Week 3 Social Media for the Restaurant Industry

In today's society there are so many different kinds of restaurant ranging from the cuisine, to the type whether its fast food, casual dining, or even upscale dining.  Each restaurant's goal is to get customers to choose their restaurant over another restaurant and one of the ways to do that is by marketing more specifically using social media marketing. In an article How Restaurants Are Using Social Media Effectively states " One of the reasons social media is such a powerful marketing tool is its ability to foster social proof. Whether that be through avenues as formal as reviews or shares or likes, or as subtle as customers tagging a business in a photo or posting a picture of a product, it sends the message "I support this brand"(Sizer.2017)." This couldn't be more true by customers showing people that they went to that restaurant gives other people the chance to be like I want to go there or no maybe I should try another restaurant instead. The use of social proof is a create way to differentiate your restaurant as well. When a couple friends want to go out to eat looking up restaurants the first thing they do is go to the website or some sort of social media site to see if there is any photos, reviews, or comments about this restaurant.

Social media for restaurants isn't about how many people check out their social media pages whether it's Facebook, Instagram, Twitter but it's the handful of followers that are the most engaging that the restaurants care about. Alex Sizer states " Putting the "social" in social media by encouraging interaction with your connection is, important for maximizing the impact of social media marketing efforts. Likes, comments, shares, and re-tweets all make for far greater exposure, social proof, and brand recognition than a simple one-off click of the "follow" button"(Sizer.2017)." Those likes, shares, and re tweets make the restaurants feel a more personal connection with their customers and allow the customers and the restaurant to engage more.

Overall all industries use social media in some aspect and each industry may take a different approach than another industry. The restaurant industry uses social media to create social proof for the restaurant and to also create that engagement between the customers and the restaurant to want the customers to come back and dine again and also be able to share their experience with their friends and families. At the end of the day restaurants goal is to create that social proof, provide information, target new audiences, create loyalty customers.