Welcome to my blog, please feel free to subscribe to my RSS feed, join me on Twitter or leave a comment.

According to Facebook’s own data (http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics) there are over 350 million people actively using the social media website, it’s possibly the most successful website ever build and it’s a virtual gold mine for restaurants looking to effectively market themselves online, often for free.

Why Use Facebook?
Beyond the simple and staggering number of people who use Facebook, there’s a certain mindset to the community website, it’s about sharing positive experiences and linking to content worth sharing with friends. Since Facebook is about social community, linking to favourite pubs and eating establishments is just one more way for people to tell their friends who they really are.

How much does it cost to market with Facebook?
It’s free. Seriously, building a Facebook page costs nothing except an hour of your time to assemble some text, a few photographs and  a little bit of technical know how. Once you have the basic content together, setting up a Facebook profile is completely free for your company.

How to setup a Facebook profile for your restaurant
Setting up a Facebook page is actually very simple, first you need to visit Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/ and click the  Create Page link.  The next step will ask you to select your business type, just follow the picture here and select your local business as a restaurant.

Next, let’s add the title of your page. This should be the name of your restaurant or something very similar, often if you have a commonly named restaurant (There are over 700 Crown Pub’s in England for example) you may need to add a descriptive phrase such as the town or area to the title.

Finally, you need to verify that you are in fact a human being by typing a series of letters and then you can create your restaurant’s Facebook page. If you don’t already have a personal profile, Facebook will ask you to create one but don’t worry, it’s also free and easy.

Marketing with Facebook
Once your restaurant has a page of Facebook, you can easily upload some photographs and a brief description. It’s also possible for you to add your restaurant’s hours of operation, specials etc to help people know more about your business.

Since Facebook works through social networking, you’ll want to tell your local ‘real world’ customers about the new addition, you can run a small promotion in store and give away a free lunch once a month to somebody on your new fan list. Once your fan list starts building, each friend of your new addition will see that they’ve joined your page! That’s the best “word of mouth” advertising you could ask you.

According to Facebook’s own data (http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics) there are over 350 million people actively using the social media website, it’s possibly the most successful website ever build and it’s a virtual gold mine for restaurants looking to effectively market themselves online, often for free.

Why Use Facebook?
Beyond the simple and staggering number of people who use Facebook, there’s a certain mindset to the community website, it’s about sharing positive experiences and linking to content worth sharing with friends. Since Facebook is about social community, linking to favourite pubs and eating establishments is just one more way for people to tell their friends who they really are.

How much does it cost to market with Facebook?
It’s free. Seriously, building a Facebook page costs nothing except an hour of your time to assemble some text, a few photographs and  a little bit of technical know how. Once you have the basic content together, setting up a Facebook profile is completely free for your company.

How to setup a Facebook profile for your restaurant
Setting up a Facebook page is actually very simple, first you need to visit Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/ and click the  Create Page link.  The next step will ask you to select your business type, just follow the picture here and select your local business as a restaurant.

Next, let’s add the title of your page. This should be the name of your restaurant or something very similar, often if you have a commonly named restaurant (There are over 700 Crown Pub’s in England for example) you may need to add a descriptive phrase such as the town or area to the title.

Finally, you need to verify that you are in fact a human being by typing a series of letters and then you can create your restaurant’s Facebook page. If you don’t already have a personal profile, Facebook will ask you to create one but don’t worry, it’s also free and easy.

Marketing with Facebook
Once your restaurant has a page of Facebook, you can easily upload some photographs and a brief description. It’s also possible for you to add your restaurant’s hours of operation, specials etc to help people know more about your business.

Since Facebook works through social networking, you’ll want to tell your local ‘real world’ customers about the new addition, you can run a small promotion in store and give away a free lunch once a month to somebody on your new fan list. Once your fan list starts building, each friend of your new addition will see that they’ve joined your page! That’s the best “word of mouth” advertising you could ask you.