We all know it takes more for a restaurant to get popular than just serving great food. It also needs to market itself and connect with its customers. Social media has proved a useful tool in serving this very purpose. From launching a new product to harvesting reviews, social media has benefited restaurants in a number of ways. Here are three of the best:

1.Locating Food

Location based services like Foursquare have not only shown the hungry man the way to a nearby food paradise, but they’ve also played an active role in building a loyal customer base for restaurants. While these services have enabled restaurant owners to put their outlet on the virtual map, they have also delivered foodies with a platform to express their loyalty. With Foursquare, a person frequenting a particular restaurant may compete with other customers and become the “Mayor” of that place. Coupon Applications on Facebook and QR codes are other ways of bridging the communicative gap between outlets and customers. With such social platforms, restaurants can now take notice of the customer’s loyalty.

2.Online Reviews

Gone are the days when restaurants tucked in a feedback slip with your check. While most people are in too much of a hurry to even fill out the survey, some just lie in an effort to be polite. Writing online reviews give customers a chance to get their views across without having to do so in person. This enables them to share genuine reviews which can either be a detailed rant about the decor and ambiance of the place or just a line expressing how yummy the food was. These online reviews have helped restaurants with the management of their ORM (Online Reputation Management). They have also proved to be more accessible and more genuine than paper surveys.

3.Tracking Mentions and Keywords

Twitter, twitter on my screen, who ordered toast and baked beans? Food outlets have often used social media sites like Twitter to take notice of loyal customers over the vast world of the internet. A simple mention of your favorite dish can bring you on a more personal level with your favorite restaurant. Whether it is tracking down people who are enjoying a newly introduced dish or reading about a customer’s unsatisfactory visit to an outlet, restaurants have always used social media to fill the communicative void between themselves and customers.