The economic crisis over the last few years has surely left its biggest mark on small businesses. Mom and Pop shops across the nation felt some of the hardest blows, but some savvy restaurateurs have turned to using social media to help bring home the bacon.
One of the many who have turned to social media is Lisa Ramelow, the owner and face of the Italian restaurant, La Strada in Long Beach. She hired someone to create a Facebook page for her restaurant a year ago, but has recently taken the responsibility of managing the page herself.
“I even took a class and they told me, don’t get too personal. Nobody wants to hear about your Aunt Mary or whatever, but I have taken the opposite approach,” Lisa said. “I am really personal on it, and because of it I think I have met 30 people from Facebook that I didn’t know before.”
ATVN's Madeline Segura talked to local restaurant owners about using social media to boost business.
And since the site has been up and running, Lisa has become somewhat of a local celebrity. The restaurant has seen a bump in hungry customers who all want to meet the famous “Lisa La Strada!”
“You get everything,” said Rachel Campbell, a frequent visitor of the restaurant. “You find out what her favorite shoes are, what she likes to cook and bake, what’s going on at La Strada, what’s going on with her kids, basically everything about her, so your really get to know her as a person.”
“I think people want to go places where they think they already know you. And that is what I have gotten a lot of comments about. They say, I feel like I already know you. They know I have diet coke with me all of the time because I talk about it. And I think that helps business.”
While Lisa uses her Facebook in a more personal way, some restaurants see the benefit in using social media sites for their marketing purposes.
A recent study done by the University of Maryland’s business school says the percentage of small businesses using social media has doubled in the past year. Many businesses, like Baja Sonora, a Mexican restaurant also in Long Beach, look to these sites to promote their upcoming events and specials.
“We have new fan page for coupons, for specials that may be happening, our school program, all to draw people in,” Mary Sophiea, one of the owners of Baja Sonora said.
Regardless of whether restaurants are using their sites to personalize their business or just for advertisement, it seems like every business has found some sort of benefit in sites like Facebook and Twitter. Either way, social media seems to be the future of business.
