This article is really interesting because it introduces a new side of marketing to the restaurant industry. In our innovative world today the restaurant industry is now taking advantage of the social media in order to market their restaurants. No longer is the industry using the traditional methods of advertising in local newspapers or relying on word-of-mouth throughout the neighborhood. Now, social media such as Facebook or Twitter allows restaurant’s to have an accelerated growth in its customer base. The use of the internet allows businesses, whether big, small, or local, to market with unlimited ad space and airtime.
“Today, 70 percent of local businesses are marketing through Facebook—more than anywhere else on the Internet.” Luckily, Facebook is an easy site to manage correctly if a company performs proper maintenance and pays attention to always updating at a steady pace. “With this in mind, social media-savvy restaurant owners are acquiring and retaining new customers at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising.” Most importantly, businesses can differentiate through creative and attentive marketing in social media.
A restaurant in Manhattan, Zengo, believes that “Facebook is a platform for two-way communication between a restaurant and its clientele.” Through Facebook, Zengo retains their customers by actively posting events, recipes, interesting stories and Facebook-specific specials for their fans. Even through Facebook, Zengo customers can make reservations and sign up for Zengo's mailing list. Since there are over 500 million active Facebook users where 50 percent are logging in everyday, restaurant owners must realize that engaging the users is crucial for their business.
Other businesses such as The Burger Shoppe in NYC offer a free side of fries or onion rings to loyal customers who have checked in via Foursquare. This form of marketing allows an increase in clientele by a word-of-mouth buzz, drawing new customers, and most importantly retaining current ones.
Such forms of marketing are essential to a business because of the influence of the technological environment. Advances in communication through Facebook, Twitter, or Foursquare may be one of the most influential factors affecting modern business. It allows small businesses to compete with large corporations around the world by marketing to keep a loyal clientele. Most likely, many people customers are already using such social media daily therefore businesses should take advantage of the innovative marketing approach.
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