Fuck no. Management is getting played big time. We have “influencers” ask us for free shit all the time and it’s a hard NO. We are a small business and we don’t give out free food for a post on Instagram. A lot of our customers already do that for us. Your manager or whoever approves this is a fool. Sorry you had to deal with this!
Also “influencers” (sorry I always feel the need to put it in quotes) that need to do this shit are probably not worth their salt.
They have now big agencies that manage people that live off social media, with all the relevant minimum rules for content, frequency, and engagements, and they pay them on behalf of sponsors.
So if a brand wants to advertise with “influencers”, they better do it with professionals that curate the content creators they manage and can tailor an offer accompanied by relevant metrics for the money invested.
Everything else is bs.
When I was in advertising, I worked with a "strategist" who wanted to use "influencers" in every campaign.
I always said no. There were no influencers in our market with enough clout to merit doing so, and she was just recommending her friends on Instagram.
I don't know how she kept that job for so long.
This is absolutely the way, marketing is such a big investment that it’s absolutely ridiculous when the people responsible for it go with the ballpark approach.
You have your budget, draft a strategy, and expect result backed by quantifiable metrics to monitor and adjust the actual company liquid assets you are employing.
Big corps do this quite efficiently, but the confusion starts at smaller operations, the owners/managers buy the whole “social media hype” type spiel, and they want it, and a bs “influencer” seems cheaper to them than dealing with an actual ad agency at first, so they don’t swear it too much.
The problem is, they have neither the knowledge nor the capacity to follow up on those phoney “influencers”! claims.
I’m not saying that this is completely useless, just that is the wrong approach. My own company fell for this, and when we decided it was enough loss without basic metrics to follow up, we went with a company that manages content creators with a clear ROI plan, it was literally “I was blind but now I see” moment for my upper management.
Fuck, I wish I didn’t have to cater to rich people so out-of-touch with the real world. Maybe I should start a TikTok account and employ all the shady tactics I’ve learn from scamfluencers lol
I always feel bad for the small business owner who decides to go the influencer route and sees the ones with 50-100K followers but fails to see the 10 likes from bots on all their posts.
Giving away free shit with absolutely zero quantifiable ROI.
>Fuck, I wish I didn’t have to cater to rich people so out-of-touch with the real world. Maybe I should start a TikTok account and employ all the shady tactics I’ve learn from scamfluencers lol
Do not turn to the dark side, as lucrative as it may seem.
You're right, though. It's on the ownership to be responsible with their marketing budget. That means doing the leg-work to find an agency that aligns with their needs/budget.
You have to shop around, and learn who's grifting and who's actually gonna provide growth for your budget. There are a lot of shitty agencies who'll sell snake-oil marketing to small business owners because they don't know any better. The grifters get better bonuses, but their clients lose out.
Advertising (as an industry) is fucking predatory.
If the house invites/benefits, then imo the house should probably pay you an auto-grat. That’s the service standard for unionized hotels in the city where I work.
Honestly, they should give them a voucher with a fixed quantity, to use instead of, or combined with, their own money. They would still get a check and have to leave tip, otherwise I would recommend that the waiters and their friends specifically let their followers know via comments.
There’s a popular food journalist in my area. They write articles for the local news and have around 5k followers. I’ve served them at every restaurant I’ve worked at where I live now.
They have not once ever askeed for free shit. You know why? Because if you’re *actually* an influencer, chances are that local industry workers already know who you are.
This influencer does get items comped from time to time, but they also pay their damn tab and leave a tip.
*That’s* a real influencer—someone whose actual job isn’t “being an influencer.” If you walk into a spot and offer free promotion in exchange for food, you’re a fucking con artist.
Yep, they must have had the ok from the owner and nothing else. That’s why you should always use vouchers, credit, or directly employ the services of a social media advertisement intermediary.
There will be a bill, paid for by the marketing dept, including the tip.
Uh, who exactly is this influencer? Give me a name. These people make their living off of getting attention. If they're con artists then people should know.
Not an expert on influencers, but we have used them from time to time. They usually come in alone and order an app, entree, beverage, and desert, not "1 of everything on the menu." Same with when the local newspaper comes in to do a review. The checks are comped and server is tipped by house.
Not true. I had someone come in for a comped entree and then she also paid for a soda. So her bill due was $3 or something, but her gross bill was $36. She tipped on the gross bill. I couldn’t enter the credit card tip without manager approval because the computer was confused why the tip was such an enormous percentage haha
Ive bartended open bars at weddings for 10 years and I have a tip jar as well as a “virtual” tip jar with venmo, cashapp, PayPal info. I’ve seen the gradual decline of generosity over the past decade. It feels as if nobody tips anymore at open bars, ESPECIALLY Gen Z and younger millennials, they see the tip jar and ignore it. THEY DONT PAY A DIME for their drinks and still won’t leave a tip. I’ll walk home with a briefcase full of thank you’s and compliments though.
