Samenvatting

The owners of Restaurant Opium are using several types of media to communicate to their audience. Right now they do not know how they can use social media. Social media is a very popular marketing tool for businesses. For restaurants it is especially useful as it can be used to engage customers and to create customer loyalty. Many people are using social media, this means that this is where customers can be found nowadays. Therefore it is the perfect place for businesses to communicate to their audience. Restaurant Opium in Utrecht is not yet using this tool correctly, this is why they are missing out on an important marketing tool. The conclusions from this research can be used as an advice on how Restaurant Opium can use social media in order to improve customer loyalty. Within this research three aspects of social media were analyzed. The first aspect is social media platforms: which platforms are suitable to use for Restaurant Opium. The second aspect is the reason why people use social media: what type of benefits do customers seek on social media. The last aspect is content: what kind of messages would interest the restaurant’s customers. With these aspects in mind quantitative and qualitative data were collected for the research. To collect the quantitative data two surveys were carried out. One for Restaurant Opium’s current customers, and one for Restaurant Opium’s potential customers. The qualitative data consist of interviews with other restaurants and case studies on how other restaurants are using social media. The findings of these data showed that a great number of Restaurant Opium’s customers use social media sites. Facebook is used by most customers. In addition, Twitter and Instagram are popular as well. Customers mostly seek functional benefits on a restaurant’s social media site. Moreover, no preference for conversational or marketing and sales messages was shown by the customers. Facebook, Instagram and Foursquare are social media platforms that have proven to work successfully for other restaurants. In addition to that, restaurants engage with their clients by posting diverse, funny and relevant content. It has been found that a lot of customers who follow restaurants on social media platforms like to see posts on staff working at the restaurant. It has also been proven to be a smart move to use someone else’s network by tagging someone in a post. Having carried out research on social media and how Restaurant Opium can use various social media platforms in marketing itself, the following advice can be offered: Restaurant Opium should be more active by providing customers with new content, especially on information on the restaurant. Moreover, they should look for opportunities to post content that interests the customers of the restaurant. Most importantly they should listen to their customers, ask them questions to find out their opinion and to be able to improve customer loyalty.