What Do You Have The Taste For?
An analysis of fast-food restaurant's Instagram accounts
Food is something that everyone in the world enjoys. If someone is not eating food they sure do enjoy looking at it. Restaurants and fast food restaurants all over the world have been using social media accounts to their advantage, especially heavily visual platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. They use these for advertisement and to create a unity and relationship with their customers. By following a restaurant account on Instagram someone is now able to be in the loop of what is constantly going on at their establishment. It also gives the follower a way to show their support for the restaurant and what they stand for. Because Texans are always claiming that Whataburger has the best burger and Californians are always saying that In N Out Burger has the best burger, I decided it would be appropriate to compare the two restaurants to see which company is more successful on their social media accounts. In this case, I just analyzed their Instagram accounts. The main purposes for these accounts are to inform, connect and interact with their followers. Whichever account utilizes all three of these things the most is what I would define to be a successful platform.
The "What", "A", "In", "Out" and About
What is going to make someone follow a restaurants account? This is on some connection that is made from the follower to the company. This is probably a majority of why people would follow In N Out and Whataburger. Connections can sometimes be built through logos and colors. In this case, both of these companies worked extremely hard to get their logo well known and establish their "colors" to represent their company. Whataburger establishes a layering white "W" with a gradient of orange behind it. Their colors are obviously white and orange and the "W" can be recognized from anyone who is familiar with it. In N Out uses a classic red hyphened "in-n-out burger". There is also a yellow arrow that intersects the "n" pointing to the right. Both of these logos do an excellent job at what they were designed to do.
Both pages contain a high follower amount but Whataburger takes the win in followers topping at 196k and In N Out trailing behind at 181k. Another interesting thing is that In N Out Burger is following 0 people, while Whataburger is following 72 people. The 72 people consists of their sponsors, a few random people and a few animal accounts (weird but funny and I guess effective). In "The Social Media Reader", Mandiberg talks about the importance of audience. It is not only important to have one but is just as equally important to keep them. This has a lot to do with interaction and when Whataburger follows some of their most important sponsors it shows care and support. This is what works best when developing a continuous and supportive audience. This gives them a more "real" feeling, less like a massive company and more like people. In N Out now feels like one of those un-real companies that doesn't establish a sense of realness.
In "Spreadable Media", the authors explain the importance of spreadability and some of the tools that are needed for medias to have in order to be successful. One of their main points is to constantly share content, just as Guy Kawasaki supports as he explains the importance of continuously getting and sharing new content. This is something that is not only important to rack up followers but it also show constant activity and that is usually what a majority of people are looking to follow. Whataburger posts almost daily counting in at 1,258 posts. While In N Out has 59 posts. This means that Whataburger is creating and posting more content for their followers to interact with. In N Out posts sometimes monthly, giving minimal content for its followers to share and interact with.
Posts, posts and more posts
The importance of Instagram is simple, it's to post, get a lot of likes and hope its shared. This is the main goal of why these accounts exist. I analyzed the posts of both of these accounts by creating three categories for which I thought would be the most prevalent in a restaurants social media account. These three categories are food, no food and people and food. I then looked at the most recent 20 posts from both the accounts. Separating the posts into their corresponding categories I was then able to get some data:
FOOD
|
NO FOOD
|
PEOPLE AND FOOD
|
|
WHATABURGER
|
12
|
3
|
5
|
IN-N-OUT
|
5
|
15
|
0
|
In N Out has had 5 posts dedicated to advertising their food, while this is only out of 20, the account only has 59 posts. Browsing over their account they hardly have any posts containing their food. This is strange to me because this is what I would think would be most prevalent in both In N Out's account and Whataburger's account. Whataburger has 12 posts out of the 20 containing their food. This is more of what I was expecting. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it is just not what I was expecting. However, I do believe that by posting content of their food can make their followers more in the mood to eat. If the account isn't posting mouth-watering and juicy pictures it is a lot less likely for the follower to crave the food. Here are the top FOOD post based on likes:
Back to the data table:
FOOD
|
NO FOOD
|
PEOPLE AND FOOD
|
|
WHATABURGER
|
12
|
3
|
5
|
IN-N-OUT
|
5
|
15
|
0
|
The next category that I looked at was NO FOOD. This category is any posts, within the 20, that did not contain any direct food advertisement. This was what I was expecting to have the lest amount in both the restaurants, but once again I was proven wrong. In N Out had 13 posts within the 20 that were not of their food. While Whataburger only had a minimal amount of 3. Here are the top NO FOOD posts based on likes:
In the top embedded photo In N Out is using this to promote their new 2017 t-shirt design. This is strictly a merchandise and advertising post and it struck their followers in a really good way. With 12.7k likes there is no arguing with that. The picture itself is a professional picture, casting a silhouette of palms against the orange dusk sky. It also contains a realistic In N Out Burger logo in the bottom left corner. Its followers are excited with the news of the new t-shirt coming. This proves that their followers want the connection and want to be affiliated with In N Out. The connection is one of the things that makes an account successful and here in this post for In N Out, it definitely succeeds. In both of these categories In N Out destroys the amount of likes these posts get. The first post "Freshness you can taste" it is simply a well thought out picture. It is very obvious that it is highly edited and it was taken by a professional but this really struck the audience that follows In N Out.
