Social Media at Work .. Twitter and the Cactus Club (and the floor tile wholesaler)

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I’m in a cafe near my home, working on a blog post about the crowdsourcing of (organizational) vision.

Two booths down, I am sort-of eavesdropping on two people who are discussing social media .. in this case, there’s a young man who appears to be less than 20 years old advising a woman whom I would guess is the marketing manager of the Cactus Club restaurant (across the street from the cafe) on the use of Twitter.

I’m tempted to ask them if they have considered getting into the crowdsourcing, say once a month, of the restaurant’s menu (though that would likely cause some chaos to food ordering and inventory management, until the restaurant chain learned to become more nimble).

But I did not act on my (nefarious) impulse.  After all, I am an old fart … what do I know ?

I just overheard "Twitter is a conversation, and you want to be part of the conversation", said by the young greenhorn to the marketing manager.

In other sightings, I noticed a roadside sign the other day stating"Follow us on Twitter and receive a 15% discount" (this from a floor tile wholesaling warehouse).

Almost enough to make me want to go offline for a month or two.

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4 Comments

Semohnk

Interesting observation! What do you mean by crowdsourcing in this context though? Do you mean for people on Twitter or Facebook to reveal what they would want on the menu?

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admin

Yeah, more or less .. there are any number of ways to address the possibility and dynamics of crowdsourcing information useful to a restaurant. If you want to know more, feel free to hire me 😉

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Bruce Stewart

A friend of mine works in one of the other major chains in our area that competes directly with Cactus Club. Despite his training as a chef, and his awards in competitions, his every move is directed from head office, down to inspectors measuring that his portions are within 1-2 g of the “specified size”.

I suspect his working conditions are similar to those at Cactus Club and others. Each “rule” is a response designed to manage waste [and thus cost] and to get as much leverage as possible from as consolidated an inventory of foods as is reasonable. My friend told me that the last competition he entered focused on bringing in a 5-star establishment style multi-course meal … and it had to be done at (or under) a specified price point. Such is the nature of the beast: we vote with our dollars for “affordability” amongst other things.

In any event, here’s the question: how does crowdsourcing “reach” into the corporate centre in an effective way? Sure, a particular outlet (I shall imagine that you were at the Blenz in Bentall V for your coffee, with the Cactus Club just outside the door, at Dunsmuir & Burrard in Vancouver, just for a moment) might tap into their local market in terms of local promotions … but much of their operation is determined for them and not open to local questioning.

The one thing the “young greenhorns” — personally, I prefer “enthusiastic visionaries” — are least likely to get anytime soon from the crowd is something that speaks to a closed worldview. Talk 5¢ less meat on the plate and you’re speaking their language. Talk “ostrich instead of chicken” and it might get an “ostrich special” to test market the idea. Talk “variable sizing, shared plates” and other rethinking of the restaurant trade and the worldview of tightly defined processes, sizes and costs becomes a hard shell off which such notions bounce.

The one who jumps this hurdle successfully will take significant share from competitors … but as this is a “who bells the cat” type of problem I’d really like to see some thoughts on how to break into that closed view effectively.

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