DOI: 10.14457/tu.the.2015.812
title: Consumers' perception and behavior toward using social media to search for information for restaurants in Bangkok

description: Social media is fundamentally changing the way information is distributedand the way people search for information before they purchase due its lowtransaction cost, access to plentiful information, and accessibility anywhere andanytime. Restaurants are the most popular industry that consumers search throughmobile applications and web browsers. More and more consumers read onlinereviews from other consumers before buying. This behavioral trend has made socialmedia one of the most influential communication channels between restaurantsoperators and consumers. This study is a contemporary topic in applied marketing.The study was conducted to investigate consumers’ behavior and perceptiontoward using social media to search for information about restaurants in Bangkok.Objectives of the studies are to understand when consumers use social media tosearch for information on restaurants, to understand how consumers start their onlinesearch process, to identify influential social media websites, to find out what factorsin social media that influences consumers’ intention to visit restaurants, to find outkey selection criteria that influence their intention to visit restaurants, and to find outthe most influential source of information among consumers. (2)The research methods used in this study were exploratory and descriptiveresearch. Exploratory research included secondary research and in-depth interviewwith five people. Descriptive research was accomplished by surveying 147respondents through online and offline questionnaires. The target respondents wereuniversity students or jobbers, aged between 18 – 35 years old, who have used socialmedia websites to search for information on restaurants in Bangkok in the past 3months. The data from quantitative survey was input into SPSS for data analysis.The study findings indicate that consumers use social media mainly to findout more information on specific restaurants; to find restaurants in certain locations;and to find restaurants for special occasions. Majority of consumers start their onlinesearch process by using search engine. Influential social media are Pantip, Facebook,and Wongnai respectively. After obtaining information from information searchprocess, key factors that enhance consumer intention to visit the restaurant are taste,price, and location. The keys factors in social media websites that influence consumerintention to visit the restaurant are availability of photos, source credibility, sufficientinformation, numbers of comment, recent update of information and quality ofreview. Restaurant rating and review sites and Friends and Family in social mediahave the greatest impact on customers’ intention to visit the restaurant.Thus, restaurant operators should have their own social media official sitesthat provide sufficient information, quality of review, and up-to-date information.Restaurant operators may consider promoting their restaurant in restaurant reviewsites; however, they should monitor both positive and negative comments of users insocial media sites. Moreover, restaurant operators should encourage consumers toshare content about the restaurants in consumers’ social media since consumers aremore likely to be influenced by friend and family.