In an attempt to further utilize social media, Bon Appetit has introduced food pop ups on campus to encourage student engagement, said Steve Rall, general manager of Bon Appetit. From ice-cream sandwiches to iced tea, Bon Appetit uses food pop ups to gather positive and negative feedback from students regarding food options, Rall said.
“[Social media’s] a great way kids are out there,” Rall said. “They communicate, they’re more articulate, you get better responses and it’s more user-friendly stuff for us to adjust our programming for the university.
FROM THE INTERNET TO THE TABLE
Lucille Alacaraz, director of operations for Bon Appetit, introduced the idea during a meeting with other managers, Rall said. Rall thought it an excellent idea to advertise the pop ups through social media, giving managers the chance to speak with customers one-on-one.
The only way to know when and where these food pop ups happen is through checking Bon Appetit’s Twitter account or their Facebook page. Even though Bon Appetit has been on both Facebook and Twitter for about 6 years, they do not have the amount of followers or feedback via social media they want, Rall said.
“It just never really happened for us, you know? People wouldn’t follow us and we came up with gimmicks for all of it but we never got the input back,” Rall said.
Bon Appetit has been in a contract with Biola for almost 27 years and has a solid relationship with the university, Rall said. This year, with the introduction of food pop ups, Rall hopes to garner more followers on Twitter, Facebook and has considered an Instagram account.
With these food pop ups, Bon Appetit hopes to promote menu for meals in October and products in stock that are customers do not know of. Bon Appetit wants to receive input from students on those products to determine its success.
STUDENTS PREFER APP OVER SOCIAL MEDIA
Many student remain unaware of the food pop up events because they do not follow Bon Appetit’s Facebook or Twitter accounts and have not seen the events around campus. Gianna Araujo, sophomore psychology major, does not follow Bon Appetit because she said she is more inclined to follow people rather than food on her social media accounts.
Though many students do not follow Bon Appetit online, some say they would follow and check it more often if Bon Appetit posted their menu items on social media. Freshman english major Kiriahna Tucker said that she would visit Bon Appetit’s social media regularly if a daily menu was posted.
Currently, Bon Appetit does not have an app. However, students said that if Bon Appetit made an app, they would download and check it every day. Zoe Lee, junior sociology major, said she checks Bon Appetit’s social media at least four times a week, but feels she would prefer an app.
Freshman communication sciences major Jessica Vanness says even though she would not follow Bon Appetit’s media outlets, she liked the idea of a Bon Appetit app.
“Yes, I would download that app. I’d probably check it once a day,” Vanness said.
