We like to profile as many small businesses that are really using the free social media tools that are out there effectively and today we have a small local restaurant in rural Ireland who are making tremendous use of social media to help grow their business and build their brand. Rather than highlighting what we think they are doing right and looking at it from the outside we decided to ask Lorraine Fanneran who is behind all their social media activity to give us a run through of what is and what isn’t working for them. It makes for great reading and there are some tips in there for all small businesses to use about the social media channels that work best and how to use them effectively…
Tell us a little about your business?
We have a small Italian cafe and takeaway in Limerick. It’s very casual, seating 18 people serving home-made Italian food all cooked from scratch using family recipes.
When and why did you start using social media?
I started my social media campaign by accident really, I was on maternity leave 3 years ago and stumbled across a food blog while surfing the net, I had never even heard of a blog before and decided I’d start one myself as I had a bit of time on my hands at home for a few months. I won best food blog in 2007 and was in the final in 2008 also. I progressed to Twitter last year and finally after much persuasion from friends signed up to facebook in May. Our business is very small and we are in Limerick which doesn’t get much media attention so it’s up to me to get our name out there and I find social media the best method to do this. Advertising in local media is very expensive for a business of our size and I never see any benefit from any ads that we have done so I put a lot of effort into making our social media campaign effective.
How have you used Facebook?
Setting up a facebook page is probably the best thing we have ever done for the business. I started it in May and we had our busiest month of the year just after that. I find it fantastic for tapping into our local market and communicating directly with our customers. We have nearly 2000 friends in 10 months and the majority of those would be in Limerick. I keep the page as active as I can and try not to sell the business all the time. I keep it personal as people want to know about “you” the owner and the more personal it is the better. I put a food question on nearly everyday to find out the likes and food preferences people have and always get great feedback. I often find the more simple or random the question is the more responses I get. My most popular question was “pineapple on pizza?” and I got over 60 comments. I think people like to talk about food so I find it easy to interact and post popular topics.
The Munster team eat in with us a lot so when I started I posted photos of them in the shop and had a huge reaction to it, everyone was talking about it. Some of the team left a lot of comments on each others photos which was fantastic as the public got to see the more personal side of them and there was a great buzz around it.
I also do give-aways, the most popular one is “tag the pizza” and “happy freebie Friday” I post a photo of our 20″ pizza and get people to tag the photo back to their page and I put all their names in a hat, I normally have about 60 names and lots of facebook pages showing my pizza which is an amazing amount of free advertising. I try to get the winners to post a photo of themselves with the pizza on their page and post it back to me too. I try to keep the page as fun filled and food obsessed as I can.
My latest facebook campaign is an “Italian Facebook Cookalong”. I asked the question if anyone would be interested in doing it and got a huge reaction to it. I’m going to give the shopping list, where to buy the best ingredients, step by step photos and we’re all going to cook the same dish on a chosen night of the week. I want those involved to take a photo of their dish, tag it back to my page and then I’ll let the public decide who’s is the best and I’ll give a prize.
How has twitter worked for you?
I don’t think Twitter really works for my type of business, it is good for profile for my blog as there are lots of food bloggers on there so it’s great for interacting with fellow foodies but I don’t find it good for targeting potential customers or increasing our business profile among the general public .I haven’t used Twitter much recently but I just got Tweetdeck and find it much easier to use, so I’ll spend a bit more time on it again. I’m actually very bad at the technical side of things but I’m slowly learning with the help of a few tecchie friends.
How much time do you spend on your blog and has it been effective?
My blog has taken a bit of a back seat since I started facebook, with the blog I find you need time to sit down and think about what you are going to write, I also need photos because it’s a food blog and now that I’m not at home as much I find I don’t have the time. I used to actively blog twice a week but now it’s about twice a month. Facebook is much easier to keep updated and I just post random things I’m eating or doing at work and post photos from my mobile from La Cucina.
What advice would you give to a small business owner starting out in the world of social media?
I think every small business should be on facebook but you do have to use it effectively. There is no point in just putting the business on and just bombarding people with facts and figures about your business. People aren’t interested, they are more interested in the people in your business and what you’re about. Let the public see a more personal side to the business and get them interacting with you. I take photos of our customers and post them on the page too, and always get a great reaction from their friends etc. I think the best thing about facebook is the interaction and that’s what businesses need to focus on, not shouting their special offers at people that aren’t listening.
Have sales increased as a direct result of social media?
Definitely, I would honestly say that we have avoided the hard effects of the recession as we have built our customer base substantially over the last year. Overall turnover has been affected but by building up our customer base we have had a very good year.
If you only had one social media tool to use which one would you choose?
Facebook of course:)
How much time a day would you spend using social media?
I don’t have an iPhone yet, waiting patiently for Vodafone but I do pop in and out on the laptop probably about 4 times a day and spend about 10 mins on facebook each time, to be honest I only spend time on my own page. Blog posts obviously take longer, about an hour when I actually do one. Twitter I don’t spend too much time on, just the odd update and again I don’t really read too many posts as I only follow 70 people. I’m on a couple of forums like ForknCork and MagicMum and usually contribute to the food sections.
