Is reaching your customers through social media really working?
March 14, 2011
Posting deals on your restaurant’s Facebook page, Twitter account or any of the other estimated 200 social media outlets available gets you in the game. But how many of these offers ever reach potential customers? They’ll see them all at BiteHunter.com—and you don’t have to lift a finger to get your offer posted there.
BiteHunter describes itself as a dedicated search engine for dining deals. The site consolidates restaurant deals from all over the Internet and social media world. Customers merely type in a search term for a type of cuisine or geographical area and they instantaneously see a list of everything that’s available.
BiteHunter’s backers liken it to travel site aggregator Kayak.com. If you haven’t used Kayak, the premise is simple. A person types in his or her destination and travel dates just one time, and Kayak immediately presents all the relevant information from hundreds travel sites at once. It’s very thorough, and is a time-saver of major proportions. Use it once and you’ll realize that it’s a lot easier and probably more effective than searching dozens of travel websites on your own. As a comparison tool and decision-making device, it’s tough to beat.
Kayak’s motto is “Search One And Done,” which also describes what BiteHunter.com is trying to become for restaurant patrons. Co-founder Gil Harel’s pitch to consumers goes like this:
“For average consumers, it’s impractical to follow every restaurant’s Facebook page or Twitter account and be aware of all the information dining establishments are sending out. Groupon and location-based “Check In” services, where players like Foursquare, Facebook Places, Yelp and Gowalla offer platforms for restaurants to upload promotions and deals for people checking in at their establishments, have made this industry extremely fragmented.
“With out new beta version (now available in New York, Chicago and San Francisco) you will discover BiteHunter.com as the place to start your dining search from. It will provide all the basic information you look for when choosing a restaurant gathered from thousands of sources, but more importantly it will find any real time information the restaurant is providing directly via Twitter, Facebook, its own newsletter or through third-party websites. In addition you will be able to discover restaurants’ social buzz activity in real time, such as finding the most popular restaurants by number of ‘Check ins’ and ‘Likes.’”
Hungry diners can check out the information under “Latest Deals and Offers” (i.e. ongoing promotions); “Daily Deal” (one-time deals); “Happy Hour” (this tab is so information-packed it could work as a standalone website); and “Events” (everything from wine dinners to guest chef appearances). Click on the “Social Buzz” tab and you can see which establishments have received the most Facebook Places and FourSquare check-ins over the previous 24 hours.
We can’t tell you if this site will become the next kayak.com, and we aren’t sure exactly what its revenue model might be. But we can tell you it is a useful site in theory, both for consumers and, especially, restaurant operators. BiteHunter does all the heavy lifting needed to speed your information and offers to potential customers. We’re thinking most operators will welcome this additional exposure for their offerings.
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