How Should Restaurants Use Twitter?

Look, in the online world there are no rules. You can do what you want and say what you want and that’s cool. However, I think there are some general things we can agree on, and I was thinking about it this weekend when I saw a particular Tweet.

El Burro in Cape Town are very transparent with their thoughts and do social media very well. The thing is, they don’t try to do anything but be themselves which is awesome. Look at this for example:

Shitpants. Just remembered I have to go do work. On a Sunday. Not ideal. At least there’s beerfor later

— El Burro (@_El_Burro) November 11, 2012

How cool is that? That is literally the way people talk, so why not talk like that online? Why are we so afraid to be ourselves? I guess not being a massive corporate helps a little. I really love Tweets like that though because they are completely normal and we can relate to them.

I hate places that ask constantly ‘Hey Tweeps how is your day going? RT this if you’re enjoying the Cape Town summer sun!’ That is lame and will earn you an unfollow right away and also once they invent the virtual punch, I am sending one right your way. To be completely honest, I follow very few brands on Twitter, because it constantly feels like they are promoting themselves and trying to sell me their stuff. Twitter for me is about following like-minded people who share interesting/funny/bizarre conversations and some brands that I think do amazing work i.e Red Bull.

So El Burro do things right. Monk’s Chinese on the other hand, do things completely differently but I don’t think they do it wrong at all. I wrote this piece after seeing this Tweet:

Twitter accounts like @monkschinese surprise me… Following ’1′ ?! Why bother? Social media = 2 way convo #justsaying

— elephants & easter (@elephantseaster) November 10, 2012

Again, in the online world we all have our own opinions and ideas, but I sometimes just think we’re asking too much from places. Monk’s Chinese don’t need to follow you back. They make food, and from every single Tweet I have read about them, they make damn good food at a reasonable price. So they could sit on Twitter all day following people and making random conversation, but what is their true purpose? Making fantastic food. Leave them to that then. If you want to order from them, what do you do? Call them. They literally serve no other purpose than to make food and deliver it to you. We don’t need them having a Twitter account and chatting to us all day. They are clearly a fairly small operation and don’t need to be Tweeting all day and replying to millions of people like the banks Twitter accounts do.

And to be completely honest, I’d rather have them doing what they do than trying to be like other establishments Facebook or Twitter pages that clutter up my timelines with absolute rubbish just for the sake of it. Yes, you’re a famous brand. Well done! Seriously though, give me some interesting information, and don’t make every second mention be about yourself or your products. Don’t ask stupid questions about the weather or what I’m wearing today, because I know you actually don’t care.

For me, the Monk’s Twitter account is a simple and easy way for you to stay up to date with information relating solely to Monk’s. And that is 100% reasonable. Sure they could hire a ‘social media manager’, but then I’m afraid the price of your food will go up. Or they could go on a course to ‘learn to use social media more effectively’ (Vomit)

Or…and this is crazy (So call me maybe?)…they could carry on doing what they’re doing and just make awesome food? What a revelation.

Monk’s, keep on doing what you’re doing. El Burro, keep on doing what you’re doing. You both have different ways of using Twitter, but you both do it right.

And when we get down to the straight facts, you both make amazing food and Cape Town is all the better for that.