- 7 minutes ago
Michael Gnagy, Product Manager at Google, works with business owners to understand where Google can be easier to use. His work includes bringing Google Business Profile into Gemini, helping restaurants manage reviews, schedule posts, improve visibility across Search and Maps, and use AI to get more value from information they already have.
Watch now to learn why posting to Google can help restaurants reach more customers and how AI can make everyday marketing easier.
Restaurant Influencers is sponsored by:
• Toast All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://entm.ag/ToastRI
• PepsiCo Foodservice: https://entm.ag/RIPepsico
Watch now to learn why posting to Google can help restaurants reach more customers and how AI can make everyday marketing easier.
Restaurant Influencers is sponsored by:
• Toast All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://entm.ag/ToastRI
• PepsiCo Foodservice: https://entm.ag/RIPepsico
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00I'm a Gmail user, I have a Google Calendar, I have so many Gmail tools that I use and now
00:05with Gemini being able to actually not only help me personally but also with my business profile is very exciting.
00:13And there's more to come.
00:22Welcome to Restaurant Influencers. I'm your host, Sean Walchef. This is a Cali BBQ Media production in life, in the
00:28restaurant business, and in the new creator economy.
00:31We learn through lessons and stories. We travel to the Google offices in Chicago before the National Restaurant Show to
00:37learn everything that Google is building.
00:39I have Michael Nagy. He is a PM at Google, and he is here to share all of the amazing
00:45things that are going to help your small business and your restaurant.
00:48Mike, what's up?
00:52So Google Gemini has grown tremendously in terms of adoption. You see Gemini available in things like Gmail and Drive.
01:02And, you know, we spotted an opportunity to bring business profile into Gemini, just like you have Google Drive, Doc,
01:10Sheets, you know, so that you can not only ask questions, you know, respond to reviews, figure out how to
01:16craft responses to reviews, create posts, but also use your business profile to ground questions that you might ask Gemini,
01:25you know, based off of everything that we know about your business.
01:29That's amazing. Let's take it even a further step back. For those that don't know, what is Gemini?
01:37Gemini is our flagship large language model product and application. You know, you would think about it like an AI
01:46chatbot.
01:47Like if you've never heard of ChatGPT, I'm sorry that you've been in a coma.
01:52You know, other popular ones would be, you know, obviously, Claude and Gemini is our is our flagship.
02:01Amazing. And what does a small business owner need to do right now to start using Gemini?
02:08Just go to Gemini.Google.com.
02:11And what do they do when they get there?
02:13Yeah. So you can use the at symbol and ask, you know, there's like a list of we call them
02:21apps, Gemini connected apps.
02:23So, like, for example, you can use the at symbol and you can use Gemini to use natural language to
02:30do incredible YouTube searches.
02:32Or you can use YouTube music to find, you know, a collaboration between two artists, you know, that is impossible
02:41to find just using the YouTube music search.
02:45And we're bringing business profile, Google business profile into the list of connected apps so that you can use that
02:53connected app and ask literally anything about your business.
02:57Let's go to Google business profile. What are best practices for somebody that's watching this?
03:03I know coming to these restaurant influencer events, it has forced me to go back to my Cali barbecue team
03:08and make sure that we clean up our profile, make sure that we make sure photos are up to date,
03:13information's up to date.
03:15Can you share some best practices for anybody that's watching?
03:17Oh, this is I think I think getting that list of things to do is something that you used to
03:25have to spend a lot of time doing, like go to my photos tab and see what photos I have
03:31on my profile.
03:32Go see how many videos I have on my profile.
03:35Which reviews have I replied to? Haven't I replied to?
03:38And the beauty of this tool is you can actually ask the tool, what should I be doing with my
03:45profile?
03:45And it will tailor the response to your business.
03:50So, for example, it'll say things like, you know, over the past, you know, say two months, you've had 50
03:56customer uploaded profiles to your photo.
03:59That's great for all these reasons. But you haven't uploaded anything.
04:03And based off of what you have uploaded, here's where you're underrepresented and here's why that's valuable.
04:10And here's the impact that providing that content will have for your for your business and your visibility on search
04:15and maps.
04:16So we started the show. Obviously, we're obsessed with storytelling, the technology that a small business owner, restaurant owner has
04:22now at their fingertips to be able to share stories on all the social platforms is something that we're obsessed
04:29with.
04:30But when I come to these events, you guys consistently remind me the power of posting in my Google business
04:37profile.