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I live in a small rural town in western Kentucky where social networking has caught on in a big way. Several bbq restaurants as well as independently owned retail and specialty shops are using Facebook to keep in touch with potential patrons with specials and coupons.
Last year our region suffered massive amounts of damage due to an ice storm. Our community was without electricity, gas, home fuel, phone service for 72 hours and it was 2-6 weeks before full power was restored. Since then our city leaders have taken social networking very seriously. Our city administrators and mayor have Twitter and Facebook accounts and use it to send out messages of importance to the local community. It has become a very effective means of communication for both small business and local government.
Madisonville, KY.. population 17,000 has tapped into the power of social networking in a big way.
Erik I think you have hit the nail on the head and that is defo where the power of social media is going to be harnessed over the next year. The power is not in the 100,000s of thousands of twitter followers somebody has but in the powerful super niche local networks and the spreading of information.
Absolutely agree Niall & Erik – a couple of the more progressive local councillors and politicians here in Cork have become quite active on twitter lately and this has been invaluable for up-to-the-minute information, particularly during recent flooding and snow/ice crises. One other point of note was their ability to quash rumours directly on twitter, allowing “good quality” information to be directed to those who needed it most…
Sounds like a good start John and just a shame that there wasn’t more of them online as it sounds like you guys have been having a mare down there recently with the roads etc. The sooner more of these local authorities start to harness the power of tools like Twitter the better. The thing is if you see info coming from a good reliable source on Twitter in your area people pass it on and Retweet all over the place.
Really great post. Fantastic to see a genuine small business using social media and having so much success with it. Getting to 2000 fans since May is pretty amazing really. I’m jealous. My website is purely a community style website for video analysis in sport (very niche). I would have a very similar experience as far as the facebook v Twitter debate. Facebook is much more valuable in terms of generating an audience for the site.
Thanks Nial for getting Lorraine to share.
No worries. The feedback I am getting from all small businesses is that defo Facebook seems to be a better tool for connecting and actually sending business through the door. Twitter not so much!
Nail, our company are also based in Limerick, and La Cucina do a great job at promoting their business, As well as great social media they have the food and service to match. Their Chocolate brownies kept us going last year whilst editing.
As I keep saying to Lorraine I need to find some sort of excuse to get me down there and taste the food. Writing this article looking at the photos late at night when I was hungry was really no good to me at all!
Great to hear Mark:)
La Cucina got me through the Leaving Cert. Nice to stay updated with all their happenings while away, especially on Twitter. I saw the renovated place online long before I saw it in person!
Well I have heard about it through people like you and Tommy and others who have championed their cause and I now have a cafe from Limerick in my Facebook stream! They have built a set of advocates for their product in an incredible way who are now passing on the info to others all over the world. Incredible really
John my till hasn’t been the same since you left;)
Great post. Thanks for sharing. Facebook fan pages are really effective if they’re used properly. Getting it right is difficult though. I signed up to loads but ended up hiding lots of them as they weren’t so interesting. Prince Charles cinema in London has quite a good fan page.
Yeah the key is not just sending out promos or loads of “me me me” posts. You really need to engage with your fans and try and offer some value which although not always easy it does bring huge rewards as you can see above if and when you get it right!
At this stage, I prefer La Cucina to Eddie Rockets. Nuff said.
Tommy did you mention La Cucina and Eddie Rockets in the same sentance….
Be sure to have rock-solid policies in place when integrating social networking to your enterprise and business operations.
I had to read parts of a book, “I.T. WARS”, as part of my employee orientation at a new job. The book talks about a whole new culture as being necessary – an eCulture – for a true understanding of appropriate use and security, being that most mistakes involving content, and identity/data breaches, are due to simple human errors and ignorance. It has great chapters on acceptable use, as well as security, risk, content management, project management, and so on. Just Google “IT WARS” – check out a couple links down and read the Business Forum interview with the author David Scott. (Full title is “I.T. WARS: Managing the Business-Technology Weave in the New Millennium”).
Here at work, we had terrible problems with people forwarding inappropriate e-mails (mostly jokes in poor taste, and political stuff). We ran the risk of offending clients, to say the least. We were also vulnerable to viruses. We have a “blended environment” here – mostly due to personal laptops that access our work network from homes (our IT department provides service to these personal laptops too).
Controlling surfing and ensuring that inappropriate content isn’t circulated is extremely important. We are now in the process of making sure our sister agencies and subcontractors are adhering to a secure Acceptable Use policy.
[...] was an interesting article done on us and how we use social media to promote our business, have a read here if you’re interested. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)orecchiette with [...]
[...] worth all the effort and will I get business out of it? Just last week we conducted an extensive interview with Loraine from La Cucina a business that is using social media effectively to bring real customers through the door and she [...]
LaCucina Limerick should have a business Fan page, not a personal page
I’d fan! I really like the story behind it – Nice feat, Zesty !