Category Archives: Restaurants

Food Issues Group – 10 Year Anniversary

Posted on April 23, 2013 | Leave a comment

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Ten years ago, our agency partnered with Jeff Nelken, M.A., RD (retired) to launch Food Issues Group (FIG), which offers food safety training for restaurants, food defense education, litigation support and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) plan development. Nelken, an experienced professional in all aspects of food safety and inspection, added another dimension to our crisis and health care practices. Today the FIG services restaurants, theme parks, casinos, corporate cafeterias, schools, manufacturers and distributors. From Susan Tellem, partner at TGPR:

During the past 10 years, much has changed in the food safety world.  With the advent of social media, word about recalls and food poisoning can spread quickly and efficiently.  Social media can also trigger a crisis for a food supplier.  News gets out in five minutes where it used to take five days, so crisis management help is critical.  We’ve helped restaurants, food distributors and other entities protect both consumers and their brands.

For more information, give us a call at 310-313-3444 or shoot an email to susan [at] tellemgrodypr (don’t forget the .com!) :)

-Dan, TGPR

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Posted in Crisis, Food Issues Group, PR and Marketing, Restaurants, safety

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Understanding Facebook Check-Ins

Posted on April 17, 2012 | Leave a comment

You are at your favorite Sushi joint enjoying a delicious Avocado Roll when suddenly you forget the urge to eat, drink, or socialize with your dinner partner! You forgot to “check-in” using Facebook so you furiously search for your Smartphone, use GPS technology to determine your location and click “Check-In” at Cowabunga Sushi. Ahhh…all is well again.

Instead of asking why people bother to check in and share these details publicly, understand that times have changed as this becomes a natural procedure for the tech generation. As marketers, let’s understand how Facebook deals with these actions internally since they are making changes to terms and conditions:

  • Previously, if someone checked into the business multiple times, each check-in was counted into your Page’s total check-in number. Now, if someone checks into your business multiple times within a 12-hour period, that action will be counted as one unique check-in.
  • When customers tag their friends at a location and upload a photo, those photo tags will be counted more holistically. For example, if 20 photos were uploaded to an album at a specific location, Facebook will now count that as a single check-in. If Jessica checks into a location and tags five friends in the photo she uploads with her check-in, the total check-ins number will be six — Jessica plus her five friends.

Lol…when was the last time businesses of all sizes utilized a platform (Facebook) that changes so frequently?! It presents a unique challenge to “social captains” but the tides of change bring learning and excitement so we aren’t complaining! With these updates, be sure to integrate check-ins into promotional campaigns and continue to encourage patrons to share photos and tag locations and friends!

-Dan and Andy, TGPR

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Posted in Business, Facebook, Mobile, Restaurants, social media, Uncategorized

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5 Tips: Increase Restaurant Group Sales

Posted on December 15, 2011 | 1 Comment

Have a restaurant?  Group sales are bread and butter to increasing customers.  Here are five tips on how to increase group sales.

1.    Implement direct contact with meeting and convention planners, travel agents (US and Italian/European) and others who arrange for people to come to your city on business or pleasure.

2.    Special events are a focused way of attracting members of a specific target audience.  For instance, a “college night” or an “Italian night” will bring out members of those groups.

3.    Charities are the key that unlock the heart and soul of a city.  The restaurant should invite civic groups like Little League, Girl Scouts, animal charities, health charities, etc.  Giving a nonprofit discount helps too.

4.    Reaching the business community is vitally important.  Company meetings can be promoted in the company’s own internal and external media (newsletters, e-zines, websites, etc.).  These events include Chamber of Commerce events and business “conference” hosting.

5.    Hold a wine tasting and invite new business owners in town to showcase the restaurant.

Are there any other tips you recommend that we could add to this list?

-Susan, TGPR

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Posted in Business, Restaurants, Tips

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Restaurants: Want to Build Traffic? Read This.

Posted on September 16, 2011 | Leave a comment

In 2003, Tellem created the Food Issues Group (FIG) to offer consumer education, crisis preparedness and management, food safety training for restaurants, food, beverages and bioterrorism education, and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) plan development. The FIG Team put together a top 10 list for building traffic to your restaurant which was recently picked up by the Top10ListBlog. Some of the tips include:

  • Announce all news and updates via a press release to food reporters i.e.: new chef; new dish; new hours; new web site; anything new gets your name out there.
  • Educate yourself about social media and utilize it. Listen to feedback from customers and fans. Create a Facebook fan page or Twitter account for example and promote exclusive offers to fans and followers. Ask for recipe suggestions and favorite flavors or dishes. Encourage customers to review on Yelp, Opentable.com, and Google reviews etc.
  • Get your restaurant on every food web site listing such as: opentable.com, zagat.com, restaurants.com, urbanspoon.com, dine.com, citysearch.com or AOL’s City Guide etc.

To read the rest of the list, visit the top10listblog post here: http://top10listblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/10-tips-for-building-traffic-to-your.html

-Dan TWW

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Posted in Restaurants, Tips

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