Mike and I dropped by the Keg on Airport Road/Dixon today in the Toronto area. The parking lot is usually packed by 11.45 but this time, there wasn’t a car to be seen. When we entered the restaurant, it looked like a ghost town. By 12.30 the place had life again as most of the tables seemed to be filled. Still, the usual lineup at the front desk was non existant.
Business must be off by about 50% considering the conversations I had with a few patrons and it basically dove off a cliff in December. There was no warning and no smooth downward decline, like most businesses, it fell off a cliff sometime in December.
I was wondering what they were doing for marketing but when I looked at their website, probably not to much. Still a brochure site with a splash page. I thought I would see if they had a Twitter account but no chance of that.
Meanwhile, companies like Starbucks has 53,000 followers, all taking about…Starbucks. How about this story of a small coffee shop that doubled its business through Twitter.
Now is not the time to turtle or your business will die along with millions of others. Now is the time to stay alive to compete another day. You can’t do that by being oblivious to the new social media marketing techniques.
Embrace change and don’t look back.