Restaurants and bars harness Twitter users for promotion

The table at the newest Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza was set for important customers.

First came the crisp, refreshing Italian salad with garbanzos, tomato wedges, hard-boiled egg, onions and olives. Next was a plate of tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and shredded basil.

After that, a parade of big flavors: juicy meatballs in marinara, pork spare ribs with vinegar peppers and the trademark crispy-crusted pizza with pepperoni baked in a coal-fired oven.

It used to be that a restaurant would serve such a grand opening feast to show off its menu to newspaper and TV reporters. The mayor might even get an invite to cut a ribbon off the front door.

But the VIP's this night at the Anthony's on McMullen Booth Road were bloggers and influential Twitter scribes who, with a single post, could reach tens of thousands of followers reading along about the meal on their laptops, iPads and smartphones.

Increasingly, restaurants and other food businesses are schmoozing with the social media elite to spread the word as part of their marketing strategies. For operators with small budgets, harnessing the electronic word of mouth at "tweetups" (a Twitter hybrid of tweeting and meet-up) is a less-expensive way to reach the masses than traditional advertising and marketing.

The concept: Invite influential people with large numbers of online followers to dine, with the assumption they will post messages and photos on Twitter and Facebook about the food and drinks they're having. The restaurants don't control what the posts say or demand that the bloggers write only positive comments, but that is the goal.

Tweetups give restaurants a way to deepen their relationships with current customers and build a loyal clientele by giving people with common interests a place to gather, said Karen Rosenzweig, owner of the food media consulting firm One Smart Cookie Marketing in Seattle.

Tweetups "help build community and encourage networking," Rosenzweig writes on her blog. "Later those very people will bring back their meetings and parties to your venue, because of how hospitable you were."

Nothing is more valuable from a marketing standpoint than positive customer word of mouth, according to Anthony Bruno, the pizza chain's founder.

"Social media is just a modern day version of that," he said.

Bruno started Anthony's in 2002 in South Florida and now has 27 restaurants in five states. He attended the Clearwater tweetup and spoke with the invited guests.

"We wanted them to experience the food and see what the restaurant was like," he said. "It's a great way to get the message out there. There's really no downside to it."

O'Connell & Goldberg, the South Florida public relations firm that coordinated event, estimated that just 50 tweets generated by six people during the two-hour tweetup reached 23,438 unique Twitter users and made 145,770 total impressions. An impression is counted every time someone sees the tweet, even if they see it from another person who retweeted the original message. That impact doesn't include things people may have written about the dinner on Facebook or blogs.

In addition to the spread it put out, Anthony's gave each blogger a $25 gift card to give away to a Twitter follower. The event was part of a multicity "Well Done Tour" touting the coal-oven baked pizza.

Sandi McKenna, known by the Twitter handle @mcmedia, tweeted to her more than 13,000 followers that night that she enjoyed the food. The former marketing and public relations expert now co-hosts the multimedia MidLife Road Trip travel show online.

"I had never had fire-grilled pizza before," she said. "I liked that pizza. I also liked that Anthony was there with us. It was nice of him to come and not just leave us with the PR person."

Jen Straw, founder and owner of Last Straw Media in Tampa and author of the Miss Attitude blog, was so struck by the warmth of the customer service that night, she later went to the Anthony's on State Road 60 in Brandon to see if she had gotten preferential treatment in Clearwater. But she found the same delicious menu and same courteous staff in Brandon.

Straw also teaches social media and public relations writing at the University of Tampa. As someone who has hosted gatherings of bloggers and attended dozens of tweetups, she said it's important for the event to have a message to convey or a theme. Just holding a party for bloggers fails to make an emotional connection and gives them little to tweet about.

"I'm selective about the ones I go to now," she said. "I have been to some where I think, 'I don't know why I'm here.'"

Straw represents the wine shop and wine bar Cru Cellars in South Tampa. In addition to tweeting for the business, the bar has hosted tweetups that have brought in new revenue. It also spawned tweetups by a company that wanted to use the venue to reach local Twitter users who are deaf.

"You get a lot of new people in the door talking about your place before and after," co-owner Jennifer Bingham said. "We got so many great comments. They loved the place."

Giving bloggers first look at a new product is one way to hone the message. Jennifer M. Mikosky, public relations director for FKQ Advertising + Marketing in Clearwater, did just that in August for the unveiling of the McDonald's Angus Snack Wrap. FKQ represents the 186 McDonald's restaurants in the Tampa Bay area.

Those who attended got to taste the new wrap the night before it was offered to customers across the country.

"Having a purpose for the tweetup gives people a compelling reason to attend," Mikosky said.

Two weeks ago, Mikosky organized a tweeup in response to one of their @MCDTampaBay Twitter feed followers who joked that the company should do a similar gathering for the Rollo McFlurry. Forty invited guests received a snack-size version of the treet, a goodie bag with Rollo candy and coupons to come back to try a smoothie or frappe.

"That is what social media is about, the give and take between brand and people who are interested," Mikosky said. "We are listening and interacting with people following us."