Uber website mashable.com recently published a blog post all about the best practices for restaurants on Facebook.

More than ever, it’s integral that a brand understand how to use Facebook to successfully reach the more than 700 million people who utilize Facebook every day. Food consultants constantly weigh the options on how to best tap into this market.

Facebook has countless restaurants, hospitality and food & beverage companies all jockeying for exposure and attention on the site.  The goal, however, is to make sure your brand uses Facebook to your best advantage to make sure you are a step above the rest.   Some top strategies include:

Be Trustworthy … Facebook recently changed their privacy settlings policy and brands are no longer allowed to hide comments; rather, they want users to be able to share content and have open dialogues.  Big problem? No Problem!  Guests don’t expect perfection every time, but they do want to know you care and are listening.  Make openness part of your restaurant business plans. Don’t be afraid of negative comments. Instead use the comments to engage in a public dialogue with your fans/friends/consumers to show them that you are committed to improvement.

Be Seen … show-off a little! It’s okay, really. Food consultants suggest a multimodal approach to branding. Since a picture’s worth a thousand words, showcase images: from your delicious-looking appetizers to your devilish desserts, to the dining room at fun, full-capacity, or upload videos of chefs’ creations, list/define a few of your enticing ingredients, highlight great pr/press, display your iPhone app … Get creative and get out there.

Be Consistent … Food consultants agree that branding is what sets you apart. Use your mission statements, ideologies and overall brand aesthetic as tools to guide you in your Facebook persona.   Make sure that anyone posting or responding is aligned with your brand mentality: It’s important to bring personality to the brand, not necessarily promote the people who work there.

How fast is too fast for your fast food? That may be the question facing many quick service food chains pretty soon. The popularity of online and mobile app-based ordering has reached new heights for many casual dining chains like Five Guys and Chipotle. Pizza has been in on the trend as well. Many pizza restaurants and chains allow you to order your food from home or on the road from your mobile phone or tablet. It offers an added layer of convenience and customization. However, should fast food restaurants incorporate online and mobile ordering into their restaurant services? It’s really a tough call.

For the most part, fast food restaurants have veered away from the idea of mobile and online ordering because of the logistics involved. Fast food restaurants are already geared towards fast, convenient food and some feel that mobile and online ordering may interfere with these operation plans or affect the quality of the food. It was never cost-effective as many customers are on-the-go or in a hurry anyway. However, with the successes mentioned above, some quick service restaurants are beginning to question whether there might be a market for online ordering in quick-service restaurants too.

Recent news from Sonic Drive-In restaurants suggests that this may be the case. Sonic will be testing out online ordering in a select number of its restaurants in Arizona. Snapfinger, the service provider that includes several restaurant chains like Subway, Baja Fresh, and Outback says that it has the technology to ensure that food quality doesn’t go down. If this is the case, food consultants might encourage more online ordering in quick-service restaurants. It should be interesting to see what the future holds.

For a while, trends have been going in the direction of simpler foods with fewer ingredients and more of an emphasis on freshness and locality. Customers want an idea of what they’re eating and where it came from. They do not want over-processed foods or those that have an ingredient list that looks like a novel. To that extent, some restaurants are taking this concept of simplicity and modest menu design to the extreme and are going back in time.

The Wall Street Journal released a piece last month highlighting several restaurants and chefs who are experimenting with recipes and cooking techniques long before their times.  Chefs are using recipes for traditional foods that date back to the Roman Empire and the Jewish Diaspora. While it may sound neat to try a food that people may have eaten thousands of years ago, there are a few hang-ups.

First, past cuisine featured different spices and meats that the novice foodie may not be used to. People of past eras used more parts of animals because they did not want to waste. Moreover, those who have tried some of the older recipes have indicated that the food was bland and not as many spices were used.  Those who try these ancient foods may be shocked to find that it’s not to their liking.

Moreover, those who want to try the food may have to shell a few bucks to do so. In order for chefs to make these meals, they have to use some ingredients that cost double the price of present day ingredients. These may be hard to find or just more costly as they’re not used as much given modern cooking.  Although these food items may have been inexpensive and widely available in the Renaissance, they may be a little harder to come by now.

Still, even with these constraints, it is an exciting idea and those who want to try something new will not be disappointed.