I recently had the distinct pleasure of being interviewed by Brian Morris at GetBusyMedia about my work as the Social Media Chef. Brian is a fellow Red Bank local and frequent visitor to Basil Ts, one of the restaurants I do social media marketing for. He noticed the expansive amount of content being put into the marketing campaign for Basils (Facebook, video recipes, Twitter, the works) but honed in on a specific point he thought I excelled at: engagement.

SocialMediaChef.net is a place for me to share my experiences as the Social Media Chef with you, and a starting point for discussions on the ever evolving online world of blogging, food, and drink. Bon Apptit!

Do you see a definite ROI on your campaign and how long into the process could you see it?

Hello world! Ive been busy this Fall and into the Winter, but its time for an update. Ive been working on a few projects for work and for fun. First of all:

Can you provide any key examples or statistics about how successful your efforts have been?

The Beer Wench did a Top Ten list in Tweets. Check out her Twitter here

And please note, none of the shock/gore/not-safe-for-life suggestions made this list. I wanted it to be more scary/creepy, and somewhat safe for all ages (but for real, dont show this stuff to your kids).

How have you seen diving into this campaign head on affect other aspects of the business, if it all?

Hello and happy Fall to all! My apologies for the lack of posts; this Social Media Chef has had a very, very busy Autumn. Ive spent the majority of the last month or so preparing and promoting several amazing wine tasting events for the restaurants I work for. Tasting booklets, promotional materials, email blasts, blog posts, Facebook events, the works. All ending with four final wine tasting events to send out the wine tasting season with a bang. They all had great turnouts and I got to meet some wine folks in the process. Here are links to some of the content from the events, in no particular order:

I have a background in writing, so researching and writing content for our blogs is always a highlight for me; I really enjoyed learning and writing about Pizza Napoletana and posting on But my overall vorite has to be hearing back from customers that enjoy our online and offline content. Sometimes well get emails or a YouTube comment about a customer that ate the bolognese sauce at the restaurant, and then made it at home after watching our video recipe on it. I also thoroughly enjoy having the title of Social Media Chef.

We exchanged a few emails and a few days later I answered Brians questions to feature on GetBusyMedia. You can read the full interview below, or over at GetBusyMedia.com.

Wines and Cheeses of Italy

A. Keep the social aspect alive in your social media. Dont think of Twitter and Facebook as radio stations where you broadcast messages to your customers. Find which content is relevant to them by engaging in conversations and always continue to release new content on a regular basis.

In September 2010, a user made a long series of posts on 4chans /x/ paranormal forums, claiming he had acquired a haunted version of Majoras Mask for Nintendo 64. He posts videos and testimony of the haunting as it happens, telling of a Ben that previously owned the game who drowned. This first hand account is straight up scary, especially since its backed up by video of everything happening, and especially if youve played Majoras Mask. Its long, but completely worth it. The link below goes to a creeppasta site, and not to the original 4chan post (because the original post is gone, and because I dont want to send any innocent souls to 4chan). Also is the first video in to get your heart pumping.

Which is where I wrote this post. While I was writing, a white stretch limousine pulled up. Sadly, nobody mous stepped out.

Yes. We regularly post specials and events to inform our customers of whats going on. The main way we communicate with customers is through email marketing, but posting and starting conversations through Facebook andThe Social Media Chef Twitter allows for a greater level of communication. If someone had a great meal and posts about it on our Facebook wall, I can respond and include follow-up content such as a special or video relevant to that customer. And while this can also happen through email, Facebook and Twitter are more casual, so people are more likely to start conversations on these platforms. Plus, the conversations that we do engage in on these sites are public for everyone else to see as well.

What is the best piece of advice you could give a small business regarding social media and getting more engagement with their customers?

Something that Ive been working on that Ive very proud of is (drumroll) the new home of Post It Poetry! The new home of my Post It Poetry project is at (Go ahead, take a look. You know you want to.) Im still working on streamlining how to upload images of poems, but the site is up and functional for now, so get writing!

