I have been doing a lot of reading of others blogs today.  Particularly on http://fohboh.com  all the rage is to talk about Social marketing.  Twitter, Facebook and how to use it to market your Restaurant.

  I want to make one thing clear the ” Old Dogs ” are successful for may reasons.  You have to provide a quality product and experience.  You have to be fiscally savey…money problems are the quickest way to totally destroy every aspect of your Restaurant business.  knowing your market and knowing your customers, repeat business is the core that keeps you humming!

  Many older Restauranteurs would do well to learn more about Online/Social Marketing today, but many lack the computer knoweledge to know what to effectively.  The days of placing advertisments in newspapers are going the way of the Dinosaur.  Sophisticated clientel and the younger generation are rapidilly embracing technology.  Often right from there i-phone and often with the help of fun apps such as Urban Spoon.

  Here is an exceptional tutorial on how to create a Facebook fan page for your restaurant.  http://www.marketingrestaurantonline.com/2009/10/09/how-to-create-a-facebook-fan-page-for-your-restaurant/

If you don’t know why here is an eye opening quote from http://www.marketingrestaurantonline.com

Facebook is no doubt one of the most popular social networking site in the world with over 300 million users by now. Restaurant businesses can not afford  to not care about Facebook and not make it a part of it’s marketing strategy if it really wants to win in this new age of social media we are entering into. Lots of big brand chain restaurants like McDonald’s, Chick-Fil-A, Pizzahut and many others have started building a great brand with millions of fans. But I have yet to see small restaurants take advantage of marketing opportunity that Facebook offers.

Twitter is another very popular marketing option and http://www.marketingrestaurantonline.com has an excellent article gaining your Restaurant success on Twitter.

http://www.marketingrestaurantonline.com/2009/07/30/7-key-factors-that-can-determine-your-restaurants-success-on-twitter/

  The big problem that I see is Older Restauranteurs know this is BIG, but they don’t participate in Social Media themselves and know little about it.  From my own personal experience amongst my late 30 something friends is that 2 years ago Facebook was still for ” College Kids”, but within the last year have seen a mass exodus of them joining FB. 

Older Restaurant owners do not realize the interactive aspects that go along with Social Marketing.  As much as you want to promote your positives, you also need to control the negatives that go along with people being able to post comments, etc.  You need to have a knowledgeable and trustworthy individual with the time and dedication to spearhead your Social Marketing campaign!

After a recent yearning for pancakes, I am now on the quest for the ” perfect recipe”!

My review of my first recipe ended up being s0-so, tried a basic recipe but omitted the egg ( didn’t want to run to the store ).  They were thick and fluffy but very delicate and crumbly because I didn’t use any egg. 

We Chef’s love ratio’s…it’s the perfect way to make differing quantities and get great results!  So here is a basic pancake recipe, makes 4 large flapjacks to 8 mini ones.

• 1 cup Flour
• 2 TBSP Baking powder
• 1 Tbsp Sugar
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1 Egg
• 1 cup Milk
• 2 TBSP Melted Butter

Combine all the dry ingredients together and mix.  Slightly beat the egg and then whisk in your milk.  Next whisk the melted butter into that.  Combine with dry ingredients and mix well…you are now ready to start cooking!

This recipe is probably more than enough for 2 average adults or…1 hungry teenager.