Trend, fashion or zeitgeist? The green movement is here. If you are not already becoming a green restaurant don’t worry, it’s never too late to start. I’m going to outline three great organizations that can help. I’ll also give some quick tips on how to become green on your own. There are many benefits to be reaped from becoming a greener restaurant – are you taking advantage?

Ocean Wise – Twitter
Ocean Wise started in 2005 by the Vancouver Aquarium. In 2009 they became a national organization. Their focus is to raise awareness of sustainable seafood options for consumers. The basic requirements to join is to remove one unsustainable option from your menu while highlighting sustainable ones. This is done by placing their logo next to your sustainable options – easy! Not sure which fish are sustainable? – they offer programs to educate their partners. By joining Ocean Wise you help stop overfishing, habitat degradation and bycatch (the unintended catching of a species).

Green Restaurant Association - Twitter
The Green Restaurant Association (GRA) is focused on helping restaurants realize that environmental responsibility can equal fiscal gain. The GRA helps by identifying and helping restaurants cut energy, waste and water costs. The GRA sets out stringent guidelines for restaurants to follow if they wish to become certified under the GRA banner. These requirements can range from water usage to the sustainably of the food being served to the availability of bicycle parking and transit around the restaurant. If you are unable to take on the full certification process – just selecting a few items from their requirements page – all of which are great items to consider on their own as you seek to become a greener restaurant. The site also offers a great search page for finding environmentally friendly suppliers.

Get Local BC – Twitter
So you have identified the sustainable fish with Ocean Wise and you have sourced some great green vendors from the GRA – what can you do that’s local? Get Local BC is an organization that helps restaurants and normal consumers find sources for local ingredients. The benefits are great – by supporting local vendors your supplies are not traveling as far to get to the plate, also by knowing what’s in season your ‘Fresh Sheet’ will be as fresh as possible. You are keeping money in the local economy and by showing the community you support them – they will hopefully support you as well. Why not use local food as a selling point – find those great local vendors and sell them to your customers.

There are other simple ways to green your restaurant:

• stop using polystyrene containers – Answer: NaturoPack
• offer organic fair trade coffee – Answer: Ethical Bean
• switch to recycled napkins – Answer: Green Shift

Three are many other options available out there – CFL bulbs, biodegradable hand soap, composting. What ever you do to green your restaurant make sure you let people know about it! Become a champion for a greener society and I think you will be surprised at the support you will gain.

- Ben / S&P Media

So you have decided to add your restaurant to twitter. Your account is up, your logo is uploaded and your are ready to post your first tweet. . . but before you do, read this post first:

First let people know you are on Twitter -
With a twitter account you will have a unique address. So add it to things and promote it! Add it to your email signature. Add it to on your website. Have it print out on your receipts. Put a small sign up at the front entrance.

Your Twitter Voice – How does your personality shows through Twitter
Everyone has personality but sometimes it’s better to remain anonymous yet professional in your approach to posting. If you want to post about items unrelated to your restaurant then get your own account. Potential customers reading your Twitter may not want to hear about what you watched on TV or how your feel about the weather. With that being said – sometimes creating an inviting persona will allow people to connect to you. Your restaurant will have a face and a positive attitude. If the customer enjoys the postings they will hopefully connect this to the restaurant as well. This can be a fine line to walk – remember this is your brand out there.

What to post on Twitter -

• Re-tweets – Someone else mentions your restaurant – let your customers know about it!
• Daily Specials – Food, Drink – anything that would make dining at your restaurant today different then any other day.
• Sports – If you are showing the game let people know and give them a reason to pick your place (see note above).
• Pictures – Restaurant full? Picture, Desserts look great? Picture, Perfect poor? Lineup out the door? Seasonal Produce Delivered?
• Hours – Changing hours? Open for Sunday brunch? Closed for a private function?
• Comments – You have a comment section on your website right? Post the positive ones and tactfully address any negative ones.

Twitter Discipline -
Set a realistic schedule and stick to it. I cannot stress this more. There is nothing worse then looking up a Twitter account to find that it’s been dormant for months. The urge when you start out will be to post and post often, but will you be able to maintain this pace over time? Set up a realistic goal – do you have time in your day to post one item? Once a week? Don’t over commit. Find some time in your schedule that will allow for an update. Build this task into your day and don’t let it slip.

If you find you are too busy to keep this schedule then either stop and remove your account or find someone who can do it for you. Many web developers, including Salt & Pepper Media, are more then happy to take on customers under a social media retainer. A small monthly fee will allow someone else to assist you in keeping your social media current and relevant to your customers.

- Ben / S&P Media

original photo: Cody Austin

If you are going to watch TV you might as well make it something productive. Television does have some great things to offer the restaurateur. Cooking shows have always been a pseudo reality television. You venture into someones kitchen and watch and they share tips and recipes. The recent batch of reality TV programing is far more voyeuristic. We get to see the problems and issues that face some restaurants and shown fixes for their problems. All within an hour long time episode. Amazing – if only everything could be fixed so quickly.

What to Watch – As we all know there are many cooking shows out there. I have spend my fair share of Sunday afternoons watching KCTS Cooks and listening to George Ray enjoy every plate . . . but I digress. My focus here is on shows that focus on the restaurant industry, shows that can teach us something about marketing, renewal and management.

Restaurant Make Over – Watch on HGTV & Food Network Canada

Why You Should Watch: Canadian, Igor is amazing, Food & Interior Design!
Warning! – Jazzy intro music is catchy and addictive!

