Chefs and social media, what's the story? By Mark Morris

Can we say that social media has been the biggest revolution in the last 5-years? Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram are as familiar  to us as brands such as Microsoft, Apple, the BBC and many more of those brands are ubiquitous in most of our lives. Think how many times you visit those app icons in one day so why should this be any different in the world of chefs?

The internet is awash with stats on the smart phone and it's widely accepted that by 2017 that one in three people will own a smart phone, that means two out three won't of course if you want to spin it that way.

However take out the developing world, which is seeing huge growth and is a key target for the device manufactures; the UK alone will have some 45 million smart phones devices by 2018 in a population of 65-million users, chefs are in there somewhere, and this is why we have again developed Chef + in association with Essential Cuisine.

When we started The Staff Canteen, many people said ‘that it would never work, chefs will never use it’, nothing motivated me more! Firstly, I thought this was underestimating chefs and equally I can be a stubborn bugger, just ask our editorial team!

We knew that time poor chefs wanted an online portal dedicated just to them, most chefs socialise with others chefs, they form relationships with other chefs or industry colleagues, so creating an on-line platform seemed so obvious.

This month food and drink PR and Communications agency, William Murray Communications has published The Social Side of Food, an industry report into how and why chefs use social media.

We are ranked as the most visited trade site out performing Caterer.com, BigH and The Caterer, should we gloat, hell yes! 

The annual report is based on a survey of 200 chefs* and reveals how they use social media to communicate with suppliers, customers and each other. The report has identified more than 98% of chefs see the value of social media, one third look for new suppliers and 86% use it to generate positive reviews. With almost a quarter of a million chefs in the UK, this is a huge opportunity for the industry to engage in the conversations at the right time with the right content.

Mark Sargeant, chef proprietor of Rocksalt restaurant and bar in Folkestone said: "Social media has taught chefs the value of marketing and how it can benefit and support their business and their careers. It's a much easier marketing tool for them to use.  It's simple, instantaneous and on most occasions, an easy win."

Chefs check their social media accounts six to seven times a day. When asked what sites they use most, more than 75 social media sites were mentioned. Twitter and Facebook were named by 50% and received twice as many mentions than any other channel. 

Anita Murray, Joint CEO of William Murray Communications said: "We commissioned this research to find out how and why

chefs use social media. We've seen a major shift in the last couple of years. With 98% of chefs understanding the value of social media, we have a huge opportunity to provide valuable content that helps them increase sales, footfall and generate positive reviews."

Chefs are time poor, tell us something we didn't already know I hear you cry, they're also extremely loyal and in most cases of those that can purchase, have built up a trusted network of suppliers, many of whom will have travelled with them across their career. How do you break this, what is the foot in the door moment for you and your brand when on-line? Don't push sales on them it's simple. Yes we live in an instant world of now, live news, tweets before stories break, Instagram updates from celebrities, but play the long game.

You need to engage, be original, be funny, 10% of chefs surveyed said they read funny comments over 8% of news - sorry but the 600 word press release about your new wonderful ‘chefs can't live without product’, is dead! Use images, use video, chefs are visual learners and 58% of the chefs surveyed are looking for video content online, something that we have championed here at The Staff Canteen, since 2012.

Were we ahead of the curve? No, we simply listened to our audience both via direct contact and through the site and access we had to chefs. The Staff Canteen YouTube channel will deliver 10-million views this year, with 60,000 subscribers and hosting over 600 videos where a new audience are discovering these videos daily - people are still watching videos we made 5-years ago, how many of your print adverts are still being read?

Watch this space on Instagram folks, it's our biggest growth area, why, we said it before chefs are visual learners and a picture really does paint a 1,000 words, plus it's simple and with the ever increasing pixel rate on smart phones, even the most basic of operators can create some stunning #foodporn.

Now Facebook: DO NOT NEGLECT FACEBOOK! Twitter has been the darling of the press and yet the 140 character bubble is bursting, Twitter is revamping some would say to move closer to Facebook in order to meet its own commercial forecasts, watch this space.

Twitter is a great communication tool and not to be neglected but our advice is Facebook wins over Twitter and so does Instagram for chefs, you can hold me to that in 5-years where I'll say "I told you so". 

Chefs are, despite the hours, social and love banter, if you want to fully engage with this audience from The Staff Canteen website audience and including over 80k Facebook and Twitter followers that's double our nearest rival, then just get in touch with the sales team. 

*Visit www.williammurray.co.uk to download the full report. 

Contact our sales team: 

@TSCchris01 on 01202 612329 or email [email protected]

@TSCJen - you can also call 01202 612328 or email [email protected]