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Chapter 2 Review of Related Literature In this chapter all articles related to the development of food and hospitality industry

such as restaurants, bars, hotel and travel were further discussed and emphasized via books, journals, and case studies in relation to the use of social networking sites. Conceptual Literature Online communities allow people to gather together on the Internet for various reasons, including searching for and sharing information, discussing communal issues, and making inquiries (Wang & Fesenmaier, 2004). With rapid changes in information technology, these online activities are now performed via a new form of communication technology known as Web or social media (Gretzel, Kang, & Lee, 2008). Facebook fan pages, which can strengthen the relationships with current consumers and attract potential consumers. The Internet has revolutionized communication, allowing individuals and organizations to overcome geographical and time constraints, which in turn allows consumers and companies to connect around the world at any time (Harris & Rae, 2009).

Many companies view the use of online communities as a profitable marketing tool from which they can derive several benefits. 1) Companies can obtain vast amounts of feedback regarding their products and brands by monitoring consumer s online conversations. 2) Enabling them to resolve problems quickly and work to improve future

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brand performance (Madupu, 2006). 3) Online communities provide a real-time resource regarding market trends and consumer needs. Companies can use these resources to modify advertising messages and develop special targeted features for future products. In addition, companies can observe whether their brands are truly suited to consumers lifestyles and can learn which features of their products make them special or unique in consumers eyes (Kozinets, 1999). Through online communities, companies allow consumers to become involved, directly or indirectly, in creating new products and brands (Sawhney & Prandelli, 2000). Overall, the popularity of online communities has heavily influenced many firms such as the marketing activities in recent years.

According to Kokemuller (2013) there are three media avenues used as advertising means namely: TV ads, radio ads and latest social media ads. TV ads consumes the most expensive ones spending a minimum of $10, 000 to $ 25,000 but offers one of the broadest sensory appeals and creative opportunities. It presents stories with characters, movements, visuals, written and verbal copy, sound and product demonstration in a series of few seconds. Radio ads in the other hand, is more affordable but it does not contain visual components. Message effectiveness is based only to creative copy mixed with effective sounds and narratives. This two media, the TV and radio advertising are part of old guard in advertising known more for passive messages aimed at creating a memorable effect that ultimately leads to buying activity. While social media, has the smallest to no placement cost, payment only happens to personnel handling social media. It now ranges the broadest sensory appeal complete with details, often consisted of the products usage directions, materials, name of the
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company, from video streaming through YouTube to brief text copy exchanges with the marketing on Twitter or Facebook. Its emergence has coincided with increased emphasis on customer engagement in advertising. This means companies want more direct, real-time and interactive exchanges with customers that provide immediate feedback and personal connections.

According to Moreland (2012), social networking is an online phenomenon where people can connect and collaborate, personally and professionally. It is a tool that will improved customer relationships, improved employee relations and employee engagement, identification of new business service lines, improved employee development initiatives, improve recruitment efforts at a lower cost and increased productivity. According to Rowe (2011) social media's power to create a public face for your restaurant can help in your hiring efforts as well. A study by CareerBuilder found that potential hospitality hires were likely to use social media to research employers and jobs. Besides job postings, they are looking mainly for fast facts about the restaurant, evidence that working there is fun and information about career paths. Human resources recruiters can also scour the lists of people who "like" the company to see if there is a potential match between a given user and an available job vacancy. It can also build a network of potential employees, can serve as both a recruitment and a headhunting ground. LinkedIn on the other hand allows you to post jobs and find the best qualified candidates based on your set criteria. HR professionals to locate potential employees by monitoring the feeds of people in their extended