The Whataburger picture creates a completely different vibe. Most of the photos that Whataburger posts are taken from their followers. This checks off the box for connection and interaction. Both of these things can work really well together on Instagram, as Whataburger proves. The amount of likes on this picture are significantly lower but is it more effective? The picture shows a newly wed couple kissing in front of a Whataburger location. "You know you're with the right person when you love them as much as you love Whataburger (with assigned photocreds). This is sharing someone else's experiences, which as we learned in Dr. Vrooman's class, people love to watch other peoples experiences and get the insight on other peoples lives as much as possible. This picture does exactly that, it also is obviously not a professional photo and it has photocreds. As a follower it makes you more inclined to think "hey I want them to share my photo" creating more interaction between Whataburger and its followers, especially in the aspect of sharing. This is because more of Whataburger followers are more likely to take pictures of their food and share it with the tag. This photo also has a fairly low amount of likes compared to the In N Out top photo. Whataburger gets a significantly lower amount of likes. This is weird because Whataburger has a larger number of followers than In N Out. It also kind of makes sense at the same time because In N Out doesn't post as frequently, making whatever they do post seem more significant.
In the last category of FOOD AND PEOPLE:
FOOD
|
NO FOOD
|
PEOPLE AND FOOD
| |
WHATABURGER
|
12
|
3
|
5
|
IN-N-OUT
|
5
|
15
|
0
|
Are we going to eat yet, 'cause I'm hungry?
While looking and discussing the data it is clear that both of these accounts serve a different purpose than the other. Whataburger places an emphasis on making a strong connection with its followers and its users. They do this by sharing almost all of their followers photos and giving them credit for posting. It is kind of like a rewards system, you tag us in a photo we will post it. While not every photo gets re-posted by Whataburger it keeps people constantly sharing to hope they are one of the chosen ones. Whataburger builds a strong connection and also builds a strong interaction while doing this they are also informing through the advertisement of their food. Not only are they sharing the coolest pictures but they are choosing ones that are in the current promotion. Not only do these posts serve the purposes of what the company of Whataburger wants but they are also delivering content to Instagram. People are seeing these posts as soon as they are posted. On Instagram not a lot of things can be shared easily, it is becoming easier now but a lot of the time tagging someone in the comments is one of the easiest forms of sharing something on Instagram. Whataburger comments are almost 90% tagging. I think that this counts as sharing media and it most certainly would to the authors of "Spreadable Media".In N Out places a higher emphasis on less quantity and more quality. This is obvious from their lack of postings and from their few posts they have a higher hit of likes. In N Out relies on the connection that their followers have made for them, they do not reciprocate. Also, no connection is made between the followers (customers) and their food. That is something that is alarming to me is they aren't making a physical connection on their Instagram page to their customers. This can become problematic, especially when a its page has minimal amount of the food that they serve. They do create a well informed page, by announcing new merchandise and wishing everyone a holiday season. In N Out's content is a lot less relatable and a lot less sharable. While they do get a higher number of likes there aren't as many comments. There is still a high number of tags but not nearly as much as Whataburger. This is because there stuff just simply is not sharable and is not relatable. Does this make In N Out less successful? Probably not and this may just not be In N Out's main social media platform. They are still going to be successful regardless, could they be more successful in social media? I definitely think so.
Whataburger definitely takes the win as far as informing their audience, making a connection and being interactive. So this makes it a successful social media platform. In N Out lacks connection and interaction by creating minimal sharable content but creating a great deal of informative posts making it not as successful as it could be.
We are not miracle-workers, so how can this be fixed?
In N Out its not the end of the world, there is still time to change! If I were to run this Instagram account I would do a number of things differently making their page more interactive and more connecting.First, I would start posting a whole lot more. A post every month is not going to do any justice. More content the better chances that the information is going to be shared. I would be posting almost daily, even weekly. It needs to be available when the audience wants it. In "Spreadable Media" the authors state, "available when and where audiences want it...if you build it, they will come". This proving my point exactly the more content, the more interaction.
Second, I would create a less official page. The page seems like it is too robotic, with all of the copyrights, the official checkmark and their lack of following other people. This way it makes an equal level and doesn't create a feeling of hierarchy.
Third, would definitely have to be the connection factor. This would consist of me reposting other pictures that their loyal customers have been taking and letting them know how much we appreciate them. By doing this it creates a connection with their followers and customers. It also increases the amount of interaction the page gets by people now tagging more and more to try and become featured on their page. In chapter 5 in "Spreadable Media", it states "Content that appeals to more than on target audience, both intended and surplus audiences, has greater meaning as spreadable media". This is what making a connection is all about, it benefits the audience tagged and it also benefits the rest of the followers and recreates moments that others may have experienced as well.
Lastly, I would want to create more media that advertised the promotion of their food. Less graphics more food! This is why people come to your establishment, this is why people follow the account! It's more important than one might think.
By taking these steps, they aren't too hard, and applying them I think that In N Out burger could potentially have a higher follower base and create a ton more of shareable media.
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