Social media management for restaurant, food and beverage businesses in 2017 was arguably the most successful form of customer acquisition that the industry has seen since its conception. Customers increasingly seem to turn to social media in order to check out potential brands they wish to use, food venues they wish to try and bars/pubs they wish to frequent.
2018 is looking to be a consistent increase in these trends with social media management leading the chase for customer acquisition and retention.
At SocialWarehouse we ensure we have our fingers firmly on the pulse when it comes to trends and best practises. Our in-house food & beverage niche experts have taken a look at what 2018 has to offer. Here’s what we know:
Restaurant Social Media Usage
(2017) – 80% of restaurants and food establishments using social media for marketing and customer acquisition purposes.
(2018) – A +6.5% increase in this number will see over 86% of the industry now turning to social media to gain new customers.
It’s no secret within the industry nowadays that technology needs to be embraced and it needs to be embraced quickly or you risk being left behind by even the smallest of competitors. The food and beverage industry has always been as fickle as it’s customers and those customers demanded a social presence in 2017 which is looking likely to be reinforced again in 2018. It is expected that restaurants and other food related businesses will see a 6.5% increase across the board in terms of which companies will turn to social media as a key sales funnel in 2018.
“Restaurants aren’t turning to social media out of the blue. They understand their competitors are gaining huge traction in this area and many understand having a social presence is the only route to success going forward”
-Chris Gillies – Social Trends Director @ SocialWarehouse
Are You Looking To Get In On The Action?
Here’s the bad news:
Unfortunately it’s not going to be as simple as creating a profile and posting some pictures to a social media feed. Social media management is an emerging science all unto itself. A simple Google search will show you that companies offering these services aren’t exactly rare – why? Because many people think they can just occasionally update their profile with a photo and some hashtags and many of those people are looking for a business opportunity for their ‘skills’.
True social management involves hundreds if not thousands of different factors, considerations and research elements. Customer demographics, viral content, hashtag research, demographic spending habits, share rate and influencer relationships are just a very few tasks on the road to successful restaurant social media management. Proven social media managers in the current market see an average of 5 years experience before they progress to being account managers in any given field.
Here’s the good news:
It can be learnt and there are many many tools out there to help!
Whilst no tool on the planet can import the knowledge base for a technical role like social media management, there are many tools that can point you in the right direction and guide you a part of the way. We aren’t going to go over every tool here like we have in our other focused blog entries but as we have said before Youtube is a great place to start and we are big supporters of learning by doing – create a fresh account to test what works and what doesn’t.
Even if learning the role is not for you or far too timely, then you can look no further. Our account managers at SocialWarehouse have an average experience of over 7 years within the niches they specialise. We have dedicated teams for niches large and small, so if you need to outsource it or just need some advice be sure to check out our social management packages or contact us.
Restaurant Customer Social Media Usage
(2017) – 61% of adults in the UK currently tweet or post food related content from restaurants they visit
(2018) – A huge +12% increase in this number will see over 73% of UK adults posting, tweeting and re-tweeting food & beverage related experiences.
2017 was truly the year of the ‘food selfie’. It would seem that very few people below the age of 30 (and above for that matter), do not take a picture of a well prepared meal before consumption. Well 2018 is looking at that trend increasing by over 12% across the board.
This marks a huge opportunity for restaurants across the globe to gain some free brand awareness as well as new customers. If you are currently in the food and beverage niche you will understand better than anyone how much presentation matters to your customers and clientele. With the right social management you can engage directly with these posts and even post some of your own for good measure.
A simple retweet might not be enough, but it is certainly a start. Many large brands have now decided to ‘instigate’ these types of exposure. How? Simple…get the ball rolling with your own ‘meal selfies’ of beautiful food served at your establishment or specials on offer. Even bars can get involved with many social media ‘drink selfies’ now becoming norm from 2017 into 2018.
The first bite is certainly with the eye.
Keeping It Personal & Direct
(2017) – 89% of adults in the UK surveyed stated that less than good social interactions with restaurants would see them eat elsewhere.
(2018) – An increase of up to 4% is expected with even more emphasis on the customer service side of social media management.
It used to be common understanding that a happy customer tells 3 people and an unhappy customer will tell 10. With today’s social media following easily accessible to all, the tables have quickly shifted to happy and unhappy customers telling thousands of friends and followers. If that happy or unhappy customer is an influencer within the niche, those thousands soon turn into millions!
As you can understand this can be either a PR god-send or nightmare depending on the situation. Whether the review is good or bad it is imperative that you have a firm grasp on customer service relations in a very timely manner. Customers want a response and they want it quickly. Gone are the days of late responses or lacklustre customer service. Whether its good PR or bad PR, it can quickly sour from good to average or from bad to terrible without the right handling.
2018 is ready to firmly cement it’s place as the year that social media becomes the absolute forefront of customer service interactions. Whilst its arguably true that 2016 itself was the year for social media customer service, our analysts have confirmed beyond doubt that 2017-2018 will dwarf that trend very quickly.
It is with that in mind that SocialWarehouse are the forefront of social media customer services. Our in-house customer service experts are on hand offering different SLA response times to suit every business need and structure. Contact us today and join our long list of happy customers to make sure your PR is as good as it can be.