So, those are my top ten reasons why Im not going to- oh my. My subconscious has been infiltrated by the great wine-minded community I spent the weekend with! Oh well, I suppose having the best wine bloggers in the industry rub off on you isnt so bad. Cheers!

10. And lastly, why would I make a top ten list when there are already several awesome, well written, and entertaining top-ten lists out there? In case youve been stuck with the il whale all day, these are what everyone is talking about:

Ten Things I Learned at WBC10

Did your foray into social media begin as a side project and build over time or did you fully immerse Basil Ts from the beginning?

For me, it was a great opportunity to respond to some targeted, well thought out questions. My vorite was the last question:

The creator of Marble Hornets claims that The following clips are raw footage excerpts from Alex Kralie. A college friend of mine. The creator then goes on to say that Alex was a film called Marble Hornets, but that something halted to production of the film, and began haunting ASocial Medialex. When Alex said he was going to burn the footage, the creator persuaded him not to, offering to take it from him. Years passed, Alex moved away and was never heard from again, and the footage eventually made its way to YouTube. You can watch the introduction below with an explanation of the series. And dont worry, theres no scary things in this video, just the back story. The series starts of slow, but picks up in creepiness quickly, and new videos are still being posted about once every month.

I hope you enjoyed my little list. If you need a stiff drink after seeing the horrors of the internet, I have just the thing: How to Make Skittle Vodka. Heres the how-to video I posted from last year. Enjoy and dont forget to share this post on Facebook and Twitter using the buttons up at the top!

Which aspect is your personal vorite?

Hi, Im Preston Porter, also know as the Social Media Chef. Using my strong writing background, my lifelong love for new media, and my experience in marketing, I bring a little of my own flavor to the world of online food and wine.

Our Facebook page for Basils quickly grew to one of the most Liked pages in the area; were nearing 1,500 Likes consisting of mostly local customers who come to our restaurant and are interested in our content. I often post links to our YouTube channel, which is nearing 11,000 upload views and post the videos to our Facebook page. And in the video descriptions on YouTube, theres a link to our Facebook page; by cross promoting and linking everything, when one of our platforms grows, they all grow.

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SocialMediaChef.net has been getting the short end of the stick lately. Ive been posting a bit more over at PrestoWrites!, so keep an eye for more writing to be posted there soon. Post It Poetry has new submissions, so be sure to swing by there and check them out. You might even work up the courage to write and submit one yourself! Ive been thinking a lot about this project, and have some significant changes coming up the pipe soon

Top Ten Pre 2010 Wine Bloggers Conference List! Seriously!

Not Another Top Ten List From the 2010 Wine Bloggers Conference!

Screamers are the horror junkfood of the internet. Theyre good for a quick, panic inducing scare, but thats about it. Screamers are defined by UrbanDictionary as A YouTube video or a Flash game used as a practical joke to try and scare the viewer or the player abruptly. These arent so much for you to view as much as sharing them with unsuspecting friends. Below are two classic screamers that might give you a mini heart attack, even if youve seen them before. And remember to put your sound up!

How well do you think the restaurant business and emerging media tie together?

Although NoSleep is king, /r/creepy and /r/creepypasta are good if you like a scare and can deal with the truly scary site design of Reddit. (I kid, I kid!)

6. In ct, the only list I remember hearing was the Twenty-four Theses at the More Effective Writing in Your Blogbreakout session. Twenty-four well written, well stated points: now thats a list. And as a writer, I greatly enjoyed it. Im also r too busy going through all the ultra-helpful points covered in the Vlogging breakout session.

8. I should be packing my bags for a return trip to Walla Walla instead of typing. The town was charming, the people were welcoming, and the local wine community thriving. If I wasnt on the exact opposite side of the country, Id be checking back into the Comfort Inn this weekend.

It really helps open communication with our customers. Were able to promote events more effectively, get the word out about specials quicker, and change things we receive customer feedback on.

What tools do you use to track and analyze your efforts?

The closing event of Jersey Shore Restaurant Week. Huge crowd of 300+ tasters!

