Girls In Tech

Bizzy recently launched a mobile app for local business/restaurant ratings and mini-reviews (on iPhone and Android) and instead of sitting in their air-conditioned office in the Silicon Valley, the team is in the middle of their 5000 mile “Check Out Across America” road trip to host MeetUps, get feedback and interact with the people they work for.

Bizzy lets people easily share their dining experiences with their friends in just a few seconds, by snapping a photo of a food dish and writing a Twitter-length restaurant review. Then, Bizzy uses the mini-reviews you publish to provide you with awesome restaurant and business recommendations.

The next stops on the list:

Portland
Monday, September 12. 8-11PM (8-9PM draft beer open bar)
Bailey’s Tap Room | 213 SW Broadway
RSVP via Facebook or MeetUp

and

Seattle
Tuesday, September 13. 8-11PM (8-9PM draft beer open bar)
Barca | 1510 11th Avenue
RSVP via Facebook or MeetUp

Check out the app, come have a drink and let’s chat!

Tags: bizzy, event, meetup, Portland, restaurants, review, Seattle
Posted in Events, Portland, Seattle | No Comments »

In less then three months, Mountain View based start up, Bizzy, has registered almost 120,000 local business favorites in the hopes of providing YOU with business recommendations for everything from a lunch spot to a mechanic.

We can all go to Google or Yelp and type in “lunch in San Francisco” or “sushi in Soho” but the thing is, we are all going to get the same results. Even if you like upscale fusion sushi and I like the all you can eat buffet. Bizzy, Bizzy.com, is changing that with their personalized local business recommendation engine powered by people with similar tastes to you.

The favorites that have been shared on Bizzy thus far have been used to make over 650,000 local business recommendations and with every new shared favorite, the recommendations Bizzy makes are getting that much better. So sign up and share Bizzy with your friends and family to get the scoop on where to eat, shop and play.

Bizzy has released lists of the most favorited local restaurants in the top 10 cities gettin’ Bizzy including San Francisco, New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, Seattle, Shreveport, La., Boston and Austin, Texas. Visit http://blog.bizzy.com/the-bizziest-cities-in-america to see the lists.

Top 10 Restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area
1. Absinthe Brasserie & Bar
2. Pizzeria Delfina
3. Little Star Pizza
4. Yoshi’s San Francisco
5. Nopa
6. Cafe Borrone
7. DishDash
8. Coupa Cafe
9. La Fondue
10. Tied House Brewery & Cafe

Are some of your favorites in that list? Head to http://www.Bizzy.com and enter your favorites to start getting personalized local business recommendations. If you end up trying Bizzy and their recommendations, let them know how it goes! You could win $500 with their “Rec Check Challenge! Oh, and yes, there is an app for that: Bizzy.com/iPhone.

Tags: Boston, Chicago, Dallas, DC, dinner, eat, Google, Los Angeles, lunch, New York, play, recommendations, restaurants, San Francisco, shop, Washington D.C., win, Yelp
Posted in All Chapters | No Comments »

During a panel discussion at the Western Foodservice and Hospitality Expo in Los Angeles this past weekend, a Los Angeles chef brought up the topic of Yelp reviews.  While this chef was in mid-sentence, Yelp’s Business Outreach Manager Luther Lowe happened to be walking by and stepped into the room to join the conversation.

An interesting discussion ensued, focusing on issues related to negative reviews by Yelpers with no restaurant or culinary training and the increasing need for chefs (and other local business owners) to join the Yelp conversation.  

With over 12 million user reviews and approximately 33 million views per month,* the power of Yelp’s word of mouth loud speaker is having a significant impact on local restaurants.  Yelp has given millions of users the power to review restaurants’ chefs, menu items, wine lists, drink specialties, service, and ambiance and publish to an audience of millions of viewers – a power that was once reserved only for professional food and wine writers working for traditional publications.

As a result, Yelp is changing the way restaurateurs and chefs interact with their customers, as well as the way they must handle both their formal and informal public relations and marketing efforts.

On the positive side, Yelp is making the world of restaurant reviews a more democratic process rather than an elitist one.  This process allows local restaurants which might not have received attention from traditional print or online food writers to receive a new type of media attention that can be a powerful force in generating new customers.   In addition, Yelp allows restaurateurs, chefs, and front-of-the-house managers to receive real-time customer feedback that they can use to quickly evaluate and adjust everything from their menu choices to hiring choices.

On the negative side, for many chefs and restaurateurs who have amassed years of training in the culinary arts and whose restaurants are the result of considerable blood, sweat, and tears, Yelp’s democratic force in the world of reviews means that reviewers with no understanding of or training in the restaurant industry or the culinary arts can slam a chef for one off night or because they don’t understand what a particular dish is supposed to taste like.

Also problematic is the fact that the democratic masses of reviewers are not part of the traditional institution of journalism, which carries with it principles of responsible reporting (in theory at least…).  An average Yelp reviewer is not likely to research the chef, his or her past experience, or the background of a particular menu’s cuisine influences before writing a good or bad review as would a traditional food critic.

