Thursday, September 14, 2017
Today's Specials:
DID YOU KNOWS…
The Secret Blue Checkmark
People will do some crazy things for the ‘gram. Apparently, this includes paying thousands of dollars on the black market to get their Instagram profiles verified. Mashable recently followed a middleman that charges $1200 per blue checkmark from his secret Instagram contact for people willing to cough up the dough. It’s too bad the fee doesn’t also grow your following.
United States of Emoji
Google search data released this year reveals which emojis US states use the most. While there are roughly 800 different emojis available, only 18 made the map. Can you guess what your state’s most popular emoji is? And yes, more than one state has a peach or eggplant.
Image courtesy of The Daily Mail
The Standard of Living in the US
The standard of living in the US is at a 10 year high since 2008. For the most part, many citizens are fairly satisfied with their income and lifestyle. The index featured in this infographic shows that the standard of living has more than doubled from ’08 to the first eight months of 2017.
SOCIAL MEDIA PIRACY
Why it matters to you: Is your social media content pirated from another account?
Restaurants are doing everything in their power to appear unique and set themselves apart from the stiff competition in the industry. Recently, a culinary piracy issue has been rising in the Orange County restaurant scene where establishments have been “adopting and repurposing” creative concepts to reap the benefits. There are multiple factors that have led to the concept-copying problem including the influence of social media in the restaurant industry. Establishments have noted that many of their creations are typically created specifically with Instagram in mind; however, competitors will also soon find the content as well.
Naturally, it’s expected for restaurants to repurpose creative ideas and unique concepts into their existing menus, but there becomes a fine line between reinventing and piracy. Food Beast found many examples of what they call “swagger jacking” -- that is essentially plagiarizing another restaurant’s social media content and calling it original. What’s become even more noteworthy is that many Instagram users have noticed and called such establishments for their strikingly similar resemblance. Creating engaging marketing material for your restaurant is fairly challenging, but there should be an ethical standard when it comes to directly using someone else’s ideas. Marketing professionals recommend changing the curated ideas enough to be considered as different or providing the necessary credit in the caption if the image is dangerously similar.
MERRY XMAS…NO REALLY, MERRY XMAS!
Why it matters to you: Should a restaurant care about being politically correct?
When you go to Dairy Queen in Kawaskum, WI you are greeted with a sign that reads, "This restaurant is politically incorrect." Below that it reads: "We have been known to say 'Merry Christmas,' 'Happy Easter,' 'God Bless America,' 'We salute and honor the flag,' Give thanks to our troops, police officers and firefighters,' 'Give thanks for the USA' and 'Give free sundaes to Veterans on Veterans Day.’” So, is this operator exercising his right to address the world as he sees fit, or picking a fight with those that think his restaurant should be neutral as pertains to holidays and patriotism?
American Dairy Queen (ADQ) says they don’t encourage their operators to express their opinions on political correctness, but they also acknowledge that each operator runs their own business. Consequently, if you are inclined to agree with this DQ Franchisee, then you should feel free to do as he’s done. However, don’t expect anyone who thinks you are out of line not to share their opinion as well. This operator claims he welcomes conversation about his sign and his opinion.
The question we have is, does his sign say welcome, or you’re welcome only if you agree? That’s the trap with expressing your opinion to your guests; they can then express theirs by either frequenting or abandoning your location. Is it worth the impact on your business? That’s your decision and your decision alone.