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network of current and former employees, as well as any followers of the company's feed (www.officearrow.com). Essentially, Twitter can be used as a screening tool to identify individuals who may be a good fit for the company. An online forum to your company's website gives current and former employees a means of expressing their job satisfaction to potential employees who are researching the company in preparation for a job interview or in response to a recruitment campaign (www.officearrow.com). According to Summers (2013) in terms or recruitment, HR department can save time, effort and of course expenses in reaching out to candidates for the vacant position. Many organizations have found novel ways to use social media to recruit outstanding talent, engage their in-house and virtual workforces, as well as manage their global brands (Miranda, 2013). Social media is no longer a nice to have, its a must to have when communicating, understanding and monitoring our competition, candidates and employees (Merrell, 2013). Recruiting teams use job feeds and some automation but the focus is on building relationships, answering questions and providing resources to job seekers driving applicant traffic to their company careers page. A brand community is comprised of consumers who are interested in a specific brand (Jang, Ko, & Koh, 2007). There are two types of online brand communities: consumer initiated and company-initiated. As the names suggest, a consumer-initiated brand community is developed voluntarily by consumers, whereas a company-initiated community is sponsored and developed by a company. In a consumer-initiated community, consumers benefit from uncensored feedback from other members (Jang,

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Olfman, Ko, Koh, & Kim,2008). In contrast, a company sponsoring an online community may control the content posted by its members. For instance, a message may be deleted if it contains negative consumer opinions and experiences. If consumers recognize these actions, the company may fail to build a strong online community because consumers can lose trust in the company and its brand because of the perceived lack of transparency (Jang et al., 2008). A company should seek to foster high levels of trust in and commitment to its brands in company-sponsored online communities, factors that are more critical to the company than in consumer-initiated communities (Jang et al., 2008).Through participation in a company-sponsored online community, consumers can compare products or services, share experiences with other users of the products, and suggest alternative product choices. Moreover, consumers who participate in companysponsored online communities are often able to obtain exclusive information and special deals (Antikainen, 2007) offered by the company. In such communities, companies can enhance their relationships with consumers by providing special benefits that consumers consider important (Antikainen, 2007). Through online member activities, positive attitudes about other members of the community may be generated, and a sense of belonging can develop. This further encourages consumers to share their experiences about the companys products, especially when they have compliments or complaints (Madupu, 2006). Because of the benefits of participating in online communities, a growing number of consumers join company-sponsored online communities before making purchasing decisions (Muniz &OGuinn, 2001).Researchers have emphasized that community members active participation is critical in ensuring an

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online communitys long-term survival (Madupu, 2006). Consumers may be dissuaded from joining online communities if they do not see active communication among the members and company. If the communities do not provide useful information about products or brands, then consumers may show little interest in joining

(Preece,Nonnecke, & Andrews, 2004). Conversely, online communities with actively participating members can attract new consumers and entice existing members to visit the community more frequently or for longer periods (Preece, 2000). According to Nielsen (2009) Facebook, the leading social network in the world, sets up its success on social casual games (Di Loreto and Gouaich, 2011) that recreate a business idea that in some cases belongs to the tourism and hospitality sector (hotels, bars, restaurants, theme parks or shopping malls) where social interaction and the development of the so called golden mechanics (pushing the user to repeat the same actions several times a day) constitute the foundation of social games success (Buckman, 2011). This describes the social activity that occurs between individuals within the players community of Restaurant City on Facebook that contribute to point out some applications for tourism and hospitality sector (Rebecca & Forbes 2009). According to Finch, (2009) getting visual creates more response than text-only posts; Engaging in social media with customers isnt supposed to be corporate and offer free analytics tools you can use to measure the results of your social media activity. The effectiveness of social media isnt the tool; its listening, answering questions and connecting with others. These tools are just opportunities to connect your customers to your brand and by connecting with them theyll tell others about you. Social media are just instruments, supporting tools but the life of business itself comes

