Monday, 22 August 2011

Chin Chin

Chin Chin launched barely 3 months ago but already has queues out the door. I lined up with the masses last Friday night - at 5.45pm there was a line out the door and we were seated by 6.50pm.

Was it worth it? The food AND cocktails were sensational, but besides that, I'm intrigued by their use of social media.

A little section of the menu drew my attention, check out this shot featuring our dee-lish son-in-law eggs AND 2 little icons down the bottom left.

 
For little more than 3 months they've got some impressive stats:
Chin Chin employs someone to answer
all their tweets and keep their social pages up to date. There's an amazing volume of engaged tweets and responses right through from pre-launch to current day.
 
They follow other trendy restaurants like Earl Canteen and Hardware Societe and are already involved in initiatives such as Feed Melbourne.

Well known Melbourne food bloggers have reviewed:
Tomato
Melbourne Culinary Review
The Weekly Review
The very very hungry caterpillar
And many more...
 
So what is it that's made Chin Chin such a success?
 
Undoubtedly social media has contributed, but there's no point creating 'hype' unless it is lived up to - and Chin Chin does just that with food, beverages, service and interior. Consumers can sense a fake a mile away - to make social media work authenticity is required in both the online AND offline environment.
 
A nice example of effective social media for small businesses - well done Chin Chin!

5 comments:

  1. Nice post Kate. Chin Chin definitely appears to know what it's doing sm wise and service wise. Makes me wonder whether sm is more relevant to service/rm mktg than goods? What do you think?

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  2. Oooo i didn't know that Chin Chin was so popular but hahaha social media has definitely helped many restaurants! I know i basically go to all the restaurants my favourite bloggers have recommended hehe so i totally think if other restaurants are able to use social media successfully they will also be as successful.

    And ofcuz good food is really important too :P

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  3. @Hubba: Services rely a lot more on WoM as a means of assessing quality, as the offering is intangible. So, yes, SM may be more powerful in these instances.

    @Kate: I'd be interested to know how you first discovered Chin Chin? Was it via SM?

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  4. Great example. I like when companies employ people to do their SM. Many out there would think it's a fluffy job, sitting on FB all day long, but I think it is extremely important, and extremely important in getting someone with the right skills to do it, especially someone with a strong marketing background.
    Ross

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  5. Chin Chin got a mention in The Age today: Read it here.

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