Soul Daddy Restaurant Winner of NBC’s “America’s Next Great Restaurant” Taught 5 Valuable Lessons

By Jay Feitlinger | Published: May 2, 2011

America's Next Great Restaurant

 

 

 

After the 1st episode of NBC’s America’s Next Great Restaurant I was completely hooked.  As an entrepreneur who has had his fair share of success and failures with past businesses, I have really enjoyed over the years sharing lessons learned with other new business owners on how to maximize the potential of their great business concept and go after something they love.

It has been a personal dream of mine to one day own a restaurant but sadly watching far too often that revolving open and then close restaurant concept has always made me cautious.  5 important lessons stood out, watching America’s Next Great Restaurant where these aspiring restaurateurs were mentored by Bobby Flay, Curtis Stone, Steve Ells, founder of Chipotle and Lorena Garcia, that every future restaurant owner must consider when creating and launching their restaurant concept:

Lesson #1 -  Must have both great food and a great concept

Great Food and Great Concept

source: co-opliving.com

Good marketing of a brand will convince someone to try something once; however, with hundreds of restaurant choices around every corner a bad review will keep prospective customers away.  I can’t tell you how many times I have found my family sitting in our garage as the car is running trying to decide where to go for dinner.

In almost every instance we pull out a smartphone and launch the Yelp App and check out nearby restaurants that have good reviews we had not tried yet.  If the food is not good based on reviews we won’t even try it and I am sure those people that had the bad experience will not return.  The power of social media gives every unhappy customer a voice online sharing their negative review for the world to see and quite often trust. Read More »

Posted in Restaurant Marketing, Reviews, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Effects of Your Business’s Blog and Social Media Going Unused

By Kevin Warhus | Published: April 27, 2011

It’s no secret that these days well maintained blogs and social sites are key elements to your business’s success. Today, companies big and small are leveraging these forms of social media to connect with fans and offer them something truly valuable. Unfortunately, as more businesses throw their hat into the social ring, more and more of these blogs and social sites are going unused and unloved every day. These neglected blogs and social sites reflect the appearance of poor customer service and can seriously hurt your brand’s image.

neglected blog unused typewriter - StringCan Interactive

I see it all the time, a company starts a blog on their site because someone told them they need it and after a few posts the excitement wears off and the blog is quickly forgotten. Some businesses, for instance almost all of the real estate agents I have seen, create a blog on their site and never even touch it. Just imagine how bad this looks to the customers who come to your website or Facebook page expecting to find current and helpful information only to see content that hasn’t been touched in months. It can really create a negative impression in the customers mind that can ripple through the rest of their user experience.

Why Blogs and Social Sites Are Good

Social media is an amazing way to connect with customers. Blogs in particular can be a great way to build relationships with customers and really express your brand’s personality. By offering something of interest and value to the reader, they are more inclined to think positively of your brand and explore more of what you have to offer. If you post frequently and consistently you will no doubt attract a following that will continue to check back regularly and share your posts with their friends, family, and coworkers.

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5 Reasons To Add Facebook’s Open Graph To Your Website

By Kevin Warhus | Published: April 20, 2011

 

What is Facebook’s Open Graph?

Facebook Open Graph Social Plugins- StringCan Interactive

It has been almost exactly a year since Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed the Open Graph at the 2010 F8 Developer Conference and we are starting to see its effects on the web and the way businesses and consumers are interacting with it. For those not familiar, Facebook’s Open Graph is a platform that allows websites and apps to share information about users in order to personalize offers, features, and services to each individual’s interests and preferences — even if that user has never visited the site before.

Participating websites can display information specifically tailored to your interests without requiring you to sign in on their website or provide them with any information. It is essentially a much larger extension of Facebook’s Connect feature that can offer far more detailed insight into the interests and behaviors of individual users.

For example, say I love cameras and spend a lot of time online reading reviews, looking at cameras, and following my favorite brands on Facebook. When I log onto a website, such as Amazon, I may see ads for cameras, or better yet, if Facebook’s Open Graph is integrated into your website you can tell that I really love Canon Cameras and offer me a great deal on the new model you just got in stock. This new, personalized way of conducting business in the 21st century is vital to standing out from your competitors and making your customers feel loved and understood.

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Posted in Current Events, Facebook, How To, Innovation, Social Commerce, Social Media | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Is Your Business Offering The Right Value and Rewards In The Best Ways? Excite Customers and Build Loyalty!

By Kevin Warhus | Published: April 7, 2011

blockbuster love money rewards - StringCan Interactive
As you are well aware, the key to success in business is to keep your customers satisfied by offering the value and features they expect at a price they both want, and can afford, to pay. The question then leads us to ask, how can you reach success and build brand loyalty?

Regardless of the industry your business operates in, this formula applies to your company in one way or another. While there are many additional factors, the two major variables that often complicate this formula are competition and understanding the wants and needs of your target market. It is important to optimize your strategy to ensure that you are offering the right services to the right people in a way that really gets their attention. For a closer look, let’s examine the history of Blockbuster and Netflix.

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South By Southwest SXSW 2011 Interactive Is Over And Here Is What We Learned

By Jay Feitlinger | Published: April 2, 2011

SXSW 2011

 

 

 

 

 

For those not familiar with South by Southwest (SXSW) it is a 10 day conference with 3 focus areas around film, interactive and music festivals that take place every spring (usually in March) in Austin, Texas. I attended only the Interactive part of SXSW and after spending 5 days, meeting a ton of people, learning about new ideas around Interactive media and soaking it all in I thought it would be of interest to share the main themes, quotes, highlights, apps and others I uncovered during SXSW.

SXSW first began in 1987 and is located within downtown Austin at the Austin Convention Center as the main hub venue.  Historically SXSW is the place to go to learn about the latest innovations.  For example, the 2009 SXSW Interactive saw the launch of Foursquare, which was called “the breakout mobile app” of the event by Mashable. Each of the three SXSW parts runs relatively independently, with different start and end dates. In 2011, the conference lasted for ten days, with interactive lasting for five, music for six, and film lasting the longest at nine days

First let’s start off with some high level facts about SXSW 2011 Interactive:

  • 20,000 attendees (almost 40% increase over SXSW 2010)
  • 1,000 talks over 5 days by 2,000 speakers
  • Ten different locations to meet people and listen to speakers and panels
  • Every hour there were 25 – 35 sessions to decide what to attend
  • Every night there were many events to attend and meet with other SXSW attendees

Within each hour there were 2-4 sessions that I wanted to attend and after the 1st day decided to just go to what I can, rely on others I meet to find out what I may have missed as I would have made myself crazy running all over downtown Austin to try and attend everything.  To prevent this from being a 20 page long post I am going to share the highlights.  You can either review my SlideShare presentation or review the notes below:

 

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Posted in Current Events, Innovation, Reviews | Tagged , , | 1 Comment