THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ON THE ACTIVITIES OF RESTAURANT ESTABLISHMENTS IN TRANSCARPATIA

The article examines the impact of social media marketing on the activities of restaurants in Transcarpathia. It is noted that social media as a new space for the existence of consumers is useful not only for them, but also for enterprises in order to promote brands, goods, and services. It is noted that these media determine the promotion of the enterprise's goods, in particular, allow it to attract and retain the attention of the target audience; to form a positive image and brand of the company; promote goods and services on the market; to inform the target audience or potential consumers about the appearance of a new product, about a price change; explain the features of the product and its use; to form consumer loyalty to the brand, product, enterprise; to remind consumers that they may need the product in the near future; provide support for awareness of the product or service at the highest level; to reinforce consumers' decisions about making the right choice, etc. It is emphasized that restaurant marketers should take into account that the content they post on different social networks should be different. For example, on Instagram, people mostly look at photos or videos, on Facebook they are ready to read, take part in polls and sweepstakes. Therefore, scientists emphasize, messages should be formed not according to a social network, but according to the specific marketing tasks of a restaurant, and specific social networks are selected for the implementation of these tasks. The influence of social media marketing on the activities of restaurant establishments is illustrated by the leading restaurants of Transcarpathia. At the same time, it has been proven that among the most popular tools in social networks is the designation of posts and reposts under the name “hashtag”, the click of which makes it possible to turn the word following it into an active link. An analysis of individual Transcarpathian food establishments shows that there is a share of them that do not use social networks at all, some establishments (and the vast majority of them) are registered in 1–2 networks (mainly Instagram and Facebook), and a smaller share of restaurants use 3 or more social networks. The problems of local food establishments when using SMM marketing tools have been identified. In particular, it was noted that the region's restaurant business enterprises do not use social media correctly, which is manifested in the following manifestations: the vast majority of restaurant business establishments either do not consider it appropriate to carry out activities in social media, or concentrate on a significant amount of resources; restaurants create low-quality content and do not focus on visualizing their activities; duplicate information on all the resources they use, without taking into account the features of social media; the expansion of the audience on the pages occurs due to the number, without taking into account the portrait of the potential consumer of restaurant services. This indicates the unformed positions of the restaurant industry regarding the use of social media and the lack of systematicity in this process. The main reasons why restaurateurs do not plan to use social media or have not yet initiated its use include: expectation of immediate effect, lack of alignment with the concept of the restaurant, skepticism, waiting for the brand or head office to initiate the use of social media, lack of knowledge, slow decision-making. Measures aimed at improving the efficiency of their use are outlined. It was found out that in order to improve the situation, it is necessary to: increase the target audience, increase the quality of content, respond in a timely manner to comments, questions, problematic situations, more attention should be paid to true statistics, which will give an objective picture of the promotion process. When conducting advertising campaigns in social networks, it is important to take into account their specificity. It is also necessary to take into account that the restaurant is not only the sender, but also the recipient of messages. The need for social networks is especially acute in the conditions of the coronavirus pandemic. With the help of SMM mechanisms in the restaurant business, you can constantly maintain contact with regular customers, attract new ones, sell dishes and products for their preparation online, which will make it possible not only to maintan the customer base, but even to increase it.