In olden days (think a dozen years ago), if you wanted to be a successful chef, you had to know how to cook, how to run a restaurant and inspire a staff, how to pay your bills and balance your books and -- at least once in a while -- how to get out of the kitchen and chat up your guests.

These days, a chef still has to master all that, but also has to respond to a whole new set of demands. And none of them have anything to do with cooking.

Welcome to the world of social media, restaurant style.

For starters, today's chefs need to know how to attract friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter, catch the attention of cyber tastemakers like Eater, Tasting Table and Thrillist, and get a thumbs-up from the self-styled critics on Chowhound. A chef's blog that proclaims the restaurant's specials or latest artisanal suppliers isn't a bad idea either.

In other words, even if chefs serve the best food in town, they have to be out there on computer screens and smart phones to remind people they are almost as happy to meet them virtually as to see them in their restaurant.

"In the last three years, social media has become very, very important," says Bill Guilfoyle, associate professor of business management at the Culinary Institute of America. "You can chart it with the rise in price of Google stock."

"Chefs have to be public personalities," says Steve Dolinsky, a Chicago-based journalist, media trainer and broadcast personality whose credentials include 12 James Beard TV and radio awards. "There's been a revolution in the food business, and there's a lot more competition. When you're one of 10 guys doing Korean street food, you have to do something to stand out."

New media, new skill set

But suppose that's not your skill set? Not to worry. A whole new profession is out there to help you -- the PR firm turned social media consultant.

It all began about 10 years ago with media training for chefs -- in case a journalist called for a quote or a TV station beckoned.

"Everybody was jumping in without knowing how to swim, but they didn't have the skills," says Lisa Ekus, whose food-focused PR firm, the Lisa Ekus Group, responded by offering basic media training classes (how to talk to a television audience while you're demonstrating a recipe, when to look at a camera, how to handle a radio interview, and so on). These days, media training is an inherent part of the PR package, and along with learning TV skills, chefs can learn the finer points of social media, from Tweets to blogs.

Lisa Ekus Group offers workshops that teach clients to present themselves well in person, on television and throughout social media sites. "The need is doubling every year," says Ekus. "The more distant the face contact is, the more important the actual instant communication is."  For Web-phobic clients or those new to the restaurant business, an alternative is to let her firm send out blogs and posts in their name for a monthly fee (a dozen posts a month for $200). The system not only relieves the restaurant of some of the Web chores, but also reaches out to a much wider world. "We have many followers," says Ekus. "We can send posts out through our network and they get an instant community of followers." The posts also get a speedy afterlife, as they get Tweeted and re-Tweeted.

There is, of course, a less costly alternative for chefs who'd rather spend their time focusing on their menus than on their Facebook pages. Somebody else on the staff can do their posting. "You can't expect the chef to get up there on line in addition to trying to cook," says the CIA's Guilfoyle. "They need to surround themselves with people—a general manager, or a marketer or pr person—who are very talented at that."

At Restaurant Eve in Alexandria, Va., the award-winning Dublin-born chef Cathal Armstrong has just such a person: his wife and business partner Meshelle Armstrong. "Some chefs love social networking and want to keep up with it," she says. "But not Cathal." She looks at their website, RestaurantEve.com and its Facebook and Twitter links as important communication platforms. "It allows me to quickly and casually relay information that I want out there," she says. "And the ‘me generation' responds immediately. I've learned how to use it to our advantage. Last week I added images of our bartender creating a new cocktail. Right away the response was, ‘What is that? Yummy. Can we see more? Will you have that tonight?' "

Of course it helps if the restaurant's designated poster looks at the Web as a welcoming place. "My generation is really plugged in to the whole social media thing," says Jason Sobocinski, the 32-year-old founder and owner of Caseus, a popular New Haven bistro and fromagerie. "I'm really using it to the fullest. It's easy. You leave out a lot of detail and get right to the point."

How much time does that take? Sobocinski figures he spends maybe 10 to 15 minutes a day on the Caseus social media sites. He signs into Facebook, checks the restaurant's fan page, sees what different customers have said, and adds current specials. He also sends out a Web-mailer to his client base, but no more than one a week. "I don't want it to be a hard sell," he says. "I want my customers to be waiting for it."

And if all that wasn't reason enough to take advantage of Facebook/Twitter/et al marketing, the real closer is the bottom line. Says Sobocinski, "Social media costs me nothing."

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