04:38Can you share why is it so important that someone that's posting on Instagram or posting on Facebook or creating
04:44a video for TikTok that they also do one for YouTube, YouTube shorts, but also posting within the Google business
04:50profile?
04:50Well, I definitely think that there's an opportunity for us to do a little bit of a better job when
04:57it comes to posting on YouTube and posting on business profile.
05:01Yes, that's it. Maybe that's a 2027 opportunity to bring those things a little bit closer together.
05:06So I just want to plant that seed. However, you know, when you think about social posts and, you know,
05:13I've worked on features that show social posts on on Google search for all those businesses that are not posting
05:22directly on Google.
05:23But just to remind everyone, pulling social posts into Google is a, you know, we have to have a URL
05:33for your business that is crawlable and public and we don't get stories.
05:38So, you know, a lot of businesses on Instagram are posting things as stories which are ephemeral and disappearing and
05:45can't be discovered or indexed or displayed by search.
05:48But even for posts, these things take time. And I think the thing that people often miss is, number one,
05:54with posts, you have the ability to schedule things within the tool, which which we delivered.
06:00You know, if you have multiple properties, you can distribute distribute things like events and offers and updates across all
06:08your different properties were right within the UI.
06:10And most recently we launched it. Actually, the inspiration for this was Google Calendar.
06:16You know, you have a Wednesday trivia and you would have to go into GBP and create that remind yourself
06:25that you needed to post about this trivia thing.
06:27And businesses just frankly did not. And now you can go in and you can say, hey, this thing that
06:32we do every week.
06:33You know, I schedule that for and we do max it out at one year because we don't want business,
06:39you know, businesses change what they're doing.
06:41So like there is a an expiration, but you can set a recurring event or offer to repeat monthly on
06:50a specific day or weekly on a specific day for up to one year.
06:55And the last thing that I'll call out is that social posts are only visible on search.
07:01Go go look at your business profile and see how much traffic you're getting from Google Maps.
07:06Social posts are not available on Google Maps, but if you post on Google, it's available to both search and
07:13maps.
07:14You know, and fresh posts are displayed pretty prominently on maps and we're working on other ways to improve the
07:20discoverability within the maps experience.
07:23So, yeah, I would say performance, scheduling, flexibility, the ability to add call to action buttons, whether it's an order
07:31online button or a book button or a call button, additional metadata on the posts.
07:36You know, there's there's a lot of advantages of posting directly on Google.
07:44Whether you're a global restaurant powerhouse or local independent like us here at Cali Barbecue, we all want the same
07:50thing.
07:50Sustainable growth.
07:52And let me tell you, PepsiCo is a partner built to do exactly that.
07:56Help you build a sustainable business.
07:58As operators, we get it.
07:59We know that digital matters.
08:01Online ordering, third party apps, digital menus, online visibility.
08:05It's a lot.
08:06And it's incredibly hard to prioritize when you're just trying to take care of your kitchen and manage a busy
08:11team.
08:12But a few small digital tweaks can have a massive impact, especially when you have the right team backing you
08:18up.
08:18That's where PepsiCo's digital lab stands apart.
08:21This is an in-house team built specifically for restaurant operators.
08:25They use proven media services and AI-backed menu optimization to drive what actually matters.
08:32More guests, smarter digital experiences, and more profitable online orders.
08:37Just look at the numbers from last year alone.
08:39And the absolute best part, these digital lab services are available completely free to Pepsi restaurant partners of any size.
08:47If you're a Pepsi customer, stop waiting.
08:49Talk to your Pepsi rep today or click the link in the show notes below to learn how to unlock
08:54your growth advantage.
08:55Let's keep that momentum going.
09:00So for us, we love the fact that Google puts on these events.
09:04I mean, there's going to be at least 50 owners, operators, influencers, people that actually run restaurants and small businesses
09:10that come here.
09:11As a product manager, how valuable is it to have that direct feedback from the people in the rooms?
09:16Ooh, I love it.
09:19I love, you know, stripping layers of bureaucracy for me and, you know, the actual user of the product.
09:29You know, I mean, I'm very privileged in that, you know, I have really talented research teams and data science
09:35teams.
09:36But sometimes it's great to just get, like, a temperature check of what you're working on, you know, and understand,
09:42you know, is it valuable?
09:44Is there value in what you're building that you haven't, you know, spotted?
09:50You know, and it can inspire future feature development.
09:55So, like, last year, you know, we made a big deal about announcing the What's Happening feature that shows events
10:02and offers very prominently in high-value, unpaid real estate on your profile.
10:08That feature in and of itself was directly influenced by this community.
10:15Wow.
