A Social Media Snapshot:Have We Forgot Zagat? Hardly ... They Were So Ahead of the Social Media Curve

It's hard to walk more than a few blocks in San Francisco, Chicago, or New York City without seeing the signs. You see them in windows and on doors. Those unmistakable placards are everywhere, at least where restaurants, bars and hotels are concerned.

Zagat has survived for more than 30 years by selling a product that is essentially the result of user generated content (UGC). The company has managed to leverage the wisdom of a nationwide restaurant-hungry crowd and convert those ratings into publications and promotional products that are sold to consumers and the businesses who feed their desires. And Zagat did it before social media and online rating tools were popular. While other rating and review portals have come online and added additional competition and perspective to this space, Zagat has been able to leverage a strong brand name.

Just ask Starbucks, Subway, and Red Robin, who all scored #1 in the 2009 Zagat Fast Food Survey, how much the Zagat brand means to them. Over 6100 respondents rated more than 100 fast food chains nationwide. The CEO's from the top chains are no doubt celebrating, and publicising, their consumer-generated ratings. Some of them have even posted the news on their company Facebook pages--an interesting comingling of old and new media.

If social media is about engaging people in conversation, it can be argued that Zagat was ahead of the curve. Started in 1979 by Tim and Nina Zagat, the Zagat Survey is now the largest source of worldwide ratings of restaurants, bars, hotels, nightclubs and even golf courses. Over 350,000 reviewers (Zagat calls them surveyors) from around the world provide reviews, express their opinion and help others in their search for a good place to eat, drink and be merry. Over 40,000 restaurants, hotels, nightclubs, golf courses, etc. are represented in the Zagat guides. As the social media ecosystem has evolved, so has Zagat. They now have over 1,600 fans on Facebook and 14,000 followers on Twitter.

A typical Zagat Guide is $15.95, or you can subscribe on their website for $24.95 and gain access to their worldwide ratings. There is no charge to do a review. Anyone can be a reviewer of a neighborhood restaurant--just ask President Obama who did a restaurant review himself for a local Chicago public television show while a state senator. Who knows, you might even see a Zagat review from this blogger...

Just in case you're wondering if the Zagat name really means that much, Starbucks recently incorporated the number one Zagat rating into their new advertising campaign. It must mean something. Read more...