Social media and travel

I’m not the biggest person in social media, but I am on Facebook, Twitter, and Yelp. I check into restaurants on Yelp as reminders to go back and review them later and occasionally I push that to Twitter.

The other night I was reading Yelp reviews and noticed that the restaurant had been replying to most reviews from the last few months…and not in the Amy’s Baking Company way, the way proper a proper social media representative should.  I take that as a huge sign that the restaurant cares and it was obvious from the scores from before they were responding to now that the more recent scores were better…either they are stacking the deck with their own reviews (which Yelp is good at weeding out) or they are actually using feedback from Yelp to improve their business.  To me it seemed like the latter.

I have the Twitter app on my phone set to send pushes to the lock screen but it has been kinda wonky lately so while I think I’m getting all of the tweets to me sometimes I don’t.  To my surprise this morning the restaurant is active not only on Yelp, but also on Twitter.  They noticed my Yelp checkin that was pushed to Twitter and tweeted me to make sure my dinner was fine.  To a luddite that probably comes across as creepy, but since I know anything that is out there is out there and especially now that I’m not hiding behind just a first name I’m out there too.  Instead of finding it creepy I think it is good that the small regional chain cares and has social media presence.

So, Not Your Average Joe’s, I’d like to let you know I appreciate your presence on social media and I also enjoyed my visit at your restaurant even though I showed up looking like a hobo with yoga pants covered in paint because I thought I was going running.  Your server did not treat me any different for looking like crap and always delivered service with a smile.  Plus, I was debating on a turkey burger or not and I’m glad I went with it.  It was very moist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am very accustomed to airlines (Delta especially) and hotels being hip to social media and I encourage more restaurants to use Twitter and Facebook for more than just announcements but instead to really engage their patrons.