Half of Restaurant Owners Proclaim, "Social Will Never Work"
A recent survey by MustHaveMenus a provider of restaurant menu templates, revealed that nearly half of the 1,300 restaurant owners, managers and caterers that were polled, do not use social media to attract customers to their eateries. While social media usage among restaurateurs is growing, a large percentage of eating establishments are social media holdouts.
Here are some of the key findings from the study:
• 42% of restaurant owners and managers invest in social media efforts (including blog participation, and managing their Twitter and Facebook accounts.
• 12% of restaurants and caterers hire someone to manage their social media presence.
• 23% of respondents do not believe that they need to use social media as a marketing tool.
• 23% of respondents believe that they don’t have time to devote to social media, along with all their other restaurant management duties.
“Running a restaurant or catering business doesn’t leave much spare time for owners and managers,” said Jim Williams, CEO of MustHaveMenus, a leading online provider of restaurant menus and marketing designs for the food service industry. “But we believe that social media deserves that extra effort as a marketing vehicle. Eating is a social occasion, and social media is a great way to turn a great meal into a tip for friends, family and foodies."
David Graham, chef and owner of 38 Central, a neighborhood restaurant serving American classics in Medford, Oregon, was an initial social media holdout. “I had heard of and visited MySpace, but dismissed the marketing potential of it. The medium seemed only to reach the 21 and under [demographic], not what I saw as our target,” said Graham. Then a customer opened Mr. Graham's eyes to the marketing potential of the social stratosphere and walked him through the basics of setting up a Facebook Page and a Twitter account.
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