Building relationships on Instagram: Enhancing customer engagement and visit intentions in restaurant

Abstract

The study examines how Instagram interactions impact customer response in the restaurant context using the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) framework. It explores how interactions on Instagram influence customers' intention to visit a restaurant, online engagement (OEG), and customer involvement (CI). The study highlights the significance of Instagram as a platform for effective interaction and relationship-building with customers, emphasizing its role in the hospitality industry. The study focuses on restaurant pages on Instagram, utilizing structural equation modeling to analyze data from a sample of 242 Instagram users in Turkey who are restaurant customers. The findings reveal that social media (SM) interactions are positively and significantly related to OEG, CI, and visit intention (VI). Furthermore, the results suggest that OEG and CI mediate the relationship between social media interactions (SMI) and VI, supporting the hypotheses concerning the indirect relationships between these variables. This research contributes to understanding SM dynamics and provides insights for restaurant marketers to enhance customer engagement and drive business growth.