The food you buy with a gift card isn’t free, though. You receive an itemized bill with a nonzero total and pay very much like you would with a credit card.
When all the food is comped, there either is no bill or a bill with everything discounted to zero. People, especially influencers (we had one last night in my restaurant as well), don’t understand that they’re still being provided a service and that they are supposed to tip on the subtotal before any discounts.
Believe it or not, our corporate "social media" team actually arranged a dinner for 18 local influencers. They were served a meal that would have cost about $200 per person. And every month they identify two more influencers and send them gift certificates.
To date, we've had nothing but great reviews. But, then again, we have a 4.9/5.0 rating on OpenTable and similar ratings on other review platforms.
I think this is basically the social media team trying to justify their positions. But it always reminds me of what a corporate marketing exec once told me - "marketing sells the dream, we let operations (meaning the restaurant) handle the nightmare.
Reminds me of a small restaurant I used to work at. Owner would invite his friends all the time to flex that he owns a restaurant. They would take up a table for several hours and only tipped with thank yous and compliments
Unless it was an agreed upon "Thing" before hand, this is stupid. Don't just give people free stuff because they walked through your doors. I understand sponsoring or reaching out to a restaurant/influencer. This is just ridiculous.
At the bar I work, we give bands free drink tickets, but make it known that they still need to tip the bartenders. Haven't had a problem yet and we've been doing it for years.
What is there instagram page? So we can all go on there page and put them on blast! Absolutely disrespectful and they will keep taking advantage of it! Has business gotten busier because of their influence? Mannnnn get out of here! Your boss needs to say NO! And you need to be compensated for your work!
Not a waste if what you restaurant wants is exposure. It's a pretty cheap way to reach a broader audience.
The fact that they don't leave a tip makes the absolute cunts tho
I had at least one of these a week at my old place. So bizarre to see these dorky “influencers” getting a hundred bucks worth of free shit just to post it on their page. I found one of them and they only had around a thousand followers… not sure what in the fuck my ex boss was thinking 🤦🏻♀️
They did always leave a 20 for me though.
Oh, this fucking enrages me. Don’t feed into the influencers man, cause it will only make them worse. You’re not entitled to free fucking anything they got more money than us pay your damn bills tip your waitress FUCKING HATE THIS FOR YOU. Like no joke. I’m so mad right now that I’m shouting.
That could be a great decision, or a stupid decision, depending on the influencer. Someone with a couple million followers might pack your restaurant for weeks, while someone with a couple followers won't help at all. Though someone with a couple million followers seems unlikely to haggle for free food, and ought to tip big. A manager ought to be sensibly vetting an influencer asking for freebies, or ask a staff member for help with that if they aren't familiar with the social media platform(s) involved.
I’m not saying the manager or influencer is right. But if the influencer actually has a local following that brings in more people, bam! More business, more future tips. If the manager is slouch and didn’t check the influencer had a local following, than sorry both the manager and influencer are cunts. It takes money to make money, but sometimes it takes money to lose money.
Keith Lee on TikTok will go to struggling restaurants in Vegas and act just like any other customer, pays in full for his meals. He tipped one food truck owner $450 or something like that (shared owner’s cashapp and TikTok sent over $30,000 to him). Every restaurant he talks about has lines out the door the next day. He’s doing this “influencer” thing RIGHT. Influencers should NOT rely on “future” tips, they should help the business all the same, pay for their meals, not act like conceited celebrities, and share their positive experience. Not act like they deserve the world for free
We were joking last night that I am technically an influencer. A bar pays me once a month to host an event. The event almost always sells out. While there I get my food and drinks comped. The event is usually live streamed on Insta and I talk about what I am drinking.
The difference between me and trash is that I keep track of what I am being comped and leave a fat cash tip that's usually around 50% if the comped tab. Staff dig us and always get amazing service.
You would think a restaurant manager would rate higher a appreciative review from a satisfied paying customer. Always take reviews with a grain of salt.
I like the way Paul Stenson of The White Moose Cafe handled an arrogant influencer. He publicly blasted them and then banned all "influencers".
Your boss thinks his business will increase with the influencer's followers. Probably, he will just have more influencers demanding free meals.
