The Staff Canteen in top four of chefs' preferred social networks alongside Twitter and Facebook

 

During October over 300 chefs shared their views in the Social Chef survey commissioned by Mars Foodservice in association with the Craft Guild of Chefs.

The report saw The Staff Canteen ranked 4th highest in the category of chefs' favourite social networks behind only Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

The Staff Canteen also ranked fifth in the category of social networks most used for work and sixth in social networks preferred for personal use.

Author of the report, Karen Fewell, Digital Blonde said: “It’s fantastic to see an industry specific network like The Staff Canteen up there, especially when you consider the budgets that go into the likes of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. When you consider the top reason for chefs using social media is to connect with other chefs, you can see why this network is so popular.”

The report found that chefs are very social media savvy with 92.5% using it for personal use and 84.9% using it for work purposes. Twitter was the most used social network in the workplace (72.3%), followed by Facebook (66.7%) and LinkedIn (60.6%). Social media plays an important part in a chefs’ day with more than half of respondents (52.9%) saying they check social media five or more times a day, and 28.6% checking it over ten times.  Chefs recognise the need for training on social media with 65.6% admitting they would like to attend a course and 63.1% believing it should actually form part of a chef’s college training. Karen Fewell went on: “The research has highlighted how much chefs are using social media for work and I hope businesses recognise the fantastic marketers they’ve got in their kitchens.  However, very few chefs said they were using social media software which highlights even more of an opportunity for the industry.  With the right social media tools and training, businesses could see even more benefit from their chef’s social activity.” Networking with others in the industry (74.7%) was the main cause of chefs logging in to social media.  Other top reasons were to post pictures of dishes they have cooked (72.6%), to hear about industry events (69%) and to catch up on industry news (67.6).  Chefs are most likely to follow other chefs and industry news and recipe sites like The Staff Canteen when using social media. Highlighting a huge business opportunity, nine out of ten chefs agree that social media is a great way to increase footfall to an establishment. Sarah Gray, marketing manager, Mars Foodservice, said: “We are delighted with the response to Social Chef and there are so many more fascinating facts to come out of the research.  Make sure you read the complete report which is also full of quotes from some big names using social media. Thank you to all the chefs who completed the survey and well done to Andrew Lewis, chef de partie at Reed Hall for the University of Exeter, who was the winner of our iPad. ” Martin Bates, CEO, Craft Guild of Chefs, added: “We were delighted when Mars Foodservice, one of our business partners, asked us to get involved in their Social Chef survey.  Not only has it given us some really good insight for our own social media strategy, but we are confident the results will help our members and the wider industry too.” See the full report here https://www.dropbox.com/s/25xk9g0n150wy4k/Mars_Social_Chef_FINAL_report.pdf