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from the management and the resources with a little luck and a lot of hard work and determination to achieve goals (http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/social-mediamarketing/social-media-for-restaurants/). According to Stelzner (2012) the number-one benefit of social media marketing is generating more business exposure. It offers the best platforms to foster businesses with solid inline presence. Social media allows a business to put a face to their name, enticing visitors to come back again and again after becoming familiar. Once the business establishes a positive connection with guests, repeat sales start to build. Businesses use social media to gain exposure for their products, services and brands (McWilliam, 2000). Online networking platforms, blogs, podcasts and other media can do wonders when it comes to bringing like-minded people together. When used as a marketing tool, social media can help businesses enhance brand awareness, improve sales and increase overall profits (Brogan, 2012). According to Lesonsky, (2012) social media is relatively new and the advantages are abundance such as it is affordable, it is viral and has the potential to spread brand awareness quickly and far and it is said to be able to develop link baits, attention and massive amounts of traffic to attract new customers. According to Cohen, 2011, creating content across a variety of media formats that are integrated into an overall marketing plan can efficiently meet a range of prospect and customer needs while eliminating duplicate efforts and reducing costs. Restaurant marketers can maximize their return on investment and reduce advertising cost if they are able to convert more of your Web visitors into leads. By itself it may not produce the results, but when combined with your other marketing initiatives it can be a
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vital source for lead generation campaign while helping to increase sales, reduce advertising costs, and produce a higher return on investment.

According to Nunes, (2013) with a well-planned strategy, you can use your highquality content posts to generate sales, reducing the overall need for advertising by just engaging to your audience. It might take time to grow a following, but it absolutely can be done for only the cost of Facebook, or some other major network. Any of these techniques can save you a lot of money, directly target interested consumers, and reduce your company's paper trail.

There are ten ways social media can benefit your bar or nightclub. 1) Improved brand awareness. It improves visibility and eventually leads to sales conversion. Since social media platforms can reach a greater audience than a flyer on a window, your brand awareness has a better chance of improvement. 2) Increased traffic from new customers, when potential customers locate a business through social media platforms they have a chance to learn about the business before visiting it in person. With professional and inviting messages, expect on receiving more customer traffic. 3) Sales growth is an increased result of improved awareness and increased traffic due to word of-mouth marketing, discounts, specials or events offered over social media channels that encourage participation and patronage. 4) Repeat business, social media allows a business to put a face to their name, enticing visitors to come back again and again after becoming familiar. Once the business establishes a positive connection with guests, repeat sales start to build. 5) Low cost and high return, social media are usually low-cost forms of marketing. Although Facebook is not free, business owners should

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always be in control of their final budget. With the right balance of messaging and promotions, the return potential can be sky-high. 6) Events and promotions communications, when hosting an event or launching a new menu item, communicating about it helps ensure a good turn-out. Social networking sites have a unique ability to stir the masses with very little effort. 7) Enhanced customer interaction, social media tools offer customer insight, guests conversation about the establishment, experiences and desires for improvement. Spend time to see what people say, ask and interests because when guests feel engaged and important, they more likely to patronize a business. 8) Positive testimonials, word of-mouth appeals to first-hand reviews of customers very seriously when it comes to purchasing products or services or even going out for happy hour. Social media channels can be a canvas paint of both a positive and a negative image of your establishment. 9) Means of monitoring online reputation, social media is made up of several forms of listening tools, which afford us the ability to listen to the things customers are saying, both good and bad. Read customer comments online, and consider any negative reviews a learning experience. Communicate effectively if needed, and grow the business in a positive direction. 10) Complementary to other campaigns, social media can run hand-in-hand with traditional marketing strategies, and even help promote those campaigns further (Brogan,C. & Wire,N. 2010). According to McWilliam (2000), the impact of online communities constitutes on building strong relationships between companies and their consumers. Social networkings helps do everything from manage reservations and tables to notify diners via text message that their tables are ready and alert followers of last-minute availability.

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These are information like happy hours, drink and dinner specials, entertainment and more. It also shares check-in numbers with users to give them an idea of how lively the place is likely to be. For a monthly fee, social networking offers restaurant operators a web dashboard for managing online promotions and social media. Restaurants have a unique opportunity they can showcase the food, provide recipes, explain the origin of a dish and shoot videos of the chefs in action (Tan, 2012). According to Crandell, (2012) salesmen now expect the customer to know what they want and need, know about the product and know about the company they are purchasing from. Getting more insight into buying behaviours via social media helps develop messages that help the business. More time should be spent on teaching sales to use social media to build a meaningful relationship with the buyers and have sales conversations that prospects customers that will help the sales. Consumers who participate in company-sponsored online communities are often able to obtain exclusive information and special deals (Antikainen, 2007) offered by the company. In such communities, companies can enhance their relationships with consumers by providing special benefits that consumers consider important (Antikainen, 2007). According to Giordano, (2013) social media can provide a direct line to customers. It can also shape a companys image by showing that they engage with customers in a public space and look to solve problems. It can allow companies to get creative in their customer relationships and answer questions quickly and with no regard to geographic location with less man power than traditional call centers and services.