10:16That's amazing.
10:17That's, I mean, that's why the speed at which technology is changing, obviously, for anybody that's watching, listening to this,
10:23I can't imagine what you have to go through here at Google to roll out, you know, these products.
10:28But it's also understanding that I'm a Gmail user.
10:31I have a Google Calendar.
10:32I have so many Gmail tools that I use.
10:35And now with Gemini being able to actually not only help me personally but also with my business profile is
10:42very exciting.
10:44And there's more to come.
10:46There's a lot more to come from that exact integration that you're describing where, you know,
10:53the business profile tool has this context on your business.
10:57But within Gmail, within Google Drive, there's a lot of additional context that we can bring together.
11:05You know, you think about as a restaurant owner or operator, P&L reports, labor reports, taxes.
11:11You know, you might have all of these things available in Drive, you know, in every piece of additional information
11:19that we can use.
11:20You know, we have this feature called, you know, personal intelligence.
11:24You can imagine that where we're heading is a business intelligence.
11:30You know, that can be unlocked from tools that you're already using.
11:34So it's like not something new that you need to go configure.
11:38It's data that you have available, you know, and you can just enable as a content source.
11:46You know, and you're still in control, right?
11:48Like, you know, has Gmail ever sent an email without you approving it?
11:56No.
11:56I use it to write emails.
11:59I've drafted things within Gemini, told Gemini, save them in drafts.
12:03I put the finishing touches in within Gmail.
12:05And you can imagine a world in which all business profile management happens with this, you know,
12:11very similar meet the business where they are approach.
12:16Did you know that Toast powers over 140,000 restaurants across the United States, Canada, and UK?
12:24It's an incredible company.
12:26I'm on the Toast Customer Advisory Board.
12:28They are proud sponsors of this show, Restaurant Influencers.
12:31We couldn't do it without their support.
12:33They power our barbecue restaurants in San Diego.
12:36If you have questions about Toast, if you're thinking about bringing Toast on to be your primary technology partner at
12:42your restaurants,
12:43please reach out to me.
12:44I'm happy to get a local Toast representative to take care of you.
12:48You can reach me at Sean P. Welch on Instagram.
12:51Once again, thank you to Toast for believing in the power of technology, the power of storytelling, the power of
12:57hospitality.
12:58Back to the show.
12:59So lots of small business owners need marketing help.
13:02Obviously, the World Cup is going to be happening in multiple countries, United States, Canada, Mexico.
13:10How can Gemini and Google, how can Gemini help me as a small business owner, let my community know, let
13:17maps know, things are happening at my restaurant?
13:20And you can watch the games.
13:22Or not watch the games.
13:23Definitely, definitely, posts are an easy one, right?
13:28Because, like, imagine you have a schedule of all the games that you're going to be showing.
13:36You may not have all of them.
13:37You might switch to a different sport.
13:39So, like, say you have that in a spreadsheet or you mentioned in Google Calendar, being able to pull that
13:47into Gemini and use that context to be able to schedule posts in advance.
13:52One of the early pieces of feedback that we got from our trusted testers of this experience was just how
14:00easy it was to create, to, number one, draft, brainstorm, to be able to schedule.
14:09And, you know, they mentioned that they were able to, I don't know, like, set an entire month and a
14:16half worth of posts up in just a few minutes.
14:19You know, and you can use Gemini as well to collaborate on posting ideas for non-Google platforms, right?
14:27So, it's like you might want to tailor something to your followers on TikTok a little bit differently than you
14:35might, you know, post, like, just more factual-oriented stuff inside of Google.
14:40And you can use Gemini for all of those things.
14:42You know, you can do video editing, image editing with things like Nano Banana from prompts.
14:48Things that used to take me, you know, hours to do with Adobe Photoshop by hand are now just like,
14:54hey, remove this background, add this.
14:56You know, remove the napkin in this photo.
14:59Like, I have this amazing photo and the only thing, you know, that's stopping me from posting it is, like,
15:04I wish I could tweak this little thing.
15:06And now you can do that just by typing what you wish you could do and getting the result.
15:13So, one thing I'd love to learn more about is how do I, as a business owner, add context?
15:18So, obviously, I've filled out my Google business profile, best practices, try to update it with information.
15:23But how do I make Gemini know even more about my business?
15:27How can I give it information to ingest to give me better results?
15:31Yeah, so within, there's a few different ways to do that.
15:38One is just by connecting Google Workspace to Gemini.
15:45So, that's one.
15:47The other is within a brand new business notebook experience that we're building.
