New Media in Food, Beverage & Hospitality Industry

The Food and Beverage and Hospitality Industry is similar to other industries in the sense that it needs new ways to change and expand. This is made possible through the help of social media and new web 2.0 applications, such as Facebook, Myspace, and LinkedIn. With this technological era, people are constantly on their phones and surfing the Web, by integrating the food, beverage and hospitality industry with the Web, businesses could potentially increase its presence, and profit and sales as well.

New Media in Food Industry
The use of social media has allowed the food and beverage industry to change its methods of advertising and promotions. The industry can reach out to consumers with the help of the Internet and other social networking websites to offer their products to consumers, providing them with immediate information. Consumers can also now develop a closer connection to the producers through direct interaction with the help of new media sources.

Yelp


Yelp, Inc. is an American Company that is a business review site. It's founded by Jermey Stopelman and Russel Simmons in 2004 in San Francisco. Yelp is a form of new media that influences the food industry. Yelp offers people the ability to rate and review a restaurant and publicize it so others using the application can view it. It gives reviews all over the United states of top restaurants, shopping, nightlife, entertainment, services, events, and more. People usually use Yelp to find good food recommendation. They even have a mobile app for easy to go reviews if you need to search up a restaurant in your area to eat in.

Foursquare
Foursquare allows people to check into different places when they are and a lot of people like to use it to compete with their friends to have more points or more checkins. It's a good way to keep track of the places you've been to. It also shows reviews of places people went to and shows what places and restaurants are trending around the area. It also gives people "specials" if they check in, so they will have discounts and its an incentive for people to use Foursquare and go to the places to eat. It's similar to Yelp, and a lot of people are comparing it to Yelp because it allows people to check in and write reviews now. Businesses can use Foursquare to advertise their businesses by posting their ads there.

Serious Eats
Serious Eats is a food blog that shares new food and new restaurants through online conversations and blogs. By having blogging, and a Talk, their public forum, it allows people to interact and post questions. There are recipes and photographs of different types of food. There are reviews of food and drinks in different cities. This blog is a convient way for people to discover new restaurants and trendy food, such as cronuts and Umami burgers. Approximately twenty posts are posted each day and a staff of nine editors sort through hundreds of contributions. There is a separate site dedicated to foodies based in New York and Chicago that is different from the main Serious Eats website.

The Cake Blog
The Cake Blog is a blog that shares recipes, DIY (Do It Yourself) decoration tips for parties and reviews on cakes and other desserts. The blog was started by Carrie Sellman in 2008 when she was on the search for the perfect wedding cake for her wedding. The blog features several posts each day on desserts baked by top bakers, free giveaways, tips for holiday parties and events, and many different cake recipes. The Cake Blog has been featured on cable networks channels such as TLC, Cooking Channel, and DIY Network.

Seamless
Seamless is an online food ordering platform that allows users to order food from local restaurants for pick-up or delivery. The company, originally SeamlessWeb, was launched in 1999 by Jason Finger and Paul Appelbaum to provide companies with a system for ordering food from restaurants and caterers for corporate events. It wasn't until 2005 that customers--both individual and corporate--could access the service online or through the seamless.com web app. The company currently connects over 2 million users to over 12,000 restaurants across 40 cities including New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Miami, Chicago, Houston, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. On August 9, 2013, Seamless merged with another food giant, GrubHub. They now operate under the name GrubHub Seamless. The merger connected customers with approximately 25,000 restaurants all across the United States and the UK.

Grubhub GrubHub is an online food ordering company. Founded in 2004 by Mike Evans and Matt Maloney, the company won the University of Chicago’s New Venture Challenge in 2006. One year later, GrubHub received its first round of venture capital, allowing the Chicago-based company to expand its service to Boston and San Francisco.

Instagram


Instagram is a popular form of social media, which allows users to post pictures and videos with a comment and tag a location or person to share with their friends. They can add hashtags to their photos and videos to attract and gain followers. Restaurants and other services can use this app to promote their goods and services. For example, Whole Foods Market uses Instagram to advertise its new foods, promotions and other news and changes in management.

Airbnb
Airbnb is an amazing website for homeowners with extra space to make that space available to people looking for a place to stay. It is a 1.3 billion dollar company that began in 2007 by two roommates who were having trouble paying their rent. With a popular conference coming to their area they saw an opportunity to make some cash. Since all the hotels were booked they decided to rent out space in their living room for people who wanted to attend the conference. After this they realized that what they had us a very special idea. After all there are many people who have large homes with space to spare and there are always traveling people who need a cheap but convenient place to stay. Airbnb provides these features. You can look up any city and any price range and you will find a variety of places to stay. Some are unusual like the tree houses, and some are just regular and cozy guest bedrooms. Either way this is a no hassle way to rent out or rent any amount of space for any amount of time.