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Social media allows you to reach out to customers more than ever before. Social networking encourages a dialogue between people to discuss your restaurant with their friends, as well as with you directly. There are many different ways to use social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, or Pintrest, for customer service, from announcing daily specials to addressing customer complaints. The key to enhancing your restaurant customer service through social media is consistency. According to Kimes, (2008) delineated ways restaurants can benefit from new technology by increasing customer satisfaction, increasing revenues, and helping employees become more efficient. Technology can be used to increase customer satisfaction and thereby lead to increase revenue by giving the customer more control over the service experience and providing convenience. Restaurants can become more efficient in their speed of service as well as increase product and service quality with a more efficient labor force through the use of technology. The use of interactive media and technology can also be used to train employees in restaurants. DiPietro (2004) compared the training effectiveness of three training methods: classroom training, interactive media training, and on-the-job training. The effectiveness of the different training methods was measured through the use of mystery shoppers, customer complaints, and customer satisfaction surveys before and after training took place. Another benefit of using interactive media to train is that this type of training can take place consistently at various times both on and off the premise. Additionally, the millennial generation of employees appreciates and even expects that technology will be utilized for training (DiPietro 2004).

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Another restaurant encourages each worker to bring in at least 10 customers per shift using social media (Peck, 2009). These companies are using social networking tools to generate interest in their company, gain feedback, and communicate with employees and customers. Several companies and industry leaders have made recommendations for restaurants who are considering using social networking sites to consider it as a form of word of mouth advertising. Restaurants can capitalize on social media by uniting people who have a common interest in their brand, obtain feedback, and use it for word of mouth advertising (LaFave, 2009). In addition, he recommended using these mediums to engage the entire organization and customers in discussion. It is noted the

importance of having clear goals and guidelines across the entire organization regarding the use of social media as a communication tool (LaFave,2009). According to Madupu, (2006) companies can obtain vast amounts of feedback regarding their products and brands by monitoring consumers online conversations, thus enabling them to resolve problems quickly and work to improve future brand performance. According to Swartz, (2013) businesses have been engaged in social networking sites because they believe that problems can be easily addressed and the communication will be fast and convenient for employers and employees. Social media has become many companies answer to providing better customer service by engaging with problems they find online, responding to complaints and providing more personal feedback,

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Non-retailer, special interest websites have also implemented social web features to broaden their appeal. In addition to exchanging recipes with others through the website, users are able to rate and post reviews of recipes they have tried, and to provide suggestions as to how to improve or alter them according to the website, "The ratings/reviews...are a valuable resource to our community because they show how the members and their families feel about a recipe. Feedback is used to evaluate and classify recipes based upon how successfully they passed through the site's "editorial process" and to what extent they were approved by site members (www.wikipedia.com) More research should be conducted in the use of social networking in the restaurant and hospitality industry to determine the best practices for the future. The current study shows what is currently being done by a random sample of the top 400 restaurant chains as well as manager perception of the use of the social networking sites, but looking at the future uses and best practices will help restaurant organization stay ahead of the competition and create a competitive advantage for them. Consensus among many restaurant operators reveals most believe social networking has a place in their business model, even if many are still trying to figure out its best use. The National Restaurant Association (2010b) reports that 40% of full service operators and over 50% of quick service operators who were not using Facebook as late of 2009, planned to be using some form of social networking within 2 years. Other forms of social media were also gaining attention. Thirty-eight percent of these quick service operators also plan to launch blogs, while approximately 20% of the full service operators expect to be using Youtube or other video sharing sites within 2 years (LaFave, 2009).