15:53So, business notebooks are intended to aid in the discovery.
16:00One of the first questions that I got from folks that were looking at some, you know, some of the
16:05preview of business profile in Gemini was, is there a prompt notebook or, you know, like a guide?
16:12We want to make the first-time experience easier for businesses, and we're doing that through taking the idea of
16:20notebooks in Gemini, which allows you to, you know, add a bunch of different sources and create a chat that's
16:27grounded in, you know, these specific facts.
16:29Business notebooks will allow you to view high-value tasks for your business profile, things like, you know, reviews that
16:39you haven't replied to, you know, traffic spikes, patterns, and ask, you know, some predetermined questions about your business profile
16:49that kind of, you know, will get your creative juices flowing.
16:52And then, obviously, you can add additional context, whether that's, like, information that you're putting, like, oh, that information lives
16:59on my website.
17:00It's like, great, just add that website as a source.
17:03Or, you know, I keep all of this marketing collateral in this Google Drive folder called marketing.
17:08The more context, the more you tell Gemini about your brand identity tone, you can save that into a single
17:16thread, and you could use it for, you know, brainstorming collateral, creating collateral, publishing collateral.
17:22You know, all within a business notebook.
17:25Amazing.
17:26If you guys are watching or listening, we also have a restaurant technology substack.
17:29You can subscribe to the substack.
17:31It's free.
17:32You can also go to our Cali BBQ Media YouTube channel.
17:34We have lots of behind-the-scenes content from all of these Google Influencers event.
17:39We want you guys to use all the tools that are available to you.
17:42Is there anything that I should have asked you that I didn't?
17:47I should have asked me that you didn't.
17:49How much does it cost?
17:52That's a great question.
17:53We're going to the National Restaurant Show.
17:55How much is Google?
17:56How much are you charging for this product?
17:58Business Profile in Gemini is a free product.
18:00Stop it.
18:01Free product.
18:02And we're going to be rolling it.
18:04Come on.
18:04It will be rolling out for single listing businesses.
18:09But as we expand to small, medium-sized chains, even large chains, we are not intending to charge for business
18:22profile on Gemini.
18:23That is amazing.
18:23What does success look like for Google?
18:26I think success would be, you know, people are choosing to use Gemini because it makes their lives easier.
18:35Period.
18:36If I can take, you know, updating, you know, if you can use Gemini Live in your car while you're
18:45driving, you know, to workshop a post and publish it.
18:50Or, you know, I need to change my operating hours because I'm doing a private event, you know, and be
18:58able to do that from a smart home speaker.
19:02That's connected to a Google account that has access to your profile.
19:07I think that's what success looks like for me.
19:10Just removing friction from people's lives.
19:13If you guys are watching, if you're listening to this, we care about you.
19:15We care about your business.
19:16Please use these tools and share the story with me.
19:19You can go on Instagram at Sean P. Walcheff.
19:22We're always looking for incredible businesses to highlight on our shows.
19:25We travel all over the country.
19:27We're grateful that you guys listen.
19:28We're grateful for the access that Google has given us to share all of these amazing tools that we have.
19:34We opened up our business in 2008.
19:36I can't believe that we're here talking about these tools that are getting rolled out globally.
19:42I mean, it doesn't matter where you are, right?
19:46We fully intend to launch these tools globally.
19:49It's amazing.
19:51Mike Nagy, thank you so much.
19:52As always, guys, we appreciate you.
19:54Stay curious.
19:55Get involved.
19:56And don't be afraid to ask for help.
19:57We'll catch you next episode.
20:03Thank you for listening.
20:04If you've made it this long, you are part of the community.
20:06You're part of the tribe.
20:08We can't do this alone.
20:09We started.
20:09No one was listening.
20:11Now we have a community of digital hospitality leaders all over the globe.
20:15Please check out our new series called Restaurant Technology Substack.
20:19It's a substack newsletter.
20:20It's free.
20:21It's some of our deep work on the best technology for restaurants.
20:24Also, go to YouTube and subscribe to Cali BBQ Media.
20:28Cali BBQ Media on YouTube.
20:30We've been putting out a lot of new original content.
20:33Hopefully, you guys like that content.
20:35If you want to work with us, go to betheshow.media.
20:38We show up all over the United States, some international countries.
20:41We would love to work with you and your growing brand on digital storytelling.
20:45You can reach out to me anytime at Sean P. Welchef on Instagram.
20:49I'm weirdly available.
20:50Stay curious.
20:51Get involved.
20:52Don't be afraid to ask for help.
20:53We'll catch you next episode.