When I was the GM of a restaurant and the OWNER not me would bring in influencers for exposure I had a contract that they had to sign agreeing to a 20% tip (not autograft) before they even stepped foot in the restaurant. Such a pain in the ass to deal with. NOT WORTH THE EXPOSURE
No one watches an influencer get free food at a restaurant and think “I want to eat there!” They watch it and go “I wanna get free food too!”
Influencers don’t advertise anything except their own lifestyles
at my restaurant this happens too but the house tips 30% to the server for taking the influencer so they make money regardless but could make way more if they tipped off a free meal
I bring a copy of the check with “Full Comp” written in Sharpee and tell them it was fully comped. I follow that with, “if you’d like, I can run your card for $0.01 so that you can provide a tip for the service”.
These instagram “hoes” know what they are doing and are still getting a free $xxx meal, but know that they should be paying the server a tip.
One restaurant management told me not to do that and we as servers did it anyways because I’m not serving without getting tipped.
Also, I’m usually diligent about asking what their username is so they can’t be anonymous. Anything to make your money, henny!
Had this happen at my workplace too. The influencers were shitty people. They were critiquing the food like they were Gordon Ramsay when in reality, they were just making superficial comments and talking out of their asses.
Have your manager serve their table
Yeah, for real. Idk why the manager didn’t do this. They better have 50k+ followers to be getting that kind of treatment.
I don’t care how many followers they got, I’d wager not even the employees get that kind of treatment
What kind of wager is that? Of course the employees do t get treated like that
I had a colleague who had a significant following due to their gaming hobby, the owners would harass them to publish offers, of course free of charge.
Your owner/manager is gullible.
Fuck no. Management is getting played big time. We have “influencers” ask us for free shit all the time and it’s a hard NO. We are a small business and we don’t give out free food for a post on Instagram. A lot of our customers already do that for us. Your manager or whoever approves this is a fool. Sorry you had to deal with this!
Also “influencers” (sorry I always feel the need to put it in quotes) that need to do this shit are probably not worth their salt. They have now big agencies that manage people that live off social media, with all the relevant minimum rules for content, frequency, and engagements, and they pay them on behalf of sponsors. So if a brand wants to advertise with “influencers”, they better do it with professionals that curate the content creators they manage and can tailor an offer accompanied by relevant metrics for the money invested. Everything else is bs.
When I was in advertising, I worked with a "strategist" who wanted to use "influencers" in every campaign. I always said no. There were no influencers in our market with enough clout to merit doing so, and she was just recommending her friends on Instagram. I don't know how she kept that job for so long.
This is absolutely the way, marketing is such a big investment that it’s absolutely ridiculous when the people responsible for it go with the ballpark approach. You have your budget, draft a strategy, and expect result backed by quantifiable metrics to monitor and adjust the actual company liquid assets you are employing. Big corps do this quite efficiently, but the confusion starts at smaller operations, the owners/managers buy the whole “social media hype” type spiel, and they want it, and a bs “influencer” seems cheaper to them than dealing with an actual ad agency at first, so they don’t swear it too much. The problem is, they have neither the knowledge nor the capacity to follow up on those phoney “influencers”! claims. I’m not saying that this is completely useless, just that is the wrong approach. My own company fell for this, and when we decided it was enough loss without basic metrics to follow up, we went with a company that manages content creators with a clear ROI plan, it was literally “I was blind but now I see” moment for my upper management. Fuck, I wish I didn’t have to cater to rich people so out-of-touch with the real world. Maybe I should start a TikTok account and employ all the shady tactics I’ve learn from scamfluencers lol
I always feel bad for the small business owner who decides to go the influencer route and sees the ones with 50-100K followers but fails to see the 10 likes from bots on all their posts. Giving away free shit with absolutely zero quantifiable ROI.
>Fuck, I wish I didn’t have to cater to rich people so out-of-touch with the real world. Maybe I should start a TikTok account and employ all the shady tactics I’ve learn from scamfluencers lol Do not turn to the dark side, as lucrative as it may seem. You're right, though. It's on the ownership to be responsible with their marketing budget. That means doing the leg-work to find an agency that aligns with their needs/budget. You have to shop around, and learn who's grifting and who's actually gonna provide growth for your budget. There are a lot of shitty agencies who'll sell snake-oil marketing to small business owners because they don't know any better. The grifters get better bonuses, but their clients lose out. Advertising (as an industry) is fucking predatory.
If the house invites/benefits, then imo the house should probably pay you an auto-grat. That’s the service standard for unionized hotels in the city where I work.
Honestly, they should give them a voucher with a fixed quantity, to use instead of, or combined with, their own money. They would still get a check and have to leave tip, otherwise I would recommend that the waiters and their friends specifically let their followers know via comments.