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There are ten ways restaurant and entertainment industries can use social media to market. In a recent Yahoo article about Yelp and its impact on the restaurant industry, it was found that an online rating can seriously influence a restaurants revenues by gaining feedback and insight on service, events and menu items, promote events for new menu items and specials, encourage trials by offering specials and discounts, using employees as your own brand ambassadors that spread the word about your brand, having a direct dialogue with your current customers and potentially reaching new ones, updating customers and your community on new projects, such as new openings or remodels, increase excitement and foot traffic by sharing information, such as contest and giveaways, use social networking sites to connect with your franchises and create an online support community, find employees, monitor reputation and provide complaint resolutions(Lake,L.2013) A recent survey by Research In Motion, the makers of BlackBerry, found that 69% of small firms using social networks felt it helped them to compete more effectively with larger competitors. The research found that 53% of business leaders who utilize social networking were pursuing a growth strategy while among those who don't use it, 70 per cent were focused purely on cash management (Maxwell,C.2012). It's understandable that many companies are yet to take full advantage of social networking sites so say the experts at research consultancy TNS, who recently completed a survey of more than 72,000 consumers in 60 countries and concluded that brands are losing time and money online with ineffective social networking strategies. Social networking sites is still a relatively new phenomenon in terms of its mass-market adoption so companies not having their stuff together in this area are excusable

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(Frogatt,M.2012).Here are the ten (10) Dos and Don'ts for businesses to consider when seeking new customers via social media and networking sites. (Maxwell,C.2012). Do: Channel your efforts. Choosing the wrong channel, or simply adding to the cacophony of online noise, risks alienating potential customers and impacting business growth. So, first, it's crucial to think about which of the main networks you choose to use and how you approach them. According to Mashable.com, the online social media hub, Twitter should be seen as conversational and quick fire the place to give bites of the latest company news, personal insights from manager, the business leader, and responses to customer queries. Facebook is about sharing and involvement so use it to post links to presentations, photos of new products, invitations to events and to ask customers questions useful for research. LinkedIn is the place to showcase the complete professional credentials of you and your business to a potential customer and should always be up to date. Google+, meanwhile, segments people into groups by their interests and targets them with relevant information (Froggatt,2012). Don't: Open too many accounts. A new report from Altimeter Group found that the average enterprise-class company has 178 corporate-owned social media accounts many of which lie dormant. It's just a poor customer experience, because it's been abandoned (Owyang,J.2011). Do: Lead from the front, an interesting, regularly updated social media presence from the leader of a business can really impress potential customers. Many chief executives are deterred by the perceived time commitment, but Twitter, Facebook and Google+ user says it's not such a chore; It's not that hard to do. It's fun to share what I'm doing and who I'm with be it at a Carbon War Room meeting with climate wealth
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entrepreneurs, the Grand Prix with Rihanna, checking out Virgin Galactic space vehicles with future astronauts or raising money for the London Marathon (Branson,R.2011). Dont let it become a distraction. A chief executive's social networking sites account is less sustainable if attended to on an ad-hoc basis. The funny thing is most people get in trouble with social networking sites because they don't schedule times of engagement. Because of this they end up on it all day, being distracted from important work and then feeling frustrated and throwing in the towel. Set aside an hour each day to check on it (Patel,N.2012). Do: Be sure to respond. Once you open up a channel of networking interaction, consistently responding to any correspondence received is essential, and can impress existing and potential customers. A survey by Mr. Youth, a New York-based marketing agency specializing in social media, found that brands using social networking are responding to only 61 per cent of inquiries made on their Twitter accounts, and 55 per cent of inquiries on Facebook and yet conversions to purchase have reached as high as 80 per cent when potential customers received a response (Youth,M.2010). Don't only answer when you have to. On the one hand there's the chance to respond quickly when an answer is demanded, to demonstrate they are listening and they care. But then there's also the opportunity, when there's less expectation of a rapid response, to surprise and delight with a message which demonstrates that the brand is out there, alive and being sociable (Froggatt,2012). Do: Use existing followers as advocates. Users can be cynical about cold contact from brands via social networks, but that caution appears to ease if this type of contact

