This document summarizes research on the use of social media by food and beverage small and medium enterprises in Singapore to improve productivity. It finds that while many local F&B merchants have been slow to adopt social media, those with tech-savvy owners who correctly use platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have seen benefits. A survey of F&B businesses found 41 had Facebook pages, 12 had Twitter profiles, and 11 had Instagram accounts, but only 11, 4, and 3 respectively were active. A consumer survey found most felt social media was useful for promotions but merchants were slow to respond to feedback. The research identifies opportunities for F&B businesses to better utilize social media.

1. Usage of Social Media to Raise Productivity
in the Food & Beverage Sector
Project on Productivity Improvement Among SMEs
NUS Business School

2. Objective
• investigate the usage of social media for
purposeful interaction, information sharing
and feedback between the customers and F&B
operators

3. Summary of Finding
• many F&B local merchants are slow to
embrace social media
• only certain merchants with tech-savvy
owners have been able to correctly use social
media.

4. Review on Use of Social Media
• Social media are computer-mediated tools
that allow people to create, share or exchange
information, ideas, and pictures/videos in
virtual communities and networks
• Social media and marketing purposes
• social media will also address customer
satisfaction issues

5. Platforms of Social Media
• Facebook :: 2.8 million users in Spore
• Twitter :: 400,000 users in Spore
• Instagram :: 200,000 (estd) users
Facebook Page Twitter
Profile
Instagram Account
(a)Number of Restaurants
with:
41 12 11
(b) Active Users: 11 4 3
(a) as % of Total sample of 88: 47% 14% 13%
(b) as % of Total sample of 88: 13% 5% 3%

6. Research Method
• F&Bs using social media
➢88 F&B ::
➢Active Users Facebook (11), Twitter(4) and
Instagram (3).
• Consumer Survey ::
➢66 respondents
• Findings: see Table 7.1

7. Findings from Consumer Survey
59%
38%
3%
Students
Working Adults
Homemakers

8. Issues from Consumer Survey
• Issue #1: Merchants are slow to react to feedback provided by customers
on Facebook, which reflects the importance of Management of the 8Ms.
• Issue #2: Customers are not aware of F&B merchants’ presence on social
media sites, which means the Messages that merchants want to carry
across did not reach their target readers and followers. This is a ‘leakage’
that should be plugged if merchants’ investments in social media are not
wasted.
• Issue #3: Related to the previous issue on publicity, merchants after
making forays into social media, they lack skill and strategies in retaining
the attention of the followers.
• Generally, the incentives offered by the restaurants are not generous
enough.
• There is uncertainty and ambivalence in the business strategy of treating
the participation in the social media as a form of advertisement (hence a
cost incurring activity) or social media as a long term revenue generating
channel.

9. Figure 6.4: Survey results from Pastamania’s customers about its Facebook page

10. Figure 6.5: Survey results from Group 1 & 2 respondents on
usefulness of social media
0 1
5
12
15
19
29
43
51
61
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Not useful
at all
Extremely
Useless
Very useless Quite
useless
Neutral A little
useful
Quite useful Very useful Extremely
Useful
Completely
Useful
Cumulative Frequency Chart

11. Figure 6.6: Survey results on features/contents on social media
attract customers
21%
16%
34%
5%
7%
2%
3%
5%
3% 2% 2%
How to improve social media
Nil
Reply posts faster
More rewards
Frequent updates
Soliciting customers
Neutral
Pay for Facebook functions
Promotions and Frequent updates
More interesting
Endorsement
More professional

12. Thank You