I’ve written before about how social media, at it’s best, is very much like two neighbors chatting over the backyard fence, where they make recommendations about where to eat or what to watch while discussing other issues of mutual interest.
I could move that metaphor into a nightspot. The backyard fence could become a bar and the conversation could be between you and your local tavern keeper. You may talk about hometown sports or movies or what the local government is doing to screw things up. The guy behind the bar talks to lots of people. He seems to know the inside info on all kinds of things and he seems to always want to help.
If you happen to live in central Indiana, around Indianapolis or stretching over to Muncie, Bloomington or Lafayette, that trusted tavern keeper and neighbor is probably Scott Wise, proprietor of seven restaurants bearing the name Scotty.
When there was just the first Scotty’s Brewhouse, on the campus of Ball State University in Muncie, Wise actually was the bartender as well as the owner. He’s stepped back now that he has seven establishments and about 800 employees. He has others who pour the drinks. The bar is now virtual. He provides the bartending consultations now via Twitter, Facebook and his restaurant blog. You don’t need a designated driver—unless you have the urge to text on your way home.
You find Wise talking with customers almost ubiquitously on Facebook and Twitter and on his blog. His restaurants now serve tens of thousands of people each week and a surprising number of them feel like the owner is a personal friend.
Jay Baer, president of Convince & Convert, a social media strategy consulting firm based in Indianapolis, was taking his family to a Scotty’s Brewhouse for dinner. He tweeted his intentions, asking if Scotty would be there that night. “About five seconds later, Scotty tweeted me back saying he wouldn’t be, but asked me to let him know how it went."
So first and foremost, Wise uses social media to vastly extend conversations with customers. Social allows him to be chatting with customers in seven places at one time.
“It allows me to virtually table touch when guests are dining,” Wise says. “I can ask them how their food/drink/service are that evening. It allows me to ‘digitally bartend’ with my guests. It allows my guests to connect directly with me and get the true Scotty Wise that used to bartend nightly when it was a one-man show."
He added, “It gives my guests trust and a feeling of connection with a real person, a real restaurant and not a chain with an 800-number for service located several states away.”
But Wise goes a lot further with social media. He was already using social media when the recent recession hit the Midwest. “I was using MySpace back when it was Facebook,” he says. The recession, however, forced him to leap across the chasm that lurks between traditional marketing and new marketing.
Wise was resolute that he would not propel the local economy’s downturn by laying off more people. The challenge was to accomplish this and not drown in red ink. His only option was risky. He dumped his entire marketing, PR and advertising budgets and recalibrated his efforts toward social media efforts.
Now, when he wantsto fill empty seats with special promotions, or in support of a local event such as this week's NCAA women’s Final Four, he uses social media and it fills tables faster, easier and much less expensively than the old way.
Social Media, in my opinion, was the single item that allowed us to survive one of America's darkest periods," he says. "Plus, I have fun doing it."
And that raises another point: Local businesses should not underestimate the power of fun. Social media conversations are just a lot more fun than display ads in supermarket shopping tabloids.
And if you’re good at it, the returns can be stupendous. Wise is an aggressive user of Foursquare, the leading location-based service. It gives his restaurants unprecedented return on promotion. They are averaging about 1,000 check-ins per week and the number is growing.
He’s also personally vigilant to watch social networks for complaints as they happen. If a customer in any of his establishments posts negatively, Wise jumps on it, contacting his manager and directing her or him to give the customer red carpet treatment so that the parties leave as happy customers.
“I use social media to turn each of my guests into a raving fan, and to motivate and inspire morale in my team while I market to our guests," he says. "I can use social media to shout across the street to gain the attention of writers that live many states away, just as I can shout to the guest down the street that their kids eat free every Sunday."
Finally, like everyone else I talk to in businesses of all sizes, Wise uses social networks as listening tools.
If a tweeter posts about a bad experience at one of the Scotty restaurants, he or she is speaking to his or her friends, not to Wise. The restaurant chain constantly searches for terms that will identify the content.
“We believe that people don't just complain to complain," Wise says. "They usually have a valid reason or concern. So, we listen and we act. We make it right. Social media has made our efforts in this regard so much easier than the "old days" of written comment cards as the only method to voice concern."