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is passed on via a friend. Research by KISSmetrics claims that 38% of Facebook users would be more likely to become a fan of a brand on the network if they saw that a family member or friend had done so. Encouraging your existing followers to recommend you by giving you a 'like' or sharing a link is a useful tactic of reaching more potential new customers (Maxwell,2011). Don't expect them to do this for nothing. Ask people why they engage with brands online, says the head of influencer marketing at TNS. And the answer in the UK was they want something from it they will advocate for a discount. People are conscious of their potential to influence what a brand is doing. Offering incentives like entry into a prize draw or making people eligible for a discount by giving them a 'like', or sharing a particular product link, is a way to gain followers (Lawrence,Z.2010). Do: Allocate enough staff to social media. Once you're in properly, you can't have a good quarter and then run away. Cooke agrees, and believes staffing properly is crucial. A key consideration is the resources you invest to listen moderate and respond in social spaces. Dedicated internal editorial resource is a key investment priority to maximize the value of operating social media and provides feedback to the business about how your customers want to interact (Froggatt,et al.2012). Dont fail to provide guidelines. It's imperative to provide clear guidance on what they can and can't say about their employer and their work publically in social spaces. As we have seen in the media recently, Twitter comments need to be treated as if you are speaking to a journalist holding a microphone (Cooke,J.2009). Do: Keep it real, while demonstrating to people that you're there and you care can enhance their perception of your brand, businesses should resist the temptation to over29

exploit this direct line to customers. Remaining true to the spirit of personal social media interactions is key; chasing followers makes you look desperate. You should provide great content and discussions on your social networks that make people want to join. Social media space is not brand space it's owned by consumers. People's Facebook page is their space and their world. Brands were not invited to this party, so they need to think carefully about how they pitch up (Froggatt, et al.2011) Don't fall into the spam trap. In 2009, when Twitter was all the rage, it was easy to follow someone and get them to follow you back. That doesn't work so well now because so many businesses abused those followers with spam. Research by InsideFacebook.com, the tracking site, notes that auto-posting messages to Facebook decreases likes and comments by 70 percent (Patel, et al.2012). Do: Use it to test new products, with a growing base of followers in place, brands should generate interest in new products ahead of launch by making social media an integral part of a broader development and marketing process, says founder of digital agency Fortune Cookie: These things can be blended to good effect, as Philips did with their Wake Up The Town experiment to test its natural daylight lamp in Svalbard,Norway a powerful campaign [which included the use of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and blogs] seen and engaged with by more than 2.5 million people (Cooke,et al.2012). Don't overlook opinions you didn't seek. Making time to read what your followers are talking about among themselves can also pay off. If there's a discussion going on about your biscuit brand and someone says they wish they made an orange flavor, and

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everyone else is agreeing, that's a little piece of insight you would have never otherwise received that's coming naturally from the consumers (Lawrence,2012). Do: Be patient. An effective social media strategy requires time and, if available, extra resources but business leaders should resist their natural instinct to see rapid returns and look at the longer-term picture. When starting to use social media to drive business to your company, set aside the desire to see immediate results. Build relationships (Patel,et al.2012). Dont take negativity to heart. When opening up to opinions from your customer base, it's inevitable that there will be negative comments research by TOA Technologies claims that 80 per cent of customer service tweets are negative. But people's tendency to use social media for gripes isn't deterring. Social media allows to hear what people are saying on a daily level about each business and the brand, too the good, the bad and everything in between (Branson,et al.2012). Do: Get the measure of everything. Social media engagement needs to be underpinned by clear objectives and measurable KPIs just as you would have in any other aspect of your business. Integrating social media analytics is critical to understanding the role of social media in your customer engagement. Over time they will be able to show the impact of social media on customer activity. With user friendly social media dashboards such as Hoot Suite able to track the activity of all your social media sites at once, this kind of information is easily accessible and, most importantly, not hugely time consuming(Cooke,et al.2012). Dont stop there. Keep an eye out for emerging players in the social media sphere who could prove a useful path to new customers. For example, Tumblr, the well-

