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Byline tegrate traditional and new media in unique ways. Tools of the Trade The most common social media tools of the trade for nightclubs are Facebook, Twitter and texting (forget MySpace — the demo- graphic is too young). Dr. Rachna Jain, the chief social marketer of Gaithersburg, Md.-based MindShare Corp., an online marketing strategy firm, notes many nightclubs have adopted Facebook and Twitter as their primary social media tools. Whereas clubs once used web sites to draw in customers, now they go further to get people talking. “It’s a voyeuristic process,” she says. “You get greater lever- age and penetration into a target market by using a social platform.” For those living under a rock, Facebook is a free, one-stop portal where consum- ers can interact with one another and get information about your business, including events and videos. Many bars have built Facebook groups, but just having one is pointless if it’s not actively used. The key is not just to attract followers but to engage people so they come into your business. Facebook’s events feature is a power- ful broadcast tool — your followers can use the invitation function to invite other friends, helping it spread virally. Also for those asleep at the wheel, Twitter is a microblogging web site that supports updates or “tweets” of 140 or fewer characters. It can be done from any computer or cell phone and costs noth- ing. Bar and brand managers love Twitter, as it allows them to broadcast their opinions, news
21 Nightclub & Bar Magazine | DECEMBER 2009
and goings-on to people.
Twitter isn’t as robust as
Facebook — it’s simply a broadcast
tool — so Jain points out that it’s best used
within a specific geographic area. Tweeting to stir up local support for charitable
events, such a bar donating 10 percent of
an evening’s profits to an area charity, is
particularly effective in getting the word out
quickly. Twitter can easily rally a group of
people in a “Tweetup,” such as tweeting
“Meet me at Muriel’s bar at 6: 30.” The
downside with Twitter is that consumers get bored of self-serving or irrelevant
postings and simply stop following those
that don’t deliver value in the way of event
news or relevant offers.
The third popular tool is texting, or short
message service (SMS), a low-cost func-tionality built into every cell phone. People
simply need your bar’s short code (like a
mini phone number) and a code word that
will trigger a response. Danny Cantrell, the
CEO of Dallas-based Marketing Response
Solutions, says: “Americans are using their
cell phones more for texting now rather
than talking. It’s overtaking the computer as
the most important device.”
Nightclubs can easily integrate texting
into their existing print advertising via
this opt-in system. People may read
a print ad stating they can get a free
drink if they text in a keyword. Once
a venue receives a text request, that
phone number is added into the da-tabase, and the marketing team can
now broadcast a DJ, event or drink
specials. A text campaign can turn a
slow evening into a hopping night.
Bob Bentz is the owner of Ad-
vanced Telecom Services, a mobile
marketing company in Philadelphia.
“Nightclubs have been a very good
market for us because customers are
young, likely don’t have a landline phone,
and are very mobile and not e-mail oriented,” he says. Bentz notes that texting is very
inexpensive. A bucket of SMS messages
costs very little: $500 a month to reach
10,000 people, or five cents per message. A
benefit is the viral nature of texting: people
can forward coupons to their friends. This
bonus coverage costs nothing.
“What we’ve seen is that SMS response rates are incredibly high — up
to 20 percent,” remarks Vitaliy Levit of
Columbus, Ohio’s Recess Mobile, another
mobile marketing company. This is much
higher than print media. “SMS has proven
to be an incredibly powerful tool for bars
and the nightlife scene.” Recess Mobile
can develop fun texting tools to engage
customers. For example, people can text
in witty sayings that the club then projects
on a wall for all to read, and in turn, the
nightclub captures the phone number for
use in marketing future events.
“The most exciting thing about texting
is that it provides measurability for the
marketing efforts for these businesses and
bar owners,” Cantrell says. A bar might try
a split text campaign, like asking people
to text in for a free drink or text in for an
event, each with a different code word.
Right away the bar can see which has a
better response.
Making One Person Happy
Let’s see how this plays out with a couple
of businesses. Jeffrey Tyler is the marketing director for Baja Sharkeez’s seven
restaurants in southern California, and he
relies on Facebook, Twitter and texting.
One particularly effective tool for Sharkeez
is a mandate requiring every worker to
bring in at least 10 people per shift using
social media. “It’s not just a request to do
this; it’s part of everyone’s daily duties,”
he notes. “They have no problem doing it
because they have seen the results directly
in their wallets!”
Baja Sharkeez still prints hundreds of
thousands of fliers each year, yet each now
directs people to a Facebook page or gives
a texting code for a specific event. Likewise, each location’s weekly mass e-mail
includes social marketing reminders.
Double Down and Frankie’s Tiki Room’s
Moss also uses Facebook, Twitter and
