Social networking…with prawns

I was at a client’s office recently when someone said out loud, “Hey! Someone’s just sent me a link about a bunch of huge prawns!”

You might think it was a YouTube video of a prawn cutting a half-pipe on a skateboard. It wasn’t. I knew better.

It was La Stella restaurant which is three floors below me, here in Adelphi, Aberdeen. The chef and owner Chris Tonner has been building an audience using Facebook to send out interesting stories to friends of La Stella. I looked at the email notification I got just the night before, so I had seen them already. Langoustines…and they looked great!

That little story illustrates the potential for a small business to use the web to build up a community of interest around its product / service. The prawns pic was a clever photo to include because it stuck in my mind. I actually mentioned it to friends I met earlier that day. Chris is giving his La Stella Facebook friends something to ogle at (the prawns) in return for free marketing and the potential that someone might see the prawns and decide to go along for a meal that night.

Look at how instant that was, as well. Chris wrote that one afternoon and the following day it was being spoken about around the city by a whole bunch of potential customers. Of course, whether people act upon what they see is another issue. It’s one thing to tell someone about something which might be to their advantage, but it’s something else to get them to take the next step and buy / purchase / make contact etc.

Take a look at La Stella on Facebook.