Food & Beverage - Don't be Boring: Sharing the News & Looking Good in 2010 - By Ken Burgin

Let's face it, the 'news' from most restaurants and bars is just a sell-job: BOOK NOW, new wine list, 10% off for groups over 500 etc. A little is OK, but it's often ignored: you need regular fresh content and new angles to attract attention. Start the year with a splash...

So what's new?

Our favourite local events coming up over the next few months

A walk down our street - this month's 'special place'

Our best selling menu item last week...what a surprise!

Photos from the Christmas events - link to your photo collection

What we found at the markets yesterday...

Customer bloopers - our recent favourites (be nice!)

Our favourite iPhone applications

Meet the local wine supplier/butcher/vegetable supplier etc

Staff Profile of the month - Peter Tran/Danni Smith etc

Our fifth annual customer awards - list of prizes for 'customer with best smile', 'customer with most food knowledge', 'customer most passionate about food', 'customer who most loves their Blackberry' etc

Green is our favourite colour - new ways that we're saving money and energy

Why we're using Twitter and how to find us there

Birthday of the business - don't know when that is? Make it up!

Interesting hobbies and sporting activities of a staff member

Our chef's favourite cookbooks and latest purchase

The chef's favourite knives - brand and type

The bar staff's favourite cocktail ingredients and why

What the staff really think about Jamie Oliver

Two words on the menu that no-one knows how to pronounce

Information about where our coffee beans come from

Make friends with us on Facebook - here's how

Fun Fact of the Week: if you stacked up all the burger buns we serve in a month, it would reach...etc

How to spread the word quickly:

Start simple today - on the blackboard or plasma screen

In a one-page newsletter - print or using email

A small news slip with the account (3 to a page and cut them up)

Letterbox drop in your neighbourhood (usually quite cheap)

On a free or local online event site

In the window - who says the only thing you can display is the menu?

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Yes - there's lots of great material for your 4-hour Marketing Manager.

Remember: Perfection can be the Enemy of Progress. If you've been agonising for months about how to do a newsletter, stop! Just get it up on the blackboard. Constipation does not create sales, but customer interest and chit-chat does...

Profitable Hospitality offers management and cost-control systems (Manuals & CD-ROMs) for restaurants, cafes, hotels, bars and clubs. The systems are based on the extensive consulting and operating experience of CEO Ken Burgin, and enable busy owners and managers to set up complete operating and cost-control systems in minutes, not months. Profitable Hospitality also runs regular management training workshops in the areas of kitchen profit & efficiency, restaurant marketing and functions management. A free monthly e-newsletter keeps you up to date on the latest industry management issues. www.profitablehospitality.com.

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