Double the Creepy

Tags: /r/nosleep, Ben Drowned, Bongcheon-Dong Ghost, creepypasta, halloween, halloween 2012, horror, how to make skittle vodka, how to make skittles vodka, hurricane sandy, majoras mask, marble hornets, Maze game, reddit, scary, screamers, slender man, slenderman, slendermen, Top 5 Ways to Scare Yourself Silly on the Internet

Top 10 Highlights from WBC10

5. Im going through the notes on all the great keynote speakers,new york asian escort and I dont see anything about writing a top-ten list. I see I jotted some things down about the endless debate area of wine review writing and wine blogging, the strong online writing community and its varying opinion on paid vs unpaid writing, and the ever evolving future home of the wine review. As a blogger who is still getting into the vast world of wine writing, these keynotes gave me a much clearer image of the online wine writing landscape. But nobody said anything about lists!

Its been a busy, busy Spring. Ive been wearing more hats than ever as the Social Media Chef and loving it!

I made a few videos for fun as well One in the spirit of Halloween (and The Sweetest Temptations blog, check them out!) and another during Hurricane Irene after I filmed outside during a state of emergency evacuation like a crazy person, then edited behind sandbagged doors until the power went out. So yeah, enjoy those.

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Most of them from Undicis wine lecture dinners. I even get to taste the wines (sometimes). Check out the rest of the pictures on Undicis Facebook page and drop me a comment!

News, Tags: Basil Ts, Brian Morris, Get Busy Media, GetBusyMedia, Preston Porter, red bank, rumson, Small Biz Trends, SmallBizTrends, smallbiztrends.com, social media, social media chef, social media done right, social media engagement, social media interview, social media tips

Absolutely. We could really see how effective our campaigns were after the first few months during the summer, and then again after I was hired on full time and more resources we re-allocated from traditional marketing (print ads, radio, etc.) into new media.

Lets start off with some good old shion scary stories. Only instead of telling them around a campfire with friends, well be reading them on the internet with complete strangers. Reddits /r/nosleep communitys slogan is because you werent planning on sleeping anyway, and aint it the truth. Over 100,000 users subscribe and contribute to the community which is entirely dedicated to scaring the crap out of each other with original scary stories. No photos, no video, just text posts recounting terrifying encounters and first person accounts. To keep this from quickly devolving into a hey that cant be true debate on every thread, r/nosleep is pleasingly specific on how to post and discuss stories, Social Media saying Your story should be believable within reason Remember, everything is true on NoSleep. Read alone with all the lights off; there is no other way.

Meet & cant imagine the event without it. Ive connected with some really great people through Twitter, and been able to keep the conversation going with the bloggers I met at the conference. Plus, there are so many people sharing all the great posts on the event, how could you think about writing when theres so much to read?

4. Instead of typing a list inside, you could be touring one of the many stunning Washington wineries! (I of course am stuck in New Jersey, allowing me to write this list for you with a clean yet thirsty conscience) I  got to visit Cougar Crest (which had a refreshing Grenache Rose), Skylite Cellars (with some strikingly good Syrah), and Pepper Bridge (with a tasty Merlot that was right up my alley).

I work a 40-50 hour week, and most of my time is spent doing something related to social media for the two restaurants. It sounds like a lot, but between filming videos, editing them, tagging/posting them, writing blog posts, responding to posts and emails from customers, and putting together our monthly newsletters, you can see where the time goes. The email newsletters arent exactly what you would consider social media, but all the content that is made for it is distributed through our social networks too.

When it comes to social media, engagement is the name of the game and Preston Porter and Basil Ts are way ahead of the curve compared to other small businesses just getting started.

Q. What is the best piece of advice you could give a small business regarding social media and getting more engagement with their customers?

I will be a panelist at the NJ Connect meetup on Wednesday, February 9th! Im very excited to be presenting, and this post is actually the start of the presentation itself. So enjoy the show and follow the links to continue the presentation across a few of the platforms I use the most! This post is the first slide in my presentation; you can view my entire presentation by clicking the link at the bottom, and then by following the links after that

3. Why sit on your computer a list when there are so many palate-blowingly good wines you could be tasting? The amount of wine I got to taste at wbc10 was staggering. (and in some cases, lead to staggering) There were so many quality wineries with so much delicious that if I bought even one bottle of every wine I liked from the conference, Id be broke before I finished this list.

