Channeling the Power of Social Network

Maybe it's already being done before but hey, many others deserve to hear it too.

What if you go to a restaurant, pitch to the owner that you have many friends in your social network, tell him that you will help him grow his business by telling your friends about his restaurant via your existing network. If he/she's not IT savvy, you might need a lot of explaining.

Ask for free lunch or any fee structure that both parties are comfortable with. It is advisable to even ask the owner to have his/her own facebook account linked to yours. The reason is that he could appreciate your campaign ad there later.

Eat there, and identify the key selling proposition of the restaurant. What's good there? Genuinely! This is very important, cause your reputation at stake here. Elaborate and articulate specifically e.g like the meat in this bak kut teh is very tender and well marinated. Soup a bit bland but the meat is always so fresh or something. Write down at least 7 key points to elaborate on. Be sure to take at least 7 clear and well-positioned pictures of the restaurant and its food. Many a time people set up restaurants believing in their recipes and cookings, unfortunately they are unable to communicate that to the customers, the key selling propositions are lost as along the treacherous route of setting up a business.

Then run a one-week campaign on the restaurant. One interesting story to tell per day. This is important cause your friends will most probably have thousands of friends who update their facebook so regularly that your stories get pushed to old pages in no time. You could even repeat the news every 6 hours or so.

Measure outcome by keeping in touch with people who patronise there after their visit. Find ways to 'catch' them if they did go there(this I have not figure out the mechanism. It's quite possible to track during the campaign week, but after the campaign, people are less inclined to leave feedback unless you set up an avenue for them to)

After all this, if sales increase by a certain percentage, why not ask for some comission from the owner? After all, you can't achieve much without asking.

Also I know many people do this in blogs with a different business model, or mainly just for leisure, I have not heard people doing it in facebook or twitter yet though.

Yet, beware something is missing here. The owner might not buy your idea cause you are not the 'maven' as described by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Tipping Point, or you don't have the critical the number of friends yet. Well the only thing to do is to learn to be one, and start making more friends. That ain't hard.