Every so often a client is approached by someone selling Search Engine Optimisation and they wonder if they should buy it. Often these providers offer link buildings and many other practices that google disapproves of. I maintain that a proper content marketing strategy – that’s articles and videos people want to engage with -and social media engagement is good Search Engine Optimisation. I’m not going to explain any more as this is Google’s Matt Cutts who is talking about the […]
Author: Ed
What can you do about Urbanspoon reviews?
For restaurants it is tough to know what to do about negative comments on Urbanspoon. As the chart shows below in the past few years it has become the the most popular review sites in Australia and for some customers it has become a blood sport to leave negative comments for even the smallest problems. In the case of a popular venue its profile will be seen by several thousands visitors a month and can refer several thousand visits to […]
Crowd control doesn’t work
The crowd is wild and unpredictable. It always has been. People have always been unpredictable. Some will love you and become customers. Some will despise you. But you can’t control them. And now thanks to social media they have a voice, a voice you can’t control like an ad, direct mail or PR. And as is argued here in the Harvard Business Review your brand isn’t yours anymore. It’s the customers and you may not like what they do with […]
George Orwell’s Moon Under Water versus the real thing
Moon Under Water, George Orwell, Evening Standard, February 1946 George Orwell: My favourite public-house, the Moon Under Water, is only two minutes from a bus stop, but it is on a side-street, and drunks and rowdies never seem to find their way there, even on Saturday nights. Moon Under Water, Andrew McConnell, Gertrude St, July 2012 Tomatom: First, the public house is called the Builders Arms and it is also close to the tram stop on Gertrude St. The entrance […]
Should I attend Taste of Melbourne 2012?
Win prizes by reviewing restaurants for Google and Zagat The good news is that after years of decline Taste of Melbourne has rejuvenated itself, upgrading the restaurants exhibiting their food and moving to Albert Park. The bad news is that if the weather turns bad – and the forecast is for showers and a temperature that won’t rise above 19C – then you’ll be damp and cold queueing for your credits and food at the MoVida and Mamasita stalls on […]
8 of the biggest restaurant review takedowns ever
This week a review of a TV chef’s restaurant in the New York Times went viral after a slamming from critic Pete Wells (below). These kind of reviews are as much about entertainment, especially coming from UK-based critics such as A.A. Gill, as a service to the public. Here are eight of my top scathing reviews. Please feel free to add links to worse ones in comments. Pete Wells in The New York times on Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar: […]
Takeaways from Eat Drink Blog 3
The SA Tourism Minister Gail Gago talks to food bloggers. Who’d have thought it? The South Australian Minister for Tourism Hon Gail Gago speaking to 90 or so food bloggers at Eat Drink Blog 3 conference. Mind you I was also surprised by Meat and Livestock’s sponsorship and more particularly their invitation to anyone who wanted to to visit a beef feedlot – I certainly plan to take up that offer. And let’s not mention the food writer who referred […]
The new shape of food journalism and reviews
Some things creep up on you. Others arrive in clusters. The evolution of food journalism and reviewing in Australia is a mixture of both with the dumping of two important restaurant critics in Sydney and Melbourne, the replacement of the editors of two major newspaper food sections at Fairfax and the elevation of Yelp! as the most likely winner in the food review stakes. So what happened? First to the Yelp! news, which is really significant. The latest IOS update […]
Save Epicure. Or build something new?
The food and drink business has a love hate relationship with its media. They are either moaning that newspaper sections and magazines don’t write about them. Or when they do they get it wrong. Then there is the thorny issue of critics, the journalists that probably get the most stick for not rating restaurants (or anything subject to critique) quite as highly as the owners would like. When I started my own food magazine Tomato (which became this blog) eight […]