The book I helped edit was recently published! Its called by Victor Rallo, and has just released; Ill post an update with a link to Amazon.com when its up. Its my first credit as an editor in a published work, so yay for that. And it has given me the itch to get into gear in finishing my own stories to get published, but thats a post for another time!

Keep the social aspect alive in your social media. Dont think of Twitter and Facebook as radio stations where you broadcast messages to your customers. Find which content is relevant to them by engaging in conversations and always continue to release new content on a regular basis.

Do you use things such as your Facebook n page and twitter account to interact with customers and receive feedback?

One of the most recent being the new and improved VictorRallo.com. Made in WordPress, with plenty of interesting videos and articles. Ive also been going to some really exciting events like Bellissimo Brunello, a brunello tasting event in NYC hosted by James Suckling. James was kind enough to send us some VIP invites. You can read our post on the event here.

9. I might just give up blogging all together to peruse my new passion for ice sculpting

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7. If I was to make a list, at least three of the points would be crediting the event staff, and the folks at Zephyr Wine Adventures who made the whole shindig possible. Extra props to Reno for being everywhere at once. That dude moves so st, at one point I swore there was two of him running around.

This one is a manga-style depiction of an urban legend in South Korea. The story goes that the ghost of a distraught mother who committed suicide wanders around a district of Seoul (the Bongcheon district, not the Gangnam district) looking for her dead child. A teenager walking home encounters her and well Ill let you read the story and see for yourself. Click and scroll down to read.

This is what I consider one of the scariest web series on YouTube, and certainly the best depiction of the Slenderman urban legend. The myth of the Slenderman dates back to 2009, where a series of photos were posted to a paranormal picture thread on SomethingAwful.com. The legend took off and immediately inspired Slenderman art, creepypastas, and eventually the Marble Hornets vidoes. You can read more about the history and other instances of Slenderman here

Top 10 Things I Learned at Wine Camp

Our social media marketing campaign began around June in 2009 when I was hired on to work on Basil Ts web presence. The work was part-time at first, but by the end of the summer, wed already had tremendous success on YouTube, Facebook, and with our email newsletter list. In the Fall, I was hired on full time to do all the online content management, and was fully immersed in blogging, producing videos and engaging customers online for Basil Ts and Undici.

When someone wants to find a place to eat, they will look online. Its important that we have a good presence online, and are active in the places people look online, whether this be Yelp, Twitter or Facebook. After someone has been to your restaurant and they want to come back or make a comment on their experience, new media is the best tool to engage them, keep the conversation going and get them to share their best experiences with the public.

News, Social Media, Update, Tags: Bellissimo Brunello, James suckling, photography, post it poetry, Presto Writes, Preston Porter, social media chef, starbucks, Undici, vic wines, victor rallo, victorrallo.com, wine, wordpress

After asking what is the scariest/creepiest thing youve seen online, and dredging through some of the less-than-pleasant depths of the internet (thanks for all your horrifying suggestions), I put together the list of the top 5 ways to scare yourself silly on the internet.

How much time each week or day is spent on your social media campaign?

We use pretty much everything at our disposal to track and analyze. We monitor our reviews across several different sites daily, our web traffic using Google Analytics and Pages insight, Facebook insight, YouTube insight and several dozen Google Alerts. We try to track which content is the most effective, and learn by what gets the most attention. If our video recipes are getting more attention than our photo galleries and blog posts, well shoot and edit more videos. But it all starts with keeping an eye on what you have out there.

This year Halloween got the short end of the stick, at least on the East Coast. Hurricane Sandy came barreling through knocking out power, destroying homes and shorelines, and disrupting my vorite damn holiday. This post was originally meant to be done before Halloween, but circumstances dictated otherwise. I feel a certain lack of closure for October, so pretend its Halloween and scare the living daylights out of yourself with some better-late-than-never guide to the scariest places on the internet. And remember: lights off, sound on.

The interview was also featured onSmallBizTrends.com as a case study on How To Do Social Media Right!