The next time you go to a
restaurant, take a look around. Keep an eye out for when the food arrives for
the tables closest to you. Then, behold as the waiter leaves, the people who
have just been waited on will whip out their phones to take a quick snapshot of
their food before eating it. What compels us to document a meal before
devouring it? It could be that food can be thought of as a piece of art and
therefore people hope to digitally display it as such. Or maybe someone would be
inclined to record how a meal looks before eating it in order to later reminisce
on how lovely it was before being eaten. Or it could be that posting a good
looking meal will make friends and followers jealous, but not so jealous that
they opt out of “liking” it before continuing to scroll. I personally will
admit that I am more inclined to take a picture of a delicious meal than take a
selfie or even ask someone to take a picture of myself with other people. When
the food comes to the table, it is already sitting there so beautifully
untouched and picture perfect. All it takes is one quick snapshot and then it
can be enjoyed by all (without even having to spare a bite!) Instagram has
opened the digital world to the opportunity of documenting the good, the bad,
and the unique food, or as I like to call it, “food-tography.”
Restaurants have begun to
capitalize on this trend to post food photos. It is common for businesses to
create their own Instagram accounts. Restaurants have found this to be an especially
useful way to post content of their delicious delicacies and tantalizing treats.
People enjoy eating fun food. There is certainly a visual aspect that is
important when deciding what to order. Some restaurants include pictures next
to their menu items to make certain options more enticing, but it can be hard
to trust if the actual food will look like the picture. Other times inspiration
for an order might come when the waiter walks past with someone else’s deliciously
looking food in hand. The old adage, “I’ll have whatever he’s having” has been taken
to a whole new level with the help of Instagram. This heightens the level of
trust that people will receive exactly what they see in the pictures. Since it
is not coming directly from within the restaurant, there is no hidden agenda to
make the food appear any better than it really is.
Printed menus can become costly for
restaurants with extra expenses, such as whether or not to include pictures and
needing to be completely replaced whenever updates are made. Cómodo, a trendy restaurant
in NY, has found a way to cut their menu costs by utilizing Instagram as a
social media platform. Included at the bottom of their menus is the hashtag
#ComodoMenu. By simply searching the hashtag on Instagram, there immediately appears
pictures of the entire menu that have been posted by previous patrons. Cómodo
was aware that people already enjoy taking pictures of their food, so they used
it as a competitive advantage to differentiate themselves from their restaurant
competition, while also saving costs. It has caused them to gain over 280
million media impression and generated quite a bit of buzz in the media. With restaurants
realizing the brilliance of this social media campaign, many others have also begun
to include their own Instagram hashtag. The next time you’re unsure of what to
order, check to see if the restaurant has an Instagram!
For more information on Cómodo’s Instagram success, check
out the link below:
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