Suggestions to build awareness for a cafe's Facebook page?

Bizzman

Hi there,

I'm currently setting up a new Facebook page for my brother in law who has his own coffee shop. The coffee shop does soups, salads, patisseries, panninis, wraps and freshly ground coffees. We also have a list of daily specials.

The FB page went live in the last few days and we have approx 50 followers and people can also check into the cafe. I have a sign on the door incentivising people to check into the cafe to receive a free tea/coffee. I only put it up a while ago so it'll be interesting to see how that goes.

What I'm wondering is if anyone would have any other suggestions as to how we could increase our following. We're in a fairly populated town with approx 15,000 people living here so it's not as if we're isolated. There are lots of other shops in the vicinity. What about running a competition on FB? Would anyone have any suggestions? crazy or not! Thanks for your help.

BrianD

The check-ins are a powerful message. Unfortunately, it's not possible to keep a track on who has checked in unless they actually show the cashier the phone!

On your page, you need to find some clever ways of getting a conversation going with your fans.

People have a high expectation of numbers of fans on Facebook. Even if you grow a huge number you need to have them interacting with your content otherwise you gradually disappear from their newsfeeds.

Make sure you have the FB URL (get your vanity url) on all your printed materials from menus to adverts to the clapperboard outside.

Have a look at what other cafes are doing elsewhere, here's one in London: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tapped-and-Packed/325501333446

Here's an interesting new development from Facebook Places:

http://www.insidefacebook.com/2011/06/13/recommend-this-place-community-edits/

You need to be careful about running a competition on Facebook as any competitions that are run on your wall that require a user to like, comment or post any content will breach their terms of service and your page could be deleted. You have to run your competitions off the wall (there are free promo apps available). This does not prevent you from promoting any competitions or promotions that you are running in-store.

As well as Facebook you should look at using Foursquare as well. Personally, I think Facebook Places is where it's going to be at in the future but no harm in having all options available.

Bizzman

Thanks for your suggestions Brian D. You made a good point about continuing to interact with your fans. I read an article recently about the take up of Foursquare in Ireland and it is generally slow enough (http://conoroneill.net/location-based-marketing-ireland-and-foursqua).

Thanks as well for the tip in relation to running competitions.

If anyone else has any suggestions I'll be glad to hear.

Thanks

IrishCalypso

If possible, get the staff onboard - show the personality behind the business, staff can comment and like post on the page (set up some posting guidelines - do's/don'ts). Maybe put photos of the main staff up so people feel that they know them and will "chat" more readily.

djfitzerjnr

How do you set up the check-in feature?

BrianD

You need to create a Facebook Place for the store or cafe.

To do this you need to use the Facebook application on a mobile device that has GPS. When you are the location open the application and go to Check In. See if the Place already exists. If not you create a Place there and then.

You can then later update the Place with additional info and then 'claim' it. There is a process of merging a Place with a Page. This seems to be in a state of flux at the moment.

djfitzerjnr

Cheers! Yeah, the business page was already set up, so half the work was already done. I think I did it alright, just filled out the steps there to authenticate that the check-in location and the business page are the same place, which could take up to a week facebook said!

BrianD

Usually, it takes a lot less.