The Restaurant with the $1000 Tweet

People ask how much value there is to Twitter marketing and how much a Tweet could be worth and now we have the answer!

Last week Shannon Bennett’s great restaurant, Vue de monde, situated on Level 55 of the Rialto found itself in a bit of a pickle. They had a cancellation for their Chefs table that night and needed to fill the table quickly. With a $250 degustation menu + wine, having an unfilled table would have meant a big dent in the takings for the night, so finding someone to make a booking for that night was going to be very important

The kitchen at Vue de monde. Photo Dianna Snape

Vue de Monde is in the great position of having 2,068 followers on their Twitter account, so one simple tweet and the word goes out to over 2,000 people that there is space at the Chef’s table at Vue de monde. The table was filled and with a minimum required of 4 people, that is $1,000 + for a Tweet!

@Vuedemonde Who’s feeling spontaneous?? Last minute cancellation on a chefs table tonight for 4 – 7 guests — Be quick 9691 3888

Twitter marketing for most other restaurants can be a little harder. Vue de monde is an iconic restaurant and people really take notice when something is tweeted. They have over 2000 followers, even though Vue only follows 103 others, which is a great indication of how people really want to see what Vue has to tweet.

Another factor in their success in filling the table on the night ties in with #NOSHOWSHAME, with Vue de monde being given the courtesy of having the booking cancelled rather than having just having the no one show up for the meal. This could be the result of their booking cancellation policy. If the booking is cancelled within 24 hours, $150 is charged to a credit card per person. This is certainly an incentive for people to inform the restaurant if they can’t make the booking.

For most restaurants out there, the fact that there are empty tables going will not be a reason for people to alter their dinner plans, and many customers may find a cancellation fee for no shows a reason to book at a different restaurant, but restaurants can still use Twitter to deliver short run promotions to boost restaurant numbers, especially on quiet nights.

Vue de monde has a great following on Twitter, so the other challenge for most restaurants is building a Twitter following of regular customers. Now is the time to be building your Twitter following, Facebook friends and email lists so that you are able to do more cost effective marketing in Winter, when business is quiet. This is something we will talk about in another blog.