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established blogging site, surprised even itself with a sudden six-fold growth last year all of a sudden, it started to get a lot of international traffic of the uplift that saw three billion extra hits in 2011(Karp,2011). Do: Include apps, widgets and tools.London's City Airport has launched a Twitter tool allowing followers to check real-time details on flights by tweeting their flight number to @lcyflightinfo. The result has been a Twitter and Facebook following three times more likely to engage with and recommend the airport via social networking than any other European airport. "Social media has transformed the way the airport communicates and interacts with customers over the past two years," says chief commercial officer Matthew Hall. Simple Google searches can locate an endless array of free, quickly downloadable interactive elements to add to your sites from voting polls to shopping baskets (Hall,M.2010). Dont lose consistency. The more sophisticated your cross-social media platform activities become, the more important it is to keep a consistent brand message emerging from all of them. You need to think holistically about how you package and integrate material across brand website, blog, LinkedIn page, Facebook page, YouTube channel, Twitter feed, Flickr account and so on(Cooke,et al.2012). There are disadvantages of using social networks as marketing tools according to Rhonda Abrons of Demand Media (2013). 1) Social Networking is Time Intensive, As the name implies, social media is interactive, and successful, two-way exchanges take commitment. The nature of marketing changes in social networks, with the focus placed on establishing long-term relationships that can turn into more sales. Somebody has to

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be responsible to monitor each network, respond to comments, answer questions and post product information the customer deems valuable. Businesses without a service to manage these social networks will find it difficult to compete; 2) social marketing seen as intrusive. Some avid social network members feel that marketing and advertising is intrusive to their privacy. According to Web Pro News, eight out of 10 social media users feel ambivalent to uneasy about sharing personal information and place social networks low in security confidence. The practice of shaping ads and campaigns off member information collected from social networking sites has stirred a wave confidentiality controversy, and marketing efforts can be met with bitterness and offensive reactions; 3) lack of feedback control. One aspect of social networking that is especially damaging to marketing campaigns is negative post responses. Unhappy customers or industry competitors are able to post disparaging or offensive pictures, posts or videos and there is not much a marketer can do to prevent these occurrences. Still, negative or other non-constructive feedback cannot be ignored. Social networks must be managed efficiently enough to immediately respond and neutralize harmful posts, which takes more time. 4) most social networks are free to join and operate, but without paid advertising to firmly target their customer base, local businesses often end up with followers who are not local. The best use of marketing through social networking sites is to collect information from customers regarding their interests and motivations for repeat business. Social marketing can fall flat when customers and clients are not around to frequent local businesses and accurately provide data through using the service. To some extent, e-commerce options can optimize this disadvantage by offering online products or services. 5) mainly attracts current brand users.

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Another potential downside to social network marketing is that it easily attracts current loyal customers, but much more effort is required to attain new business. Of course, this is excellent to rouse existing patrons into making repeated purchases. According to Northern Illinois University, loyal brand users can also be actively channeled into peer-to-peer marketing through the social networks. Current patrons can influence new consumers to try services and products. The marketing balancing act is to avoid pure advertising that social consumers detest and create relationship bonds. In a large organisation, it is usually easier to identify separate functional areas because people work together in departments. Each department carries out the tasks that relate to its particular area. The main purpose of functional areas is to ensure that all important business activities are carried out efficiently. This is essential if the business is to achieve its aims and objectives. In addition, specific areas will be responsibility for supporting specific types of aims and objectives.

Research Literature The title of the social media case study: The local restaurant that could.. of West Caf company. The Social Media Marketing Team is Lisa Peyton and Bonfire social media. The campaign length is six months, September 2008 March 2009 and the result is 34% increase in overall restaurant sales (Peyton,2010). According to Peyton (2010), the challenge consists of economic recession hit Portland small business owners hard in late summer and early autumn of 2008. West Caf, a small upscale neighborhood restaurant, was particularly vulnerable to the

