"Social Data is radically changing the guest decision-making process," states Kristin Muhlner, CEO of newBrand Analytics. Guests are increasingly turning to social media to share their experiences and find their next great cocktail and dining destination.
Keeping this in mind, it’s pertinent today to explore the use of social data in your marketing and promotions strategies to help analyze beverage trends, identify loyalty drivers, and attract more guests to your establishments. In addition, to identifying key positive and negative themes across the food & beverage industry on social platforms.
Today, four out of five people reverse their purchase decisions based on negative online reviews. Therefore, you can’t afford to ignore the mass of information found and posted about your property on social media.
In order to raise your social intelligence and put together a strategic social media plan within your overall marketing initiatives you need to understand what drives the engagement on your social media platforms.
Muhlner refers to a beverage loyalty analysis she conducted that found that “around 93% of reviewers indicated intent to return when beverages were mentioned. From this, we can infer that increasing beverage buzz on social media would benefit restaurants’ customer loyalty and bottom line.”
This gained social intelligence helps you understand the key experiences that drive guest loyalty allowing more targeted marketing and promotional messaging over social platforms. Owners need to be “analyzing online feedback coming through social media, review and blog sites,” says Muhlner. “When you look at the data and look for themes, you’ll learn how beverages affect loyalty for any given establishment, as well as what key ingredients or menu items receive the highest sentiment.” Thus, allowing you to implement these themes into your venue and promote them through relevant social outlets. This information can prove extremely valuable in a market where uncertainty has some consumers reducing their visits to or spending in restaurants and bar.