Study: College students want dining info from social media

College students are highly active in seeking out and posting information on social media sites about their on- and off-campus foodservice experiences, and the vast majority welcome receiving information from foodservice establishments via social media, concludes a study of social media usage related to campus foodservice by the Y-Pulse research organization.

The study was a follow-up to one Y-Pulse did on the same subject in 2010, when it found only 44 percent of students wanting campus foodservice information conveyed to them through social media. That number has swelled to 84 percent in the current study, driven by the emergence in the interim of Instagram and Snapchat.

Also, the discussion of campus apps was just beginning in 2010, whereas today 65 percent of the campuses surveyed reported having a unique app for their students.

The new study also found that 94 percent of college student consumers reported using Facebook, 71 percent Instagram and 69 percent Twitter, followed by Snapchat at 48 percent. Five years ago, 88 percent of college student consumers reported using Facebook and only 21 percent reported using Twitter (Instagram and Snapchat did not exist).

The study surveyed 66 college and university foodservice professionals and 265 full-time student consumers about their use of social media related to a wide range of campus venues, including residential dining, convenience stores, quick service restaurants, vending and on-campus catering.

Contact Mike Buzalka at [email protected]