July 21, 2011

I recently attended a panel discussion at the French Culinary Institute titled “Building Buzz: Restaurants, Foodies & Social Media.” The panelists included the chefs and owners behind New York City’s Corton, Salumeria Rosi, Fatty Crab and Rickshaw Dumpling Bar. All panelists agreed that there is some value in engaging in social media as a restaurant owner. Not a surprise.

But there was the sense, as well, that social media is still a huge burden for those business owners who choose to embrace it. That if you want to reap the rewards that social media connections can produce—increased brand loyalty and more—a significant time investment is necessary. Time that many business owners don’t think they have. Responding to tweets from customers, for example, can indeed be “time-suck city,” as Rickshaw’s Kenny Lao put it. So some businesses task employees or interns with managing their accounts. Others hire external consultants. But for really small businesses—restaurants and other types of companies alike—the management of social media accounts falls on the business owner. And that can be overwhelming.

“It terrifies me,” one of the owners of Brooklyn’s Blue Marble Ice Cream admitted to the panelists during the Q&A session.

That’s because for all of the incredible progress that Twitter and Facebook have made, both are still messy and increasingly noisy in their own ways. I’ve recently told friends and colleagues that what I really yearn for is a platform that combines the best of Facebook and Twitter, while eliminating some of the noise. Social media networks need some, dare I say it, order.

And so, not surprisingly, a whole industry has sprung up to help make social media less stressful for businesses and consumers alike. This would probably be a good time to mention that the aforementioned panel discussion was sponsored by American Express OPEN’s YourBuzz, a new app designed to help businesses manage their social media presence. Other social-media management tools include Tweetdeck and HootSuite. And the social networks themselves will likely continue to do more to build management and optimization capabilities directly into their platforms. Facebook has made great strides with its brand Pages and Insights. Twitter’s acquisition of Tweetdeck is a giant step in the right direction, too.

And then there’s Google+. It’s not ready for businesses just yet, but it will be later this year. To date, its most talked-about feature has been Google+ Circles, which I love, at least in theory, because of the sharing segmentation it provides. But I’ve talked to many people who find the implementation problematic; the act of creating, and maintaining, Circles can be time-intensive. (Plus, you have to wonder whether Google believes Google+ can really win as a destination network, or whether it’s simply the first bold move in a strategy to make searching and browsing infinitely more social.) How will brands use Circles? Will they use them at all? We'll find out soon.

These networks will continue to evolve. It’s easy to forget, after all, that Facebook is still just seven years old; Twitter is five. What they’ve accomplished in their young lives has spoiled us. But business owners want more help. They'll be watching.

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Join the conversation ( 3 )

• Patrick Jebber 10 months ago

  

  Well put Jason. It's difficult for most businesses to put their arms around social media... let alone manage it on a daily basis.I do agree with Josh on the challenge of finding the right entity/person to manage those efforts. But I also believe there are a great number of agencies who specialize in brand management for clients and they make it their mission to learn about the client's business enough to be effective brand ambassadors. Choosing wisely is the hardest part of the process.

• Josh Mendelsohn 10 months ago

  

  I agree completely. Social media is a huge challenge for already time strapped business owners. And the reality is that agencies and interns don't always know the nuances of a business well enough to be successful in serving as your brand. Because the audience is so large and the pace is a bit slower, I think most small businesses can see lots of social success with Facebook without getting involved with Twitter (and G+).

  • Jason Del Rey 10 months ago

    

    Great point about finding the right people who understand the business well enough to represent the brand. One of the panelists pointed to that as a reason why he manages his business' Twitter account himself. Thanks for reading, Josh.