Terroir: The Only Restaurant in NYC That Gets Social Media

Update: It has come to my attention that I did not give proper credit yesterday in the following piece. Terroir’s social media engagement and success is, of course, a group effort. That being said, it really is the brainchild of Steven Solo, AKA Terroir Stickermeister AKA Creative Director of Terroir. Steven is a great guy and his success with the social media efforts need to be noted.

And in fact, it brings up a good point: that a businesses social media interaction, the one doing all the tweeting and linking and sharing on Facebook, the blogging etc, needs to come from someone intimately involved in the business. Interns? Meh. Your PR firm? Meh. I laid out some criterion in my post below about what defines a great social media presence and to me, the most important one is authenticity. How are you supposed to get authenticity from someone who isn’t part and parcel of a business. You are not. So, to Mr. Steven Solo, Terroir Stickermeister, and all around bad-ass and grotesque of awesomeness, I salute you sir. Keep up the good work. And for the love of Christ, would you start a blog already? With love, Z

I was recently talking with a new client about the abject failure of New York City restaurant’s to properly adopt social media marketing into their operations. The client asked me to name 1 restaurant that I thought was getting it right. I told him I couldn’t think of one that would meet my criteria for creating, maintaining and growing a social media presence. But I was wrong. There is one. It’s TerriorNY, the Twitter account associated with the restaurant Hearth and the wine bar Terroir, both in the East Village.

So What Is My Criteria?

Good question and I think it is important to say that in just the past few months, a lot of restaurants have begun to take very seriously social media marketing. It is showing, and I applaud their efforts. And should be noted that many of the Food Trucks have, almost from the get go, seamlessly negotiated the social landscape. Social media fits them more easily given the ephemeral nature of their operations, changing menus and locations and so forth. I can and will do another piece on the gradations of success in that community, but for now I am going to stick with brick and mortar operations.

Over the summer and into the fall, when I was just getting geared up in my business, chefs and restaurants taking advantage of social media were few and far between. In fact, it was far more likely that one would find chef’s tweeting. That fact was picked up in a rather delicious story in the New York Times recently, in an article about chef’s taking to Twitter in order to vent: about their suppliers, their bosses, their line cooks, and even other chefs.

In fact, the Times article speaks directly to one of the criteria that I use in judging the effectiveness and adoption of social media with regards to restaurants, authenticity. Chefs, of course, are known for their outspokenness, their obscurity. It’s one of the reasons they are chefs, working crazy hours, living bohemian lifestyles. The best chefs scream authenticity. They can’t help NOT be authentic, so give them a broadcast mechanism and it is no surprise when they garner a crowd.

But translating that kind of authenticity into the actual restaurant’s efforts is much harder to do. This is what Terrior has gotten so right. They are, in fact, setting the pace. Here are a few reasons why:

They Are Very Active

They are present, tweeting daily, even on weekends. This tells me that multiple people are managing the account, that they’ve effectively trained their staff in how and what to do, as well as the technology (no small feat in this business) and that they are having fun with it.

They Are Authentic

Tweets are both humorous and alternately serious and intellectual. Furthermore, anyone familiar with either Hearth, Terroir (or Insieme) knows that the brains behind these operations, Marco Canora and Paul Grieco, are incredibly passionate about what they do. But they’ve also let that passion come out in fun, engaging ways. I’ve spent hours reading through Terroir’s ridiculously awesome wine list. That thing belongs in a museum. It reeks of authenticity, of humor, of wit, of deep fucking love.

Terroir Supports The Community

They support the community of wine lovers and connoisseurs, retweeting other wine writers, blogs and relevant wine information more often than themselves. Here is where they really shine in comparison to their peers. Most restaurants just broadcast their specials, their happy hours, who is eating there. It’s kind of pathetic, but beyond that, it simply shows me, and others, I assure you, that they haven’t taken the time to learn anything about social media. They are simply importing traditional marketing techniques into a new platform. Huge fail!

Unafraid To Promote Their Offerings

TerroirNY effectively broadcasts their services. Their broadcast works precisely because it is NOT all they do. Social media is a dialogic platform; it is meant for conversation, not just one-way, top-down message delivery. Because Terroir is so effective at communing with their fans and followers, the space opens up for them to pimp their offerings. Recently, they’ve instituted a series of “Red Sauce Sundays,” weekly dinners at an attractive price point. They drew up a decent little graphic, posted in on their website, and bam they have content to share with their audience. They link it out a few times a week, but again, its limited.

Runner Ups

Now there are some runner-ups here that are worth a mention: Mermaid Inn NYC has recently made some huge efforts to negotiate social media marketing. They were running a very strange promotion for free meals every 50th follower they got. I hated it and thought it was crass. I am not sure but it seems as though they’ve canceled it. Good. Because what it told me was that all they were concerned about was getting more followers. People smarter than myself have discussed why follower counts don’t matter. If I was a restaurant in NYC, I would not be too concerned with getting more followers. I would be more concerned with getting the right followers. I would aim to get the 1000 best foodies, influencers, tastemakers, bloggers and other hospitality people following me. Not 10,000 randoms. So, bravo to Mermaid Inn for experimenting, for trying something, and from learning from the experience. It won’t be long until they continue to evolve.

I have been brutal in my treatment of Michael’s. They’ve been tweeting out all the celebs and other people I and no one else cares about for months. Totally ridiculous. Well, give credit where it is due, because it looks like they started a blog. Here is the link. Good for them, I hope they have a content strategy to go with it.

There are others, but for now, tell me what restaurants you think have really good social media marketing efforts. And tell me why. I’ll be happy to keep a rolling log and update the post accordingly.

Tagged as: Community Building, Recreating the Village, Social Media and Restaurants, Steven Solo, Terroir Stickermeister