SOCIAL MEDIA: Try Memes as a Form of Self-Promotion [Hack #107]
Funny memes are a great to grab people’s attention on social media. And what and how you go about making them really speak to your venue’s personality. Here’s some tips for making viral-worthy memes, and a few examples to borrow.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Sports Broadcasts Are TV's Last Stronghold
In the age of timeshifted viewing and binge-watching, massive live TV events are on the verge of extinction with one notable exception: live sports. As opposed to scripted dramas and sitcoms, sports broadcasts lose most of their appeal when not consumed live. According to Nielsen, 93% of all sports TV viewing was done live in 2017, whereas that share is considerably lower for most scripted programming. Taking this into account, it doesn’t come as a big surprise that the majority of the Top 100 telecasts of 2017 were sports broadcasts.
Trump Tariff = Higher Beer Prices
Last week, the White House announced that its decision to impose tariffs on aluminum and steel. Aside from it possibly starting a trade war, don’t be surprised to see prices of canned beer jump because of it. The 10% tariff will cost the US beer industry more than $340 million per year, according to the Beer Institute and, according to the BA, even a 1% increase per can could cost the can industry upward of $960 million.
Learn about the evolution of the beer can.
An Egg Shocker
Electrocuting eggs will get rid of their fart smell. According to research from Japan, treating an egg with electricity will get rid of its noxious odor and make the egg white softer. With sufficient electricity, almost no hydrogen sulfide (the smelly chemical) is produced when the egg is cooked. Thanks, science!
ACTUALLY TACKY AND UNREFINED
Why it matters to you: How will you react if & when a diner does something crazy in your restaurant?
Over the weekend a truly sickening thing happened at a Hooters in Florida (which is how a comedic amount of stories begin). A diner spat on and called a preschool-aged child the N-word. This happened when the child wandered away from his family and a family member came to retrieve him. Everyone there thought a fight would break out; instead the police were called to the restaurant before it escalated further. Police interviewed the man who essentially said “It’s ok. I’m a fireman” (like that makes it ok) as some kind of bizarro-world excuse. Now he is awaiting potential battery and making a criminal threat charges.
Hooters recently released this statement: “Hooters does not tolerate any harassment or discriminatory language, the safety and well-being of our guests and employees are our utmost priorities. Of course, it goes without saying that our policy is to fully cooperate with any law enforcement investigation.”
This whole mess raises a truly interesting question: What would you do if you were in Hooter’s shoes? They handled this situation well, all things considered, but what would happen if a fight broke out or worse? Being prepared for crazy situations with the proper, tone-accurate, responses is truly important. How you react will reflect back on your establishment. Handle something poorly and it can be the nail in the coffin for your restaurant; the value of preparedness cannot be overstated. Take a few moments to think about how you would react as a manager and talk to your staff to see how they would handle the situation. We all hope that in the future things like this will not happen but if they do, being ready is the only way to be.
BEEFED UP BENEFITS
Why it matters to you: Amidst the struggle to find employees, Noodles & Co. improved their benefits package with aim to set themselves ahead of the pack.
We all know how the war for talent goes. Turnover costs every restaurant a ton of money, not to mention time and effort. There is an abundance of service industry jobs and not enough people to go around, so how to set oneself apart? Noodles & Co. believes that a more comprehensive benefits package is the way to go. They recently added several unique benefits to their employment package, including six weeks of paid maternity leave & expanded parental leave, $10k in adoption assistance, $1k in student loan debt assistance to GMs, Veteran PTO on Veterans’ Day, and more flexible time off. Some of these truly set them apart in the field and, at the very least, will be of some assistance when trying to find new hires. Regardless it is a great step in the right direction.
So, what does this mean for everyone else? As the war for talent wages onward, restaurants will have to compete harder with their benefits packages in order to keep up with their competitors. No longer is it feasible to find good new employees with a sub-par hourly wage only. Sometimes the future can look a little brighter.
