Restaurant advertisement through social media: Examining followers’ responses

The use of social networking (social media), electronic media (website) and word of mouths are among the approaches used by restaurant operators to advertise the restaurant as compared to conventional methods. Information through promotional advertisement can be spread online and customers mostly interested in social interaction and information seeking when using social media. This study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of restaurant advertising through social media in Dungun, Terengganu by examining the restaurants follower’s responses. Five restaurants with their own official social media platform (Instagram) were selected for this study. Using content analysis approach, this study recorded the number of ‘likes’ that each of the five restaurants obtained in their promotional advertisement on Instagram. Results showed that the use of Instagram did have a positive impact on the restaurant advertising especially those with interesting food pictures and value for money promotions. It is recommended that other perspectives should also be examine in future research to seek the relationship between social media ‘likes’ and restaurant sales, growth and how restaurants respond to customers’ feedbacks online.