An in-depth analysis on the effectiveness of different social media marketing tactics within the restaurant industry in Malta

Abstract

Social media has a critical role in everyone’s daily life. Several social media networks are being used every day by several people for personal use or for business purposes. The principal aim of this research is to investigate the effects of social media within the restaurant industry in Malta, with particular focus on Facebook social network. The purpose of this research is to understand how social media is influencing the restaurant business and how the marketing tools on Facebook are being utilized by such businesses. In addition, distinctive features in the use of social media between fine dining and casual dining restaurants are identified.

The above mentioned research is addressed by a qualitative analysis, through a semi structured face-to-face interviews. An abbreviated version of Grounded Theory, together with a thematic analysis is used to gather data from restaurant individuals. Following this, the researcher examines the information on a qualitative data analysis software (NVivo) to discuss the emergent themes from the interviews.

A variety of interesting findings were retrieved through the data collected. It was evidently clear that social media contribute significantly to the restaurant business for both restaurant categories. Another interesting result was in the use of Facebook by restaurants for marketing purposes. The research emphasized the lack of knowledge that exist within the context of utilizing Facebook for the use of different marketing tools and techniques. Future research is recommended to be carried out to examine other emergent topics, conduct a study amongst all restaurant categories across Malta and focus on analysing other social media platforms.