The power of Yelp, however, is a reality that restaurants and other local businesses must now take into account in their business practices.  As Yelp’s Lowe emphasized, businesses have an important voice on Yelp.  Yelp provides businesses with the ability to take ownership of their listings by unlocking them on the site, allowing businesses to put information out there for the Yelp audience.  Yelp also provides businesses with the ability to respond to reviews both publicly and privately, giving them an equal voice in the conversation and a means to reach out to customers who had negative experiences.

Lowe also emphasized Yelp’s efforts to maintain the integrity of the site’s reviews.  As he explained in a follow-up conversation, Yelp employs a filtering technology to help ensure (to the best of its ability) that only trustworthy reviews end up on businesses’ pages. **

While it can be overwhelming for chefs, restaurateurs, and other business owners to have an endless parade of critics to contend with, social media outlets such as Yelp are here to stay and will continue to play an important role in influencing consumer decision-making.  Only restaurants and other businesses that take a proactive approach to social media, incorporating this new force into their marketing plans, will be able to take advantage of its benefits.

* See http://www.yelp.com/about

** For more information about Yelp’s filter system, watch this: Yelp\’s Review Filter

Meredith D. Williams is on the executive board of Girls in Tech LA and writes for girlsintech.net on topics ranging from wine technology to the intersection of law and technology. In her day job, Meredith is a partner at Miller | Williams LLP, an employment litigation and counseling law firm.  She helps businesses handle employment issues, including legal compliance, hiring, discipline, terminations, sexual harassment, workplace policies, disability accommodations, medical and pregnancy leave, and wage and hour, counseling them on a day-to-day or situation-by-situation basis and defending them against employee lawsuits. Follow Meredith: @MerEsqLA and caemployersresources.com

Tags: Chefs, food critics, girls in tech, Los Angeles, Luther Lowe, marketing, Meredith D Williams, public relations, real-time customer feedback, restaurants, social media, traditional journalism, user reviews, Yelp
Posted in All Chapters, Los Angeles | 5 Comments »

Back in June I wrote a blog post about the top 5 luxury hotel brands on Twitter and wanted to follow it up with a post about the top 5 food brands using Twitter today. Our food & beverage/lifestyle clients at Murphy O’Brien ask us on a daily basis if and how they should get involved in social media. There are several food brands using Twitter wisely and effectively. They have found a transparent brand voice and engaged their followers all while staying true to their brand essence. Here are my top 5 picks of who’s using this social media tool well and why:

LemonadeLA (@LemonadeLA): Followers – 384

A great new restaurant concept in LA now with two locations – one in West Hollywood and one in Venice, Lemonade offers over 35 varieties of freshly prepared salads, veggies, pastas, proteins, sandwiches and stock-pots all at a reasonable price. Their Tweets are fun, upbeat, full of energy and clever – they created the “Lemonade Girl,” an attractive brunette who bikes around town with a “Tweet This” sign on her back – if you snap a pic of her and TwitPic it, you win a free glass of fresh lemonade. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

Fiji Water (@FIJIWATER): Followers – 2,102

Fiji Water company is designer water that some say only snobs would drink but there’s nothing snobby about the brand’s presence on Twitter. Fiji does something right with their Tweets and that is, the @reply. There is nothing worse than a brand who doesn’t write back to their followers. Fiji communicates with their followers, responding, engaging, asking questions and answering them.

Philadelphia Cream Cheese (@LoveMyPhilly): Followers – 7,966

Philly Cream Cheese does a great job of representing their brand on Twitter – the background of their page perfectly represents the brand and also directs followers to their presence on other social networks including – Flickr, YouTube and Facebook. The company Tweets recipes and also engages with their followers with a steady stream of @replies.

Kogi BBQ (@kogibbq): Followers: 41,239

Kogi is the Korean BBQ taco truck that exploded on the Twitter scene sending out real-time Tweets about the location of their mobile food truck for hungry fans to easily find them during lunch hour. The company uses Twitter as a real-time GPS tracking system – just without the GPS. At any time of day or night you know exactly where to find Kogi’s “roach coach.” This level of accesibiltiy has made the roving vehicle a social-networking juggernaut, drawing 300 to 800 people (and a bevy of Twitter followers) each time it parks (often several times in an evening) and spawning a burgeoning cyber-hippie movement affectionately referred to as “Kogi kulture.”

Border Grill (@BorderGrill) Followers – 1,995

Border Grill is a Mexican restaurant concept in LA serving gourmet tacos, quesadillas, ceviches, and more from “Too Hot Tamales” chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger. The Twitter feed models Kogi’s real-time tracking of the Border Grill food truck around LA but also offers their Twitter followers special deals by using the secret code – like “sweet tooth” for a free brownie. Delish!

Christine Kirk is a PR representative and social media explorer for luxury brands including travel, real estate and food/beverage, at Murphy O’Brien Public Relations in Los Angeles. She also holds the position of PR Manager for the Los Angeles chapter of Girls in Tech. She can be reached via e-mail at ckirk@murphyobrien.com or on Twitter @luxuryprgal.

Tags: food, public relations, restaurants, twitter
Posted in All Chapters, Los Angeles | 1 Comment »