Competitive Analysis of Facebook Use for Local Restaurants As a social media tool, Facebook provides a way for businesses to communicate with their customers and increase brand loyalty. Local restaurants in particular benefit from this type of marketing. This paper looks at Facebook presence of three gourmet pizza restaurants in the Princeton, NJ area. The analysis used the main Facebook page for each company.
Number of Likes: 1658
Number of Likes: 2871
Number of Likes: 1164
Frequency of Posts: About 3x a week
Frequency of Posts: About 1 or 2 a day
Frequency of Posts: About 3x a week
Analysis of Posts: This company posts frequently and almost always with an image. Several of the posts included a short video demonstrating dough techniques. Topics for posts included pizza specials, customers enjoying the restaurant, and operational updates.
Analysis of Posts: This company posts daily and always with an image. Topics for posts included pizza specials, upcoming events at their locations, and festival updates.
Analysis of Posts: This company posts frequently and always with an image. Topics for posts were almost exclusively pizza specials and short advertisements to order online.
Average Likes Per Post: Between 30 and 50
Average Likes Per Post: Less than 10
Average Likes Per Post: Less than 8
Facebook Features Used: Reviews, TripAdvisor Reviews, Checked In
Facebook Features Used: Reviews, Menu, Checked In
Facebook Features Used: Reviews, Order Online (broken), Shop Now button (linked to ordering system)
Additional Facebook accounts: 2
Additional Facebook accounts: 2
Additional Facebook accounts: 0
Jessica Lucas PTC 606
Discussion and Recommendations Analysis of the Facebook use of these three gourmet pizza restaurants reveal many similarities. All three post frequently and always include an image. This is an important point for restaurants as the images of the food and customers enjoying pizza received more likes. The companies used their posts to promote daily or weekly specials. All three also included a review feature, allowing customers to comment on their dining experience. Two of the companies had additional Facebook accounts for different locations of the restaurant. These satellite accounts had about half the likes of the main account and posted similar information. Some of the differences in Facebook use include the general feel of the post topics. Osteria Procaccini and Nomad Pizza posted more community and customer related information. For example, Nomad Pizza on April 9 th posted a picture of customers at a festival and Osteria Procaccini posted on February 8 th a picture from a birthday party at their location. These ‘people’ posts tended to garner more likes than the typical pizza special or pizza-only images. NakedPizza only used pizza-images and had the fewest likes per post of the three companies. Osteria Procaccini also posted a few short videos of the chef preparing food. These had a large number of views (over 400) and large number of likes. Therefore, short videos are encouraged as part of a Facebook marketing plan.
Recipe for Facebook Success 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Jessica Lucas PTC 606
Post frequently – a least 3x a week Always use an image Use a mix of advertising and people-related posts Include short videos Keep it short