Kitchen Nightmares – Watch on Fox
Why You Should Watch: Gordon Ramsey, Drama, Simple solutions big problems.
Warning! – Lots of swearing & attitudes on display.

Top Chef – Watch on Bravo
Why You Should Watch: Padma Lakshmi, Won an Emmy, Famous guest judges.
Warning! – Lots of product tie-ins and promotions.

How to watch & Must have items:

• Open mind – the mistakes that people make might seem obvious but examining case studies of where people went wrong could keep you on the path to profit and not applying for one of these shows!
• Pen & Paper – always have your idea notebook handy (you do keep one right?) taking time to relax and enjoy television is great but if you stumble upon a great idea you want to remember it and be able to act on it when it comes time to work again.
• PVR or VCR – most likely you will not be home when these programs are on. Appointment television viewing does not mesh well with a restaurateur. Record these programs and watch them when its convenient for you.
• Perspective – I love how it seems that these shows manage to get everything done over night. Restaurant Makeover embraces the contractor / designer struggle, Kitchen Nightmares ignores it all together and things just magically happen. There are budgets and teams working behind the cameras. Remember this before you get inspired and take on your own fix.

If you are new to these shows you have a lot to catch up on as most of them are into multiple seasons. If this list is old hat, why not catch up on some reading!

• Restaurant Makeover is the “kiss of death”
• Gordon Ramsey Gains Two Michelin Stars
• Daily News – http://eater.com/

- Ben / S&P Media

If you aren’t keeping an eye on online peer review sites you might be finished before you started.

Was here with a few friends last week…..what a disaster. Very poor short ribs, server not knowing the food, wrong dish sent out, wrong bill presented, and just a weird vibe in the restaurant. Directionless, mismanaged, and overpriced. . .

Have you heard the term Web 2.0 before? It’s a term to describe a new generation of web sites that are not just static but invite participation and interaction from users. The first sites that come to mind are Facebook or Twitter. You like something, you tell your friends and create a dialogue. There are many other options for expressing an opinion and if you aren’t on top of them a few negative comments and reviews could be sending customers away before they even leave their homes.

Now I’m not trying to be alarmist here but the basis for most of these sites is to create a space where an honest opinion can be expressed. This is great for the customer but potentially bad for you. Why? Most of the comments you will be helpless to control. Also the anonymity of the sites also allows for people to self-promote their restaurants with fake positive reviews. Now hopefully if a restaurant review site has enough traffic and user input, the true popular opinion will win out. So what are some of these review sites that you should follow?

Restaurant Review Sites:
DineHere.ca – Great search functions. Focused only on the lower mainland.

UrbanSpoon.com – Polling & written reviews. Includes professional reviews.

LivingSocial.com – Simple rating system. Restaurants not sole focus of site.

Yelp.ca – Lots of reviews from USA. Review highlights and nice graph section.

Now before you head off to see how your restaurant is being treated – remember to check that your information is listed correctly on these sites. If it’s not – make sure you make it a priority to have that corrected. You don’t want someone to dine somewhere else because your phone number is listed wrong.

Positive Reviews:
Someone gives you a great review! Hopefully that will be the one that everyone reads and it brings people in for the same experience. Depending on your view of the credibility of the site – you might want to encourage people to view the site. You could even send happy customers there to add to your reputation. But be wary of the winds of change – any site the uses a rating system may leave you victim to fluctuations. One week you are up – the next. . .

Negative Reviews:
So you got a bad review. There is always going to be someone who didn’t get what they expect. Mistakes are made and you move on. No one should be using one negative review to discredit a restaurant right off the bat. I can speak from personal experience that I have tried going to restaurants with multiple negative reviews only to come away amazed and impressed.

Users should be taking these sites for what they are – anonymous people giving opinions – and not the be all and end all. You should view negative reviews as places you can improve and positive ones as a pat on the back.

- Ben / S&P Media

Why Read a Blog?

In reality you can’t afford not to be reading blogs. They are free, current and easily accessible. Blogs are a great wealth of information and can connect you to a community that you never new existed.

If you are new to blogs that is great – it’s never to late to start reading or writing (we will get to that in future posts).

How to Read a Blog –

My recommendation is to start up a RSS feed. RSS or Really Simple Syndication – collects a website/blog’s latest updates and gives them to you in a compact form so you can skim and read what you like without have to go to every individual blog page. You tell an RSS reader what websites and blogs to follow and it will tell you when they have posted something new. I use Google Reader but there are many different ones available.

Next you want to look for this symbol on a website or blog you wish to follow:
These RSS Symbols come in many different forms such as the one on the top right of my blog page! These links will ask you what RSS feed you are using and then subscribe that blog to your RSS reader. Simple!

What to Read -

There are many different types of blogs but I’m going to focus on two categories that are pertinent to the restaurant industry in the lower mainland.

Industry Blogs:
CRFA (Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Assoc) – RSS Address

BCRFA (B.C. Restaurant and Foodservices Association) – RSS Address

No Meal Tax – RSS Address

Media Blogs:
Vancouver Sun Food Section -  RSS Address

The Province Food Section – RSS Address

Globe and Mail Food Section – RSS Address

Salt & Pepper Media’s blog will be profiling the way in which blogs and other social media can have a positive gains for your business. Why not subscribe to our RSS to stay in touch. Feel free on add your favourite blog in the comment section!

- Ben / S&P Media

df

Salt and Pepper Media – Our first job is to inform. We want to be a resource for restaurants who could be using the web and social media better. Check back frequently or subscribe to our RSS to get marketing advice, news and editorial on marketing restaurants.

- Ben