Eatout partners with Twitter to promote Restaurant Week fete

Online restaurant reservation portal Eatout has partnered with Twitter to promote the Nairobi Restaurant Week set to start today.

Twitter provided training, through their London office, to all restaurants participating in the festival which runs for 10 days.

As part of the programme, the social media company will guide restaurant teams on best practices and effective use of the platform as a marketing tool during and after the Restaurant Week.

“We are thrilled to be working with Eatout and the various restaurants taking part in the Nairobi Restaurant Week to connect with their local communities,” said Bindiya Shah, the partnerships manager for Twitter Africa.

“Using the hashtag #NRW2015, Twitter will help you discover new dining experiences around the city and let you get closer to your favourite restaurants.”

Awareness creation

The partnership seeks to create awareness among middle class Kenyans, who are the target of the festival, in the wake of digital marketing.

The group has a large presence on social media with a forum dubbed Kenyans on Twitter (KOT) known for pushing their agenda on the Internet.

“#NRW2015 will provide a new marketing tool for restaurants to communicate to the new generation of diners in Kenya,” Eatout CEO Mikul Shah told Digital Business.

Mr Shah added that the training is a way of thanking restaurants which chose to take part in the festival. This is not the first time Twitter has been used to drive sales of products and events. Coca Cola is using #ShareaCokeKE to drive its latest marketing campaign.

Safaricom, Kenya Power and NIC Bank are among the many local firms that have used the social media to offer their customers services.

Eatout has previously teamed up with other firms in Nairobi. Last week the online restaurant portal announced a partnership with Uber, a taxi-hailing app service.

In the past, the firm has collaborated with Google to roll out free Wi-Fi hotspots in restaurants and with Safaricom to deploy the popular Lipa na M-Pesa payment option to restaurants across Nairobi.