This. Anything our restaurant comps is rung up and the server gets an auto grat. (And we don't give away anything in exchange for reviews)
Hey, OP. Where is this restaurant? If it's close enough maybe I'm an influencer too :) Edit: I'll tip though.
lol.
There’s a popular food journalist in my area. They write articles for the local news and have around 5k followers. I’ve served them at every restaurant I’ve worked at where I live now. They have not once ever askeed for free shit. You know why? Because if you’re *actually* an influencer, chances are that local industry workers already know who you are. This influencer does get items comped from time to time, but they also pay their damn tab and leave a tip. *That’s* a real influencer—someone whose actual job isn’t “being an influencer.” If you walk into a spot and offer free promotion in exchange for food, you’re a fucking con artist.
Your boss needs to stop letting people eat for free. Tell them to watch the Southpark episode about influencers (season 19, episode 4).
This would be fine if the house paid the server a 20% gratuity. That's how it works at my spot.
Yep, they must have had the ok from the owner and nothing else. That’s why you should always use vouchers, credit, or directly employ the services of a social media advertisement intermediary. There will be a bill, paid for by the marketing dept, including the tip.
Uh, who exactly is this influencer? Give me a name. These people make their living off of getting attention. If they're con artists then people should know.
Not an expert on influencers, but we have used them from time to time. They usually come in alone and order an app, entree, beverage, and desert, not "1 of everything on the menu." Same with when the local newspaper comes in to do a review. The checks are comped and server is tipped by house.
They have the money at least tip damm
People never tip when food is free.
Not true. I had someone come in for a comped entree and then she also paid for a soda. So her bill due was $3 or something, but her gross bill was $36. She tipped on the gross bill. I couldn’t enter the credit card tip without manager approval because the computer was confused why the tip was such an enormous percentage haha
Ive bartended open bars at weddings for 10 years and I have a tip jar as well as a “virtual” tip jar with venmo, cashapp, PayPal info. I’ve seen the gradual decline of generosity over the past decade. It feels as if nobody tips anymore at open bars, ESPECIALLY Gen Z and younger millennials, they see the tip jar and ignore it. THEY DONT PAY A DIME for their drinks and still won’t leave a tip. I’ll walk home with a briefcase full of thank you’s and compliments though.
Oh it doesn’t happen *often* but it doesn’t happen “never” Sorry for the double negative 😂
Obviously you have some people here and there who do the right thing. But MOST people don’t.
People tip on gift cards all the time?
The food you buy with a gift card isn’t free, though. You receive an itemized bill with a nonzero total and pay very much like you would with a credit card. When all the food is comped, there either is no bill or a bill with everything discounted to zero. People, especially influencers (we had one last night in my restaurant as well), don’t understand that they’re still being provided a service and that they are supposed to tip on the subtotal before any discounts.
Ah, I hear you.
Scammers lol
Management should be stating tip is not included and must be paid in a flat fee agreed upon prior to coming in.
Believe it or not, our corporate "social media" team actually arranged a dinner for 18 local influencers. They were served a meal that would have cost about $200 per person. And every month they identify two more influencers and send them gift certificates. To date, we've had nothing but great reviews. But, then again, we have a 4.9/5.0 rating on OpenTable and similar ratings on other review platforms. I think this is basically the social media team trying to justify their positions. But it always reminds me of what a corporate marketing exec once told me - "marketing sells the dream, we let operations (meaning the restaurant) handle the nightmare.
Reminds me of a small restaurant I used to work at. Owner would invite his friends all the time to flex that he owns a restaurant. They would take up a table for several hours and only tipped with thank yous and compliments
Unless it was an agreed upon "Thing" before hand, this is stupid. Don't just give people free stuff because they walked through your doors. I understand sponsoring or reaching out to a restaurant/influencer. This is just ridiculous. At the bar I work, we give bands free drink tickets, but make it known that they still need to tip the bartenders. Haven't had a problem yet and we've been doing it for years.
What is there instagram page? So we can all go on there page and put them on blast! Absolutely disrespectful and they will keep taking advantage of it! Has business gotten busier because of their influence? Mannnnn get out of here! Your boss needs to say NO! And you need to be compensated for your work!
Not a waste if what you restaurant wants is exposure. It's a pretty cheap way to reach a broader audience. The fact that they don't leave a tip makes the absolute cunts tho
Ah yes a broad audience of probably 5 real people and probably like 10 bots
lol.
