During the month of October a total of 335 chefs shared their views in the ‘Social Chef Survey’, the research aimed to find out if, how and why chefs are using social media, how it helps their businesses and how they feel about diners taking images of food they have served.
The research was commissioned by Mars Foodservice in association with the Craft Guild of Chefs.
An overwhelming 90.1% of chefs agreed that social media is a great way to increase footfall to their establishment.
Research found also that chefs are very social media savvy with 92.5% using it for personal use and 84.9% using it for work purposes. Twitter was the most used social network in the workplace (72.3%), followed by Facebook (66.7%) and LinkedIn (60.6%).
Networking with others in the industry (74.7%) was the main cause of chefs logging into social media. Other top reasons were to post pictures of dishes they have cooked (72.6%), to hear about industry events (69%) and to catch up on industry news (67.6%). Chefs are most likely to follow other chefs, industry news sites and recipe sites when using social media.
One of the key findings from a new report, Social Chef, is that social media plays an important part in a chefs’ day with more than half of respondents (52.9%) saying they check social media five or more times a day, with 28.6% checking it more than 10 times.
Author of the report, Karen Fewell from Digital Blonde commented: “The research has highlighted how much chefs are using social media for work and I hope businesses recognise the fantastic marketers they’ve got in their kitchens.”
Below a few highlights from the Social Chef report;
60.5% of chefs have bought from a supplier they saw on social media.
68.9% of chefs think food bloggers are good for the industry – (Ed: looks like some Chefs are refusing to face reality)
76.8% of chefs think online review sites help the industry.
91.3% of chefs think it is socially acceptable to post pictures of food on social media.
85.6% of chefs like it when a customer posts photos of food they have cooked.
57.2% of chefs disagree that there isn’t enough time in the day to do social media updates – (Ed: in other words nearly 58% think there IS enough time)
So, it’s true, chefs are rapidly becoming social media superstars of the hospitality industry as this recent report has shown.
As part of our client services Food PR work with clients social media sites – creating campaigns, planning content, managing engagement etc, however without someone on the ground, in-situ at any given Instagram-able moment, a restaurants activity will not be as powerful as it can be.
If you are a chef and not active in your restaurants social media activity then shame on you and you are missing a helluva party, and if you are engaging on social media, then it’s time to take it seriously and start planning your content.
