Restaurants and the Internet, Part the Second

In the first part of this little exercise, I wrote about what a restaurant website should be, and about how restaurants should react to scurrilous emails. Here, I'd like to expand on the latter issue, and address how I think restaurants should address social media more generally.

First, the more general issue: do you want to involve yourself at all? That's a question that I can't answer for you. There is a lot to be gained from social media like Facebook and Twitter, and there is some benefit to being active on internet messageboards. But there's an investment of time involved, and not everyone has either the time or the desire to do it properly.

Let me start with the most difficult issue: Messageboards. There are a few out there, but while I don't have access to their usage statistics, the number of posts and posters suggest a fairly limited number of readers.

The Chowhound board is probably the most visited, though it's mainly a place for folks from out of town to get advice. Local food critic Tom Fitzmorris also has a messageboard, and others have been set up by folks who wanted additional options, such as New Orleans Eats, and a few different food-related boards at Mr. Lake's New Orleans Forums. The folks at New Orleans.com** have a food forum, and the venerable (for the internet) website eGullet has a board dedicated to Louisiana.

Because none of the boards have a huge volume of traffic, there is not all that much utility to restaurants in maintaining an active presence. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, if it interests you; only that you should do it because it interests you, and not as a part of your marketing strategy. Occasionally a restaurateur will come into an online forum because the restaurant is being criticized. This is not always a good idea, but the worst thing you can do is to misrepresent yourself.

Here is an example of what I'm talking about. I don't know for sure who any of the posters are, but it certainly appears that "fsk13" and "gotham" are the same person, and likely associated with the restaurant being discussed. The reaction from the other posters is pretty typical, and counterproductive from the restaurant's perspective. Rather than answering criticism, they've kept the thread alive, and earned more criticism to boot.

It's probably better to ignore this kind of thing; or better yet, take it as constructive criticism. If there's something on which you can improve, and the criticism alerts you to it, that's pretty much free consulting. Even if the advice is clearly mean-spirited, it may be of value to you.

If you feel that you must respond, do not do so anonymously. Disclose your relationship to the restaurant, whatever it is. Be polite when you respond; go so far as to thank the person for bringing a problem to your attention. You might even consider offering to resolve the problem, if you think it won't cause more headaches.

In the first part of my discussion on this topic, I talked about the difference between a false assertion of fact, and opinion. That was in the context of whether something written about a restaurant might be actionable. The basic concept is that, because opinions cannot be proven true or false, they usually cannot be defamatory or libelous.* There are exceptions, but the distinction is worthwhile to consider in this context as well.

If someone writes on an internet messageboard that your restaurant closes at 8:00, when in fact you close at 11:00, there's something you can do. It's a factually incorrect assertion, and it may be worth your time to correct it. If someone writes that your gumbo is bland and tasteless, you probably can't. At least, not if your gumbo is not bland and tasteless. If the criticism is valid, again, maybe you should change the gumbo. But even if you believe that the opinion being expressed is wrong, there's just not much you can do about it. It's unlikely that arguing with someone who expresses a negative opinion about your restaurant is going to help.

The more likely result is that you'll get into an argument on the internet, and honestly nobody wins in that scenario. Because if you've spent any time on the internet, you know that there are some people who are jackasses, and who derive pleasure from creating controversy. We call them "trolls," and they exist in every public messageboard on the internet. That's not to say that all criticism on those boards is invalid. Quite the contrary, there's a lot of folks on those boards who know what they're talking about, and there are a lot of restaurants that deserve vociferous criticism. My point is that whether you agree with the opinion expressed or not, countering it is generally a bad idea.

So that is my advice for dealing with internet messageboards. The advice with regard to Twitter, Facebook, and the like is similar. It's very simple: if you have the time and the inclination, there's no reason not to sign up for such social media sites. Assuming you're not a complete moron, you'll only increase your visibility. None of these sites, to my knowledge, cost anything. Frequently, they provide useful information for your customers.

What's perhaps more important, letting people connect with you via these websites gives them a sense that they're connected to you. People who are connected to you in some way are generally more likely to visit your restaurant. And that is the single most important reason to do any kind of "advertising." If it puts asses in seats, and it's free, why the holy hell wouldn't you do it?

I won't presume to tell you what to write on twitter, or how often. There's an art to learning how to make effective use of a service that limits you to 140 characters at a time, but there's no one way to do it. Cochon Butcher does a great job of announcing specials via Twitter, for example. Chef Scott Boswell, of Stella! posts a lot of pictures, and talks about what he's doing. You may figure out another way to make Twitter work for you. My advice is that you should try. Oh, and please God don't fucking spam. I don't care who you are, or how much I like your restaurant. If you update 30 times an hour, I'm dropping you like a sack of plague-ridden hamsters.

Facebook is similar, but you have the option of providing even more information, and obviously you're not limited to 140 characters. It is probably better for restaurants than Myspace, which I believe tends toward a younger demographic. Other than that, all of the above advice applies. Don't be an asshole, or a moron, and don't spam.

There's one more topic I want to address briefly, and that is whether you should have a blog. Probably not. Facebook and Twitter are both relatively cheap in terms of a time-investment. Blogs are not. If you have the itch to write, then by all means do it, but most folks don't. Most folks who start a blog end up abandoning it, and that does nobody any good. There are exceptions, the principal one I can think of is Chef Chris DeBarr, whose livejournal is a fantastic glimpse into his creative process, and a great way to find out what's going on at his restaurant, The Green Goddess. I don't think Chris really does it in order to market the restaurant, or at least not only for that, and that's probably why it's so good. Unless you have a similar need to write, I'd advise against blogging.

I think that covers just about all of the things I anticipated when I decided to tackle this topic, but if you have any questions, please do feel free to send me an email. I'm also, of course, on Twitter and Facebook, though if you want me to accept your friend request on the latter, it's probably a good idea to mention something about this website or my other outlets for food writing with the request.

Hopefully this has been of some use to some of you. If not, as always, please feel free to apply for a refund.

*I shouldn't really have to say this, but I don't give legal advice on this website. If you are stupid enough to consider anything I say here as legal advice, or that because of something I've written, you and I have established an attorney-client relationship, then... Well, you're probably not that stupid.

**Corrected thanks to a friend, who pointed out my error in attributing that forum to ABC 26 News.