Social Media and Hospitality Spiro Pappadopoulos

People often times think of the restaurant business as a business that profits from feeding people. They are wrong. The restaurant business, is not about feeding people. If it was about simply feeding people, all but the most simple restaurants would fail, and fail in short order.

The restaurant business is alive and well for the following reason; the experience of dining out in a public place and being served. There is no comparison between the social interaction which takes place in a public restaurant and that in a home kitchen. There is convenience, there is a greater selection food and drink, there is professional service, but in truth all these things pale to the real reason restaurants are able to survive. People crave social interaction, they crave to be known and recognized at their regular place, they look forward to talking to the pretty bartender, they hope to meet a stranger at the bar, they just don’t want to sit at home alone.

AND… they need to eat, or sometimes just have a few cocktails. I have done it, you have done it, every adult who is remotely normal has done it. It is a nearly universal human quality, that we crave interaction with other humans, and the restaurant industry is a conduit to that interaction. It serves a needed commodity (food) but what it sells is actually the experience.

Now it becomes clear why social media is such a strong tool in the marketing of a restaurant, and when done with skill, class, and a professional dedication why it is so successful. It takes what is locked inside the walls of a restaurant, bar, or hotel and allows it to be spread, shared, and seeded into the daily experience of the friends and friends of friends of a restaurant. It creates the clout of a regular through shared pictures of customers enjoying their time there, it shows the types of events and happenings that can sell the experience, it reminds proven customers of experiences they have had in the past.

All with one goal, to put people in seats more often.

I would like to show you what can be done for your restaurant, for less than the last magazine ad you purchased, for less than the last direct mail piece you sent. See what a pioneer in Social Media for Hospitality is doing right now, behind the scenes for some of the industry’s best restaurants. Visit GuestFeed and see for yourself. (I am affiliated)