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economic downturn because it had only been open a few years and is located near Portland State University, where many neighborhood residents are more price-sensitive than elsewhere. In addition, owners Doug Smith and Sean Concannon (chef) knew their restaurant wouldnt survive the winter if they didnt do something significant to drive business. Even popular restaurants in higher traffic areas of Portland were closing or making deep cut-backs in hours and staff. They had tried traditional advertising in the past with mixed to mostly poor results so they were ready to try something new with Internet marketing. The one page, flash-based site was only listed in search engine results for their brand. Analytics data showed they were lucky to get 5-10 visitors to the site per day, most arriving from a direct search of their web site domain which implied these visitors were probably previous customers just looking for hours of operation or a phone number (Peyton,2010). The solution includes given a limited budget and time constraints, rebuilding the West Caf web site was out of the question. Instead, social media addicts (and West Caf customer) Lisa Peyton decided to harness the power of social media to build buzz and drive business. The creation of West Cafe Blog was built using WordPress, which allowed for search engine optimization and easy content management. It was designed to match West Cafs branding, which was already established inside the restaurant and on its web site. The blog includes categories to support West Cafs offerings, help draw in customers, and provide a platform for keyword-rich copy. Regular columns include a weekly fresh sheet posted by the West Cafe pastry chef, special event announcements, a monthly jazz calendar and daily drink specials. Within the process of getting the word out via twitter, the blog was getting indexed by search engines and the site began picking up traffic very quickly. But that

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alone wouldnt be enough to drive the kind of business West Caf needed to be successful during an economic downturn; through entering Twitter: Portland is regularly listed among the top five U.S. cities using Twitter, so it was an ideal platform for getting the word out about West Caf. Moreover, Portland is a walkable city with a vibrant downtown where most Web 2.0-related events take place, making West Caf a viable destination and desirable since it offers fast, free Wi-Fi. Peyton used the twitter ID @WestCafePDX to drive traffic to the blog by offering the citys fi rst-ever Twitter restaurant coupon; She also targeted (and interacted with) key Portland tweeters, reached out to jazz fans, and created word-of-mouth buzz about the restaurant. In fact, many people who began following @WestCafePDX commented that they didn t even know the restaurant existed before they were followed on Twitter! Included in the creative promotions across multiple social media platforms, it says that once the blog was up and running, it was time to get creative. In September, the presidential election was in full swing and dire economic predictions led the news. Peyton decided to use this news to their advantage. She proposed a tongue-in-cheek marketing blitz that drove unprecedented web traffic to West Caf and lots of happy drinkers and diners through its doors. The portion of the Five-Point Plan that drove the most web traffic was the Dow Drink Deal. Every single weekday, Sean Concannon created a drink special based upon how many points the Dow went up or down. Peyton wrote a short blog post about the drink of the day, optimized it for Portland Happy Hour searches, and then Tweeted about it that afternoon to alert potential customers. Within just a few weeks, West Caf was ranking within the first 15 Google search results for Portland Happy Hour! And, of course, many Portlanders got to try fun cocktails, great beer and

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fine wines at a discount. The blog and Twitter account were also used to highlight live jazz events (which were expanded to every Saturday when the social media marketing campaign started). West Caf was able to rank within the first 10 Google search results for Portland Jazz Bar. This has made it possible for the restaurant to sustain live jazz every Saturday night and build a regular following. The number of pages indexed in the search engines increased from 27 to over 100. The campaign received visibility in Google, MSN and Yahoo for over 30 targeted, non-branded keywords. The campaign achieved rankings within the top 10 search results in Google for these key terms: Portlands best dessert, Portland Jazz Club, Portland Jazz Bars, Downtown Portland Happy Hour, Portland Oregon Cafe, Portland OR Cafe. Total restaurant sales increased dramatically over the course of the campaign despite the regions economic woes. Owner Sean Concannon had this to say about the effectiveness of the campaign: We started this all in November and December and I can truly say business has been steady ever since the Election Party. This is due to the Internet promos. How to get factual numbers on this is hard, but I must say many places have closed their doors. Here states the (6) six month sales record: October by 12%, November by 32%, December by 26%, January by 25%, February by 34%, and March by 20%. While there wasnt a budget for outreach to the press, West Caf received exceptional coverage by local TV stations and print publications who heard about the restaurants promotions via Twitter. As any Public Relations pro knows, when the press starts tracking YOU down to do nice feature stories; your word-of-mouth buzz is good (Peyton,L.2010).

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