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Stop Being Lazy: 3 Ways to Rev Up Your Content

I confess. I am guilty. I have been a lazy blogger. I have been lax. I have highlighted a subject and not given it a deep dive in to meaningful content. I have written for my pleasure, not always for the benefit of my audience. How about you? Have you fallen prey to the lazy writing habits of a busy professional? Here are 3 ways to rev up your content (and your business) and write like you mean it.

1. Imagine you have one hour to solve your customer’s biggest problem. Create a list of strategies, tasks, must-do’s. What will it take for you to make this problem go away? What do you need to research? What do you need to read? What is the bottom line issue? Now go find the supportive material to solve the problem. Get your Google on.

2. Write like you are in a writing bootcamp. When I watch shows like the Biggest Loser, I am always impressed with the focus and intensity of the participants and trainers. You are not allowed to slack off because there is someone always looking over your shoulder PUSHING you to keep going. To rev up your writing and create more demanding content, set a timer. Give yourself 30 minutes to complete 3 paragraphs of content. You cannot get up. You cannot look out the window. You cannot get a snack, answer a call, check email or lolly gag on Facebook or Twitter. You must write. [As a side note, that's how I'm writing this post.]

3. Do this EVERYDAY. I just read a very simple, but profound little book by Jeff Olsen titled The Slight Edge. Bottom line, the difference between successful people and those who are not comes down to the fact that successful people do ‘just that much more’ than everyone else and they do it daily. The small, compounded effects of those changes over time lead to life changing breakthroughs. You cannot expect to break the lazy writing habit if you don’t do something different.

We can all rev up our content with a focused concentration on producing valuable, usable, business changing information. Sometimes we just need to hyper focus to break the habit. Sometimes we need to enter a self mandated bootcamp to regain focus. Remember: you only have 1 hour to solve your customer’s biggest problem, so get busy.

One of the toughest industries in the US? Yep.  Lot’s of competition? Yep.  Will you be successful without a customer engagement strategy using social media? Maybe.  Can social media help you? Absolutely.

Today a restaurant without a social media presence is missing a huge opportunity to engage with its customers.  But that doesn’t mean that you should just plop up a Facebook page and hope for the best.  It is not ‘build it and they will come’ with regards to social media and customer engagement.  You must have a strategy for engaging with your customers.  Here are 4 tips to engage with your customers:

1. At a minimum, sign up for and monitor your Yelp and Foursquare accounts.  Location based services or social check-in platforms are becoming even more popular with diners.  Not so much for discounts and coupons but to be seen as socially active and hip by your friends.  Every time a diner checks into one of these services, the check-in is posted to their social profiles notifying their friends of their location.  In addition, socially active diners will write their own reviews and comments, which further encourage their friends and followers to check that place out.
2. Establish a Twitter account and tweet out your daily specials.  You can also give your followers Twitter Only deals.  This is a fun way to engage and track the effectiveness of your participation on Twitter. It’s also very effective with your regulars.
3. Set up a Facebook Page and do weekly reviews of your favorite food items.  If possible, take current photos of those dishes and upload them with your comments.  A great way to entice your diners on Facebook is to highlight special ingredients, unique flavors and special preparations.  Highlight the friendly atmosphere, or ambiance, or excellent staff.  If you have a bar, make sure to feature a cocktail and promote your bartenders.  Whatever you do, don’t ignore your page.  Post daily, every couple of days or weekly as a last option.
4. Short YouTube clips of how your chef prepares an item can also be a huge draw for your restaurant.  People love cooking shows and how to segments.  Take one of your special items and film a short how to about it.  Don’t worry; you don’t have to be Spielberg.  A flip cam or your IPhone will work just fine.  Most important thing is to feature the food, steady the camera and speak slowly and clearly.

These four ways to use social media will engage your customers, connect them to your restaurant and keep you at the front of the list next time they are deciding where to eat.

Oh, and make sure your website, your menu’s, table signs etc. have your social media contact information on them so customers start connecting right away.

Image: Carlos Porto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Tips and Tools You Can Use: Plancast

Do you ever wonder what events and conferences are worth attending?  One way to evaluate what event you may want to attend is to look at your collective friends and followers to see what they have going on.  A cool search tool called Plancast allows you to connect your existing social media profiles and search upcoming events based upon keyword searches that you define.

Check them out at www.plancast.com