Nation’s Restaurant News: How Social Media Can Impact Foot Traffic

Social media marketing not only builds a brand’s following online but hopefully–when done right–impacts your store’s actual foot traffic. That’s why more money, time and effort is being allocated towards these platforms. In a recent Nation’s Restaurant News article, Reveal Mobile, a company that measures foot traffic through mobile app usage, set out to analyze social-media events from major brands to see what was making the largest impact. Campaigns from Chick-fil-A, Wendy’s and McDonald’s were all monitored for increases and decreases in traffic.

The company’s major finding revealed that trending social-media events were not able to sustain traffic as well as the company-initiated campaigns such as Chick-fil-A’s September breakfast-item giveaway for app users.

“Compared to the Chick-fil-A data, which saw a steady increase in foot traffic during the period, the #NuggsForCarter campaign saw a quick boost and then it dropped off to lower levels than they were before,” said Matthew Davis, Reveal Mobile’s chief marketing officer.

While gaining extra traffic from an organic Twitter exchange is something Wendy’s should be ecstatic about, planning out company led marketing initiatives can continue to maintain the larger and more sustained increases in foot traffic as your brand continues to look for its own viral opportunities.

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