Tim Zagat, co-founder and CEO of Zagat Survey, “the world's leading provider of consumer survey-based information on where to eat, drink, stay & play worldwide” recently visited Columbia Business School for a discussion with the Gourmet Club. Zagat was founded as a hobby in 1979 and its stickers showing consumer-ratings grace the windows of many restaurants in New York and around the world.
In this fast-paced digital world, one might wonder how relevant Zagat still is, and if it can keep up with an ever-changing changing business environment. Mr. Zagat brought along his social media guru, a Darden MBA, who explained that although Zagat has been on the web since 1999, it has recently completely rebuilt and relaunched its website. They are particularly proud of the homepage, which is focused on 3 “pillars”: restaurant search, NYC Buzz (a restaurant blog) and star members. Zagat has, like many other companies, openly borrowed from other important social media player such as Foursquare and Yelp, the concept of “badges” to recognize the contributions of its members. In an article entitled “Skate Where the Puck is Going”, Mark Suster argues that it is not enough to merely integrate current buzz- (and cringe-) worthy terms into your business if one is to innovate and stay relevant.
When asked about Zagat’s social media strategy, Mr. Zagat said simply, “I ask my wife”. I think it’s great that a man puts trust in his obviously intelligent and competent wife, but seriously, where is Zagat really going with social media? The Guru said they “dabble in most major social media networks” including youtube, flickr and foursquare, but are most focused on Twitter and Facebook (like everyone else, though they do have a somewhat incomplete blog going). Zagat has over 200,000 followers on Twitter where according to them, they aggregate and curate the best food content on the web, including that of their competitors (content which I have yet to find, though maybe I just need to dig more). They also have a smaller following on Facebook (14,000+ likes), which to be honest, was not super simple to find. One staff member manages social media activities, freelancers contribute day to day, the Buzz (blog) team also contributes and it generally sounds pretty ad hoc to me. Supposedly the main difference between their Twitter and Facebook activity is frequency of posts. Ironically, I find that their Facebook wall posts are more “engaging” than Twitter links to articles easily found on its main website.
Yelp has over 40,000 followers on Twitter and over 35,000 likes on Facebook. Foodspotting, a much younger company, has over 27,000 Twitter followers and 601Facebook likes. I’ve heard that size doesn’t matter, so which company do you think will best survive the digital battle? Zagat’s “premium membership required” website and somewhat scattered social media campaign makes me hesitate between shelling out for a classic paper Michelin guide and fiercely snapping pictures of everything I eat with my phone to try to dominate the Foodspotting universe. One confusion breeds another…
In this fast-paced digital world, one might wonder how relevant Zagat still is, and if it can keep up with an ever-changing changing business environment. Mr. Zagat brought along his social media guru, a Darden MBA, who explained that although Zagat has been on the web since 1999, it has recently completely rebuilt and relaunched its website. They are particularly proud of the homepage, which is focused on 3 “pillars”: restaurant search, NYC Buzz (a restaurant blog) and star members. Zagat has, like many other companies, openly borrowed from other important social media player such as Foursquare and Yelp, the concept of “badges” to recognize the contributions of its members. In an article entitled “Skate Where the Puck is Going”, Mark Suster argues that it is not enough to merely integrate current buzz- (and cringe-) worthy terms into your business if one is to innovate and stay relevant.
When asked about Zagat’s social media strategy, Mr. Zagat said simply, “I ask my wife”. I think it’s great that a man puts trust in his obviously intelligent and competent wife, but seriously, where is Zagat really going with social media? The Guru said they “dabble in most major social media networks” including youtube, flickr and foursquare, but are most focused on Twitter and Facebook (like everyone else, though they do have a somewhat incomplete blog going). Zagat has over 200,000 followers on Twitter where according to them, they aggregate and curate the best food content on the web, including that of their competitors (content which I have yet to find, though maybe I just need to dig more). They also have a smaller following on Facebook (14,000+ likes), which to be honest, was not super simple to find. One staff member manages social media activities, freelancers contribute day to day, the Buzz (blog) team also contributes and it generally sounds pretty ad hoc to me. Supposedly the main difference between their Twitter and Facebook activity is frequency of posts. Ironically, I find that their Facebook wall posts are more “engaging” than Twitter links to articles easily found on its main website.
Yelp has over 40,000 followers on Twitter and over 35,000 likes on Facebook. Foodspotting, a much younger company, has over 27,000 Twitter followers and 601Facebook likes. I’ve heard that size doesn’t matter, so which company do you think will best survive the digital battle? Zagat’s “premium membership required” website and somewhat scattered social media campaign makes me hesitate between shelling out for a classic paper Michelin guide and fiercely snapping pictures of everything I eat with my phone to try to dominate the Foodspotting universe. One confusion breeds another…
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