Mingrino 1 Victoria Mingrino Professor Mangini WRT 10:50 04-29-13 Social Media Essay Instagram Menus Leading Restaurants

to Positive Ratings Instagram is a photo sharing social media network. Wikipedia states that Instagram enables its users to take pictures, apply filters to them, and share them on a variety of social networking services, such as Facebook or Twitter. One of the most popular trends on Instagram is posting pictures of food. Millions of Instagrammers, are becoming food photographers. Even though most smart phones have improved on picture quality, some believe that the pictures shared on Instagram are nothing compared to the ones in a magazine. Whether it is taking a photo of the food from restaurants, or the fun whimsical atmosphere, Instgrammers are allowing restaurants to get insource feedback from the pictures they post. The over load collection of pictures seen on Instragram, made restaurants want to do more with the photos. Some restaurants uploaded the feedback from tagged Instagram post on their websites and others created their own Instagram for their customers to view. But one restaurant in particular wanted more out of Instagram. Comodo, a Latin American restaurant in SoHo, New York created the first ever Instagram Menu. The Huffington Post wrote an article in October of 2012 about the new Instgram Menu, It works like this: Patrons are asked to snap pictures of their meals and upload them to Instagram, with the hashtag #comodomenu. Thus, a virtual "menu" of pictures is created, and customers are able to easily search the app for a quick glance of the restaurant's offerings. As of publication, #comodomenu had 50 foodie photos (and a few non-related images as well).

Mingrino 2 Soon, many other restaurants followed in Comodos footsteps, giving guests an experience beyond the regular tri-fold menu. Another cultural restaurant in Portsmouth New Hampshire called Margaritas, integrated a photo-sharing twist (Nation Restaurant News, NRN). The Margarita team, created their menus to have picture taking quality. They created their menus to have a Mexican mustache on the top so customers dining can hold their menus up to their faces pretending to have a mustache. Mark Brandau from the Nations Restaurant News.com, posted an article in February about Instragram practices for restaurants. Brandau interviewed Margaritas owner Dan Lederer, who is known as the resturants self-described super genius (Brandua, NRN) The most important thing with this is that it doesnt create a random picture, Lederer said. Its a photo of somebody having fun with us and sharing it with their friends. Even if were not specifically tagged, it has our logo all over it. There is one key word restaurants should know when their guest Instagram their meals, listen, (Brandua, NRN). Rob Reed chief executive of Moment Feed, was also interviewed by Brandua and states that listening or viewing the pictures on Instagram, is how customers interpret your brand experience. Reed also states to look carefully into the photos posted on Instagram. Asking questions about the picture of food can tell about the customers experience. A question Reed asks when he looks at pictures is, Does it lean heavily toward food, or is it peoples photos of their friends at a table in the restaurant? Reflecting on restaurant photos uploaded to Instagram can tell you a positive experience, given what people want to capture, (Reed, NRN).

Mingrino 3 Another effective way of Instagram helping restaurant ratings was analyzing the photos. The photos were analyzed by Reed from Moment Feed. Reed took photos from December 14December 31, of 2012. Then he choose photos that, were tagged to a specific location for 30 large restaurant brands, (Brandau, NRN). After, Reed broke the thirty restaurants into their dining preference, upscale-dining chains, casual-dining chains, non-casual dining chains, and quick-service chain restaurants. Moment Feed statistics show the highest rates of Instagram engagement, belong to upscale-casual restaurants. The pictures of these statistics are from restaurants where the decor and the service loom is just as large, as the food (Brandau, NRN). Reed shared Moment Feeds findings with Brandau and states the following restaurants are the top 10 finishers; The Cheesecake Factory, with 26.2 photos per location. BJs, with 22.8 photos per location, and Seasons 52, with 13.3 photos per location, also cracked double digits. The Capital Grille and P.F. Changs China Bistro finished next, followed by Flemings Prime Steakhouse and Fox & Hound. Larger dinner-house brands Olive Garden and Buffalo Wild Wings followed. Frozen-yogurt chain Yogurtland was the first non-casual chain to appear, at No. 10. Dunkin Donuts 0.25 Instagram photos per location finishing just ahead of 0.21 for Taco Bell, 0.19 for McDonalds, 0.13 for Wendys and 0.1 for Dairy Queen. Even though casual dining has a higher probability of positive feedback, quick-service dining can increase their rates by becoming more involved in social media networking, especially with Instagram. However, not every restaurant agrees with Instagram. Some restaurants feel that sharing photos on a social media network like Instagram might take away the great experiences of dining. The Huffington Post interviewed Katherine Markovich of Mcsweeneys who wrote, An

Mingrino 4 Open Letter to People Who Take Pictures of Food With Instagram, she states, "I really, truly, absolutely, do not care about you or your food. I dont. Sorry. Take more pictures of your cat. That might keep me interested." Restaurants particularly in New York City have been banning shared photos on social media. These restaurants highly disagree with Instagrammers and their photos. One source says, It can shatter the experience when youre asking your fianc to marry you, and a flash is going off at a table next door, said David Bouley, owner of Bouley Restaurant. CBS New York local news reporter Emily Smith, wrote an article about the New York restaurants banning Instagram and states that restaurants do not find cell phone pictures art, or remotely fancy. Smith interviewed David Bouley and find out that Bouley restaurant is taking the pictures for their customers. The picture is then handed to the customer with the check. Bouleys main goal is for the customers to be entertained by the experience not by the food (Smith, CBSNEWYORK). Although, most New York restaurants are banning photo sharing on social media, Instagram menus have become a new trend throughout the country. Instagram menus introduce and new style to the restaurant business. Since the sharing of photos through Instagram, it has helped many restaurants including upscale and casual dining restaurant rates increase, holding the standards to a higher level. These photo shared on Instagram allow others to be attracted to restaurants. Instagrammers believe in promoting restaurant food as well as their own food. They want to help encourage others to go out to local restaurants and have a nice relaxing meal. A picture is only evidence of the quality in a restaurant it does not take away anything from the restaurant. The experience begins once a customer steps into the restaurant.

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Work Cited 1. Brandau, Mark. "Study Reveals Instagram Best Practices for Restaurants." MomentFeed Study Reveals Instagram Best Practices for Restaurants. Nation's Restaurant News, 22 Feb. 2013. Web. 25 Apr. 2013. 2. Fitzgerald, Britney. "Restaurants Use Instagram To Tap Into Food Porn Obsession." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 17 Oct. 2012. Web. 26 Apr. 2013. 3. Smith, Emily. "Some New York City Restaurants Ban Food Photography By Customers." CBS New York. CBS News, 28 Jan. 2013. Web. 28 Apr. 2013.

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