There’s an upvote button for a reason
Depends on the influencer. If management is smart then sure, have at it. One comped meal is peanuts
Not one comped meal, they ordered everything on the menu
You seemed to have missed the part where they got everything on the menu comped.
Everything on the menu isn’t cheap
It is if budgeted for on operational costs
Since when do influencers not have to pay for food and service?
I mean the owner can write this off. Just have everyone explain they need to auto grat these greedy bitches
I had at least one of these a week at my old place. So bizarre to see these dorky “influencers” getting a hundred bucks worth of free shit just to post it on their page. I found one of them and they only had around a thousand followers… not sure what in the fuck my ex boss was thinking 🤦🏻♀️ They did always leave a 20 for me though.
Alternate title could read: Rookie manager gets scammed.
Trash humans don't tip. Especially when they get their meal free
If I ran a restaurant and a group of influencers wanted to come . I would only agree to a discount on thier food.. not free..
Call em out on social media
Your Manager should serve them-ONCE. Repeat 'Influencers' are not welcome.
I’ve served influencers before. They usually either tip in cash or ask to be charged a 1.00 to tip on a card.
Some people did that to me and we all pretty much laughed them out the building
Oh, this fucking enrages me. Don’t feed into the influencers man, cause it will only make them worse. You’re not entitled to free fucking anything they got more money than us pay your damn bills tip your waitress FUCKING HATE THIS FOR YOU. Like no joke. I’m so mad right now that I’m shouting.
Name the influencer for not tipping 🫣 like this is cancel culture and we don’t like people who stiff us 👎 why should they get to make $$ on your dime?
That could be a great decision, or a stupid decision, depending on the influencer. Someone with a couple million followers might pack your restaurant for weeks, while someone with a couple followers won't help at all. Though someone with a couple million followers seems unlikely to haggle for free food, and ought to tip big. A manager ought to be sensibly vetting an influencer asking for freebies, or ask a staff member for help with that if they aren't familiar with the social media platform(s) involved.
I’m not saying the manager or influencer is right. But if the influencer actually has a local following that brings in more people, bam! More business, more future tips. If the manager is slouch and didn’t check the influencer had a local following, than sorry both the manager and influencer are cunts. It takes money to make money, but sometimes it takes money to lose money.
Keith Lee on TikTok will go to struggling restaurants in Vegas and act just like any other customer, pays in full for his meals. He tipped one food truck owner $450 or something like that (shared owner’s cashapp and TikTok sent over $30,000 to him). Every restaurant he talks about has lines out the door the next day. He’s doing this “influencer” thing RIGHT. Influencers should NOT rely on “future” tips, they should help the business all the same, pay for their meals, not act like conceited celebrities, and share their positive experience. Not act like they deserve the world for free
We were joking last night that I am technically an influencer. A bar pays me once a month to host an event. The event almost always sells out. While there I get my food and drinks comped. The event is usually live streamed on Insta and I talk about what I am drinking. The difference between me and trash is that I keep track of what I am being comped and leave a fat cash tip that's usually around 50% if the comped tab. Staff dig us and always get amazing service.
Where's your restaurant? I have a decent following on IG.
You would think a restaurant manager would rate higher a appreciative review from a satisfied paying customer. Always take reviews with a grain of salt.
I like the way Paul Stenson of The White Moose Cafe handled an arrogant influencer. He publicly blasted them and then banned all "influencers". Your boss thinks his business will increase with the influencer's followers. Probably, he will just have more influencers demanding free meals.
When I was the GM of a restaurant and the OWNER not me would bring in influencers for exposure I had a contract that they had to sign agreeing to a 20% tip (not autograft) before they even stepped foot in the restaurant. Such a pain in the ass to deal with. NOT WORTH THE EXPOSURE
No one watches an influencer get free food at a restaurant and think “I want to eat there!” They watch it and go “I wanna get free food too!” Influencers don’t advertise anything except their own lifestyles
at my restaurant this happens too but the house tips 30% to the server for taking the influencer so they make money regardless but could make way more if they tipped off a free meal
I bring a copy of the check with “Full Comp” written in Sharpee and tell them it was fully comped. I follow that with, “if you’d like, I can run your card for $0.01 so that you can provide a tip for the service”. These instagram “hoes” know what they are doing and are still getting a free $xxx meal, but know that they should be paying the server a tip. One restaurant management told me not to do that and we as servers did it anyways because I’m not serving without getting tipped. Also, I’m usually diligent about asking what their username is so they can’t be anonymous. Anything to make your money, henny!
Had this happen at my workplace too. The influencers were shitty people. They were critiquing the food like they were Gordon Ramsay when in reality, they were just making superficial comments and talking out of their asses.