Foodstagramming: Evaluation in terms of generations and it's effect on food and beverage establishment preference

Social media, which emerged with the development of Web 2.0 technology, is used by millions of people with the widespread use of the internet and easy access to the internet by means of smart mobile devices. Especially in social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, users can share many contents such as photos, videos etc. with their virtual environment. Food photo sharing, which has become quite common in social media in recent years, is called foodstagramming. With food photos sharing on social media, consumers show their own food preferences, and advise their surroundings about the restaurant and lead opinions. Foodstagramming also allows consumers to recognition a business that they have not been to before and to discover different foods and beverages. In this sense, foodstagramming benefits in the recognition and preference of food and beverage businesses. The main purpose of this research is to reveal the effect of foodstagramming on the preference of food and beverage business. In the direction of this purpose, data was collected from the 410 participants, who are active social media users and share food and beverage photographs on social media, using a survey method. The collected data were subjected to "regression, correlation, independent sample t-test, one-way variance analysis (ANOVA), explanatory and confirmatory factor analysis with the help of statistical package program. Analysis results show that foodstagramming has a positive effect on the food and beverage establiahment preference. However, it has been determined that the dimensions of foodstagramming, enriching the food experience and social connection, have a positive effect on the preference of food and beverage establishment and participation in the special occasion memories varies in terms of generations. In addition, it was found that there was a significant difference between the participants' evaluations about the reasons of participation to foodstagramming and their food and beverage business preferences and their demographic characteristics.