Social Media Listening Builds Relationships Between Brands And Customers

A new report that examined the overall performance of 100 restaurant brands across social media, looking at more than 740 million restaurant-related posts, has found that the most successful brands are focused on listening to and engaging with customers online and creating some best practices that are applicable for many others. The results are in NetBase's, a social analytics company, first NetBase Restaurant Report.

"It's clear from the NetBase Restaurant Report that companies who listen to their customers - whether it be critical customer service feedback, ideas for new recipes, or excitement over a recent promotion - reap the benefits of real-time feedback and higher quality social interactions, which can ultimately lead to more sales," says Paige Leidig, chief marketing officer at NetBase. "Social listening can also help you establish relationships with super fans and influencers in their space, so you have a built in group of testers for early products or new campaign ideas, or a group to help share your message if issues arise."

The NetBase Restaurant Report is based on monitoring restaurant brand conversations across Twitter and Facebook between January 2015 and December 2015, and measuring volume of conversation, awareness (as a measure of earned impressions), reach (a measure of owned impressions), net sentiment, and brand passion. The brands were broken into the following categories: quick service, fast casual, and casual dining restaurants. There were more than 740 total posts analyzed during that time, with a net sentiment of 70 percent, representing a largely positive attitude towards the restaurant industry.

Key findings from the report include:

• Quality over quantity wins again: Brands with smaller conversation volume can reap higher benefits in terms of net sentiment, as exemplified with Ben & Jerry's having a lower overall volume of conversation, but driving a positive 85 percent net sentiment related to ice cream giveaways. (Compared to Starbucks, who saw high volume, but net sentiment of 59 percent)
• What are restaurants doing right? Customers had positive things to say about menu choice and the value of their meals, but cleanliness and order accuracy drove the most negative discussions
• Least liked restaurant brand: Chuck E. Cheese's had one of the lowest (three percent) net sentiment scores across all 100 restaurants analyzed
• The top three discussed brands as compared to yearly revenue: Ben & Jerry's, Chipotle, and Krispy Kreme
• The most well-loved brands according to social media: Ben & Jerry's, Wingstop, and Applebee's
• The most beloved quick-serve brands: Ben & Jerry's, Krispy Kreme, Tim Hortons
• The most beloved fast casual brands: Wingstop, Domino's Pizza, and Panera Bread
• The most beloved casual dining brands: Applebee's, Olive Garden, and Cheesecake Factory
• Which segment has the most ground to make up? Casual dining restaurants have the lowest reach and awareness of the three restaurant types, which could be the reason why these restaurants are going to new lengths for promotional campaigns

After analyzing the top restaurant brands, NetBase leveraged its findings to create a social media best practices guide available for download here: http://pages.netbase.com/EB-2016RestaurantGuide.html.