2. A summary of The Use of Social Networking Sites in the Restaurant Industry

Social Networking in the American restaurant industry

This is a summary of an academic journal called The Use of Social Networking Sites in the Restaurant Industry: Best practices. It is written by Robin Dipietro, Tena Crews, Cathy Gustafson and Sandy Strick. It has been published in July 2012 in Journal of Foodservice Business Research in United States. This journal is a study about the use of social media sites with the largest chain restaurants in the U.S. and the managers` perceptions of the usefulness of such sites for their organization.

An overall view to technology used in American restaurants

In United States the restaurant business is remarkable for the countries economy and also it is a major industry to provide jobs. Although the size of this industry, restaurants have been notably slower in adopting some available technology. Yet restaurant operations utilize components of technology to increase effectiveness in various aspects of business such as marketing, recruiting, training, guest service, and overall operations. The increasing availability and usage of technolgy has formed new mediums like social media and social networking sites for the restaurants use. All restaurants have their own view towards the use of them. New technology can benefit by increasing customer satisfaction, revenue and efficiency. It can increase both product and service quality.

How social media is involved

Most of the Americans feel stronger conection with companies and feel better served by companies who uses social media to communicate with consumers. In this journal social media is defined as Internet applications that help consumers share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives which can take place in many forms (i.e. YouTube, FB and Wikipedia, Twitter). Social networking is defined as a Web-based service that allows individuals to build a profile within a bounded system, create a list of other users with whom they share a connection and view their and lists created by others within the system. This type of communication has been rapidly increasing for years. Yet many of the restaurateurs do not have the skills or understanding to utilize these mediums.

Restaurants can use social media in the following ways: find employees for a relatively low cost; obtain feedback on new menu offerings; connect with employees; communicate with customers by frequently answering any questions; inform the community of changes within the organization; and boost traffic by using contests and giveaways. While using social media it is important that the organization gives their customer a good reason to talk about it and the chosen media makes two way communication easy. Information should be relevant and valuable and it should be creativite by telling stories. Social media should be use to enhance branding. As the hospitality industry explores using social networking sites to their advantage, there is still some confusion on how these sites can be best used in the restaurant industry.

Summary of the outcoming of the journal

This research shows that there are no consistency in using social media and social network sites in the restaurant industry. Yet the social networking sites are considered to be useful for inexpensive advertising and marketing a restaurant brand. In this specific area there is little of academic research and more should be conduct for further actions. The purpose of this study defines the use of as well as the management perception of social media and social networking in the restaurant industry. Social network will most likely become the primary means used by organizations to establish credibility and gain the trust of its customers which is the key to loyalty. Yet only few organizations have established a social customer relations management strategy.