Social Media Marketing in Restaurants

I posted a blog a while ago called iPhone Restaurant Culture as an expression of my thoughts into the ways in which iPhones are displayed publicly within the hospitality industry. I'm now using my hospitality experience again to discuss how social media is used to market Cafes, Bars and Restaurants. With so much hype surrounding social media marketing and with so many businesses creating Facebook pages just so that they don't get left behind, it's interesting to explore the true effect of them and whether they are the sole means of reaching your customer. 

Now I've already used Facebook to create a business page for the cafe/restaurant where I work and I spent a fair bit of time trying to do it the right way. Having never created a business page before and with no experience in coding, I did some homework into using the FBML application to create an interesting and functional welcome page. I also spent some time photographing the menu and creating albums of all the food we offer. I wanted to offer as much content and useful information to our customers as I could. (You can check out the page here)

The page has been up and running for little over two months now and we already have a good few fans. However, once you take a good look at the insights of your page, a whole lot more information is revealed to you. I found that the vast majority of our fans were young to middle aged females, with very few fans in the 55+ region. This didn't shock me as it's the younger generations that are more inclined to use Facebook actively and check it often. 

This however did get me thinking. Although we have a pretty well established page now, it's only a useful marketing tool for the young to middle aged customers that we serve. Of course we use other means to up-sell and market ourselves (This includes orally telling people our special offers and displaying them round the restaurant using point of sale tools). In a business such as a cafe or restaurant where you cater for such a diverse range of people, it's important to ensure that you market yourself to each demographic in the ways that attract them. While a Facebook page may attract the younger market, it may take the personal touch of a waiter to appeal to the elder customers.  

While the power of Facebook continues to amaze me, I think a lot of business managers expect to be able to create a Facebook page and create a large fan base overnight with little work involved. I feel that for certain industries who are dealing with a fairly diverse market, you will have to look for other means of attracting and connecting with your customers as well as enhancing the power of social media. Not only that, but the social media tool your using has to be used correctly and updated regularly to maintain a sense of value for the fans. 

Thanks for reading

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