find your page, start at the Google Places page.

Before I move on to other news, I want to make a tie back to previous week’s “Off the Pass” where I mentioned Tim Hayward (@TimHayward) and his great post on the future of reviewing restaurants. Last week The Center for the Digital Future published a report stating that the number of Americans who view newspapers as important sources of information is in decline. GigaOM has the story. A mere 56% stated newspapers as important sources while a whopping 78% said the Internet was. When it comes to entertainment, the picture is even darker, only 29% consider newspapers as important sources of entertainment.

For recommendations, product reviews and help to make purchase or dining decisions, people turn more and more to online sources. Not just already published material, also real time tips when out and about from their friends and acquaintances on social networks like Twitter, where for example the London food bloggers are very vocal.

The traditional way of reviewing a restaurant, where a “professional critic” would secretly (sometimes…) visit a restaurant and then publish their verdict in a major newspaper is definitely being challenged. As Tom Byng of Byron puts it, “That’s all out the window now.” Check out this great video interview with Tom Byng (@ByronHamburger) by the food blogger Catty (@Catty). Fast forward to 5:00 to get Tom’s view on the importance of blogging and online marketing for restaurants.

In other online marketing, technology and restaurant related news:

This Saturday I had lunch at Dishoom (@DishoomLondon), a new take on the old Bombay cafe located on Upper St Martins Lane. My first impression was “wow, this is a great concept that could and should be opened up in lots more places”. As if they read my mind, Big Hospitality this morning published top ten tips of turning a single restaurant into a chain. Oh, and my second impression was “ohmigod this Virgin Bombalada drink is the best alcohol free cocktail I have ever had…” Check out my photos, the food is excellent.

Jason Falls at Social Media Explorer (excellent blog by the way) makes a great case for why you shouldn’t be afraid to empower your staff to represent you online. In short, if your staff members are the foundation of your brand’s personality in the store, why be different online? Extend your brand, don’t suppress it.

Yelp experiments with “daily deals” on their site, in what seems to be an attempt to do more of what Groupon is so successfully doing in the online voucher space.

If creating a successful email newsletter is a bit like running a restaurant, surely newsletters created and sent by restaurants ought to be the best you can get, right? Sadly, this is not true. Get some great tips on how to improve your newsletters from Brady Cohen at iMedia Connection.

Twitter launches a number of updates, among them personalized recommendations on new users to follow based on people you already have in your network. More updates include the ability to get the latest tweets in actual real time (if you are following a lot of people, your home page feed may get a bit blurry…), see who has made one of your tweets a favourite and faster searches. For the full overview of these additions, see The Next Web.

Remember the Old Spice video Twitter campaign? Some numbers are in to see whether or not that day of intense video shooting and tweeting impacted business: sales up 107% the last month.

Have you checked what your restaurant front window looks like on Google Street View? Here is a new take on the immersive map experience, created by Microsoft, dubbed Street Slide. Definitely takes it a step further. Another good video showcasing Street Slide is available at Mashable.

For fun:

Krista (@KristaInLondon) who blogs at Londonelicious recently came back from New York. For a change in perspective, get the low down on restaurants she tried right here. Sadly Krista will soon move back state side. London will be one amazing food blogger less, and all the poorer for it.

You don’t really need to go all the way to NYC for a different perspective, though. Just find your way down to Peckham, where Frank’s Campari Cafe does a second successful summer on top of the car park with the most amazing sunset views in London.

Douglas Blyde (@FoodGuardian) writes up a cracking interview with the elusive Marina O’Loughlin. Find out just how anonymous she is, whether she can cook, and which current chefs she thinks are destined for greatness.

Interview with Yiying Lu, who designed the infamous Twitter “fail whale”. Find out what it feels like to design an image that then becomes the focus of millions of users’ frustration…

That’s it for this week. Come back Monday next week for a new set of news in restaurant online marketing you shouldn’t miss out on. If you want to get updates of links and comments throughout the week, follow @manne on Twitter (news and blog links mixed with random chit chat ranging from the best grilled sticky chicken wing recipes to current events) or on Google Buzz (news links only).

By Magnus Hultberg in Blog, Off the Pass: Week in online marketing