Sri Lanka is home to a broad range of restaurants and food outlets, as a result of the complexity of Lankan cuisine. Colombo, its suburbs and popular holiday destinations in the island are home to a wide variety of fine dining restaurants, in addition to a crop of fast food outlets and cafes. In our series of social media usage reviews, we next take a look at social media marketing of restaurants in Sri Lanka.
Chinese Dragon Cafe, one of the most prominent restaurants in Colombo, maintains a highly active Facebook page and a rather active Twitter account. The former contains posts about the the dishes and meals of the restaurant, with attractive photographs and illustrations. For one of the leading restaurants in the island, the page, fittingly, has over 66,000 Likes. The Likes and comments for the posts are at a high level too. The Twitter page of Chinese Dragon Cafe is fed straight from the Facebook page with no direct participation or fan interaction to be seen.
Redberry’s, a restaurant located in Marine Drive, maintains an active Facebook page with over 10,000 Likes. The posts are mainly photographs and illustrations of the dishes and deals. Red Fort, an Indian cuisine court, has a Facebook page with photographs and albums.
China Doll Noodles, a fast growing name among restaurants, maintains a highly active Facebook page with daily photographs and illustrations featuring their meals, offers and announcements. The fan activity is at a high level, with the page having over 36,000 Likes. Their Twitter page, which was highly active until recently, has not been used for a few weeks.
The Sizzle’s Facebook page posts photographs and has gathered 6000 Likes so far. The highlight of this page is that it maintains albums of birthday celebrations and dinners at the restaurant. The photographs showcase the customers enjoying celebrating their special day at the restaurant, along with a meal with their family and friends. Manhattan Fish Market Sri Lanka, a seafood restaurant along Duplication Road, maintains a Facebook page with daily posts of illustrations and photographs. These posts highlight the dishes and offers at the venue.
Raja Bojun’s Facebook page contains images of the restaurant and offer announcements while The Mango Tree’s Facebook page is updated with photographs and illustrations of latest promotions and additions.
Shiraz, Baghdad Nights and Arabian Knights, all being Arabian restaurants, maintain active social pages on Facebook and Twitter. The Facebook page of Baghdad Nights is updated with posts and articles while Shiraz’s page contains offers and announcements. Arabian Knights maintains high activity on both Facebook and Twitter, with the former having over 19,000 Likes and the latter having over 500 followers. The Twitter page, is updated with frequent interactions with users and the page assisting with their queries. This is a clear example of social media marketing done right, with the account acknowledging customer feedback and providing support whenever needed.
Other active Facebook pages when considering social media marketing of restaurants include Urban Kitchen, The Chariot, Steam Boat, and Colombo Fort Cafe. All these pages contain posts about the dishes, offers and announcements at the respective places along with images and links. The Chariot Restaurant is highly focussed on marketing its promotional campaigns through Facebook, with frequent updates about offer details being posted.
When considering the pizza venues, Pizza Hut leads the way with over 228,000 Likes for its Facebook page. The page is updated daily with posts about its pizzas, offers and new additions. The fan feedback for the posts too, is at a high level. Harpo’s Pizza has a Facebook page with over 59,000 Likes and Domino’s with 33,000 fans. Michaelangelo and Rocco’s pages too, have considerable number of fans with the pages mainly focussed on the pizzas and related food items. Domino’s Pizza maintains a Twitter page with over 200 followers but it is updated through Facebook.
Suki’s Wok, Nihonbashi, Hazari’s and Shanmugas are among other active Facebook pages when considering social media marketing of restaurants in Sri Lanka. Park Street Mews, Bayleaf, Mathura and Casa Colombo Facebook pages are updated with images of the food items and the venues, and have gathered high amounts of Likes. Ministry of Crab, the business venture of cricketing greats, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, maintains an active Facebook and Twitter page for the restaurant. The former is updated with attractive photographs, albums and illustrations of dishes, the restaurant and events, while the latter is posted directly from Facebook.
The inactive pages when considering social media marketing of restaurants include Siam House, Maharaja Palace, Crab Company and Havelock Place Bungalow. These pages have been left dormant for a few months now and effort has not been made to provide updates to the followers.
It is noteworthy that few popular venues like Chinese Park View Lodge, Bavarian German Restaurant, Elite Indian Restaurant and Sri Vihar do not have any social media presence currently. It is high time administrators of these restaurants realize the importance of social media marketing and embrace what it has to offer. The active restaurants on the other hand, would be enjoying the power of social media to connect with the fans, promote their dishes and increase their customer-base.
The active accounts on social media platforms are performing a good job of showcasing their dishes, menus, offers and announcements through their pages. This has given them the opportunity to expose their brand even further and also assist the customers with their needs and queries while acknowledging positive feedback. It is advisable for other restaurants to join hands with technology and use modern marketing tools such as social media to improve the recognition of their brand and to reach the business objectives.