Search Beacon is Preparing to Launch!

Search Beacon is entering its first beta phase and is calling on restaurants and bars in the Seattle area to participate!

We’ve begun this blog to chronicle our progress as we launch Search Beacon from an idea to a full-fledged player in the location based promotions and deals industry via a unique social media community designed to actively promote and enhance the online visibility of our members. Finding time for social media, web analytics and reputation monitoring can be difficult while managing the day-to-day duties your establishment demands. Marketing online and effectively interacting in the social space is time consuming and can be a daunting task for already over tasked managers and restaurant owners.

Questions as to the viability of social media for your restaurant or bar will naturally occur and we have been working to answer them. What kind of content should I be generating? How often do I post? Wheres the return on investment (ROI)? How do I find the time for social media and do I even need it? How can I reach new customers and keep old ones? Do I really need social media or online reputation monitoring? It’s these very questions that led us to the concept of creating an all-around solution for location based businesses to easily and effectively pursue their online marketing and social media goals and to reach their target audience with minimum hassle and real analytics driven results.

Our first beta phase will introduce our custom widget-enabled dashboard built specifically for the food-service industry and designed to help you manage your social media efforts, maintain control over your public image via reputation monitoring, feed you deals and promotions from your distributors and give you direct access to industry resources and news. Stay tuned! Our next beta phase will release our social network for restaurants and bars designed to help you promote online and reach new customers. Grab our RSS feed and join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news and deals and be sure to subscribe to our mailing list for updates about the beta launch!

Check out the  Search Beacon dashboard offered in our beta phase below

The home page or ‘general tab’ controls access to  individual feeds relevant to your restaurant or bar. Add custom widgets to keep track of suppliers, industry news like rebates and product recalls in your area, new products available and a host of other personalized news feeds of your choice.

Social Media and Reputation Monitoring

Monitor all your social activities on our customized social media tab. Create personal feeds for searches on Twitter and other social media platforms and track the ‘buzz’ around your brand. Monitor your competition and access your own accounts directly from the dashboard. Maintain a strong and positive image online through targeted reputation monitoring widgets: Find and respond immediately to any positive or negative content being generated regarding your brand.

Industry News and Management Information

The ‘Industry News and Management Tab’ helps you organize and keep track of specific resources relevant to your type of restaurant or bar. Get widgets for the latest trending cocktail mixes or new ideas for delicious recipes popular in the dining out scene. Get tips on everything from energy conservation to managing your restaurant to food preparation.

Supplier Resources

We know how difficult it can be keeping track of all your different suppliers. Get widgets for your suppliers and stay on top of all their deals and product rebates.

What else do we have up our sleeves?

We have a host of ideas that we’re getting really excited about here at Search Beacon. We’re in talks with local dining guides, the National Restaurant Association and prominent networked bloggers to form partnerships for increased awareness and direct access to industry resources. Our multi-media dashboard experience will eventually grow to include training resources, news feeds from local and organic distributors, staffing resources and much more!

We hope to create a user friendly experience for our customers and to that end the experience and opinions of our beta-group participants will help drive the  direction our dashboard and network will take. We hope to create a positive and rewarding  environment in which participating businesses feel that their efforts are clearly rewarded with increased online visibility and a streamlined, integrated approach to running their  social media and online marketing campaigns with a strong focus on location-based marketing. Join us as we chronicle our beta initiative and please send any and all feed back our way!

Thanks for reading and we hope to connect with you soon!

The Search Beacon team.

Linked Article Credits

Todd Schnick – intrepid-llc.com

Ethan – sporkmedia.com

Brooks Briz – technorati.com

Corina Mackay – thenextweb.com

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