Industry sales have looked pretty good the last few months, but don’t forget: they looked good in April, May, and June of 2009, too.

But it’s no time for a breather. It’s time to gather new customers from restaurants that didn’t make it, get into the rotation of others, and position yourself as a solution for other buying decisions to existing customers.

The Disenfranchised
Keep on eye on local competition (especially similar concepts) that are struggling. The signs are there: fewer staff during busy times, dining room not bussed so often, charging for condiments, etc. Heck, check them out on Yelp or other review sites.

If their customers are complaining, they’re open to alternatives.

Get on the Short List
Use your unique selling proposition to get into customers’ restaurant rotation. We usually go to the same 2, 3, or 4 places for lunch (often based solely on convenience). Dinner is more situational: we go here for take-out, here when friends are in town, this place for a quiet night out, and always there for special locations.

Get into the rotation by increasing party size or being aggressive within a half mile radius (especially for lunch – folks won’t pass a lot of places to get to you when they’re hungry). Once you have them, WOW them.

The Ignorant
I don’t mean stupid, just that not all of your customers know all that you do. They chose you because you satisfied a need and, as long as you’re good, they’ll keep you in their rotation.

But lunch customers can be dinner customers. Dine-in need to try carry-out. Business lunchers socialize at night.

So while some operators are resting now that customers appear to be back, the channels are clear for you to start advertising, wooing influencers, and gaining market share.

Do it now and you’ll be in a better position if the economy turns again. Even better if it really is back.

So how are you using social media to market your restaurant? Seems like asking for advice on the matter is like asking 10 economists for their opinion on any subject: you get 12 different answers.

- Carefully plan out your branding message, or shoot from the hip?
- Engage customers and develop a relationship, or shotgun a message to drive trial?
- Social media will bring me hundreds of customers, just because they can find me on their iPhones!
- My Facebook page has lots of pictures and my menu.

Maybe a social media strategy isn’t the pinnacle of success. Maybe social media are simply one more way to increase your frequency of message. Maybe these tools are just one more channel through which to promote your marketing strategy.

There’s a lot of advice out there, but most of it makes social media seem like just today’s version of a radio commercial: it reaches a lot of people, but the clutter nullifies the message.

A social media strategy is important. But it’s only one leg of an overall marketing strategy. After all, the goal isn’t to create awareness. It’s to create sales.

Some good advice on using social networking tools to engage your customers and develop loyalty in this article on Social Media Marketing in the Restaurant Business.

The point I take is that social media is an extension of you and your product, it’s another channel of communication for your existing marketing plan.

Everyone loves to know the owner. Everyone likes to feel like they’re a member of an exclusive club, or to get additional privileges.

Get feedback, engage customers, make them feel special. Do this through Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, and on discussion boards.

But you need to also do this in person, at PTA meetings, in your dining room. The author hits the nail on the head, but she only speaks to electronic communication channels. Add those channels to the real-life ones. Social media is effective because it increases frequency of message.

Not real sure of the value for my business, but Twitter has a pretty big upside for your restaurant marketing strategy.

I’ll be honest, there’s a lot of crap out there. But there are some nuggets, too. You can follow me at twitter.com/gossmark.

My plan for now is to post the good, bad, and ugly of restaurant marketing and service from the field. Tough job, but someone has to do it.

Great article about decency as an ad medium.

Some things as this relates to your business:

• People want to buy from someone they know, like, and trust
• Love me, love my product
• Care about what your customers care about, they’ll care about you
• They’ll promote you if you support them

Everyone says that word of mouth is the best form of advertising, so how come we spend money on lesser forms? Why not spend the money on our product quality? On putting food into people’s mouths? On putting the words into our customers’ mouths so that they can spread them?

The sidelines of the local soccer field are the new mass media. Better get used to it.