Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. Fast food is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredients and served in packaging for take-out or takeaway. Fast food was created as a commercial strategy to accommodate large numbers of busy commuters, travelers and wage workers. In 2018, the fast-food industry was worth an estimated $570 billion globally.[1]The fastest form of "fast food" consists of pre-cooked meals which reduce waiting periods to mere seconds. Other fast-food outlets, primarily hamburger outlets such as McDonald's and Burger King, use mass-produced, pre-prepared ingredients (bagged buns and condiments, frozen beef patties, vegetables which are pre-washed, pre-sliced, or both; etc.) and cook the meat and french fries fresh, before assembling "to order".Fast-food restaurants are traditionally distinguished by the drive-through. Outlets may be stands or kiosks, which may provide no shelter or seating,[2] or fast-food restaurants (also known as quick-service restaurants).[3] Franchise operations that are part of restaurant chains have standardized foodstuffs shipped to each restaurant from central locations.[4]Examples of fast food (left to right, top to bottom): Cheeseburger, soft drink, french fries, pizza Margherita, hot dog, fried chicken, submarine sandwich, and donuts.Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, withMany fast foods tend to be high in saturated fat, sugar, salt and calories.[5] Fast-food consumption has been linked to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, colorectal cancer, obesity, high cholesterol, insulin resistance conditions and depression.[6][7][8][9] These correlations remain strong even when controlling for confounding lifestyle variables, suggesting a strong association between fast-food consumption and increased risk of disease and early mortality.[10]HistoryPulling wheat dough into thin strands to form lamianSee also: Fast-food restaurant § HistoryThe concept of ready-cooked food for sale is closely connected with urban developments. Homes in emerging cities often lacked adequate space or proper food preparation accoutrements. Additionally, procuring cooking fuel could cost as much as purchased produce. Frying foods in vats of searing oil proved as dangerous as it was expensive. Homeowners feared that a rogue cooking fire "might easily conflagrate an entire neighborhood".[11]Thus, urbanites were encouraged to purchase pre-prepared meats or starches, such as bread or noodles, whenever possible. This also ensured that customers with strictly limited time (a commuter stopping to procure dinner to bring home to their family, for example, or an hourly laborer on a short lunch break) were not inconvenienced by waiting for their food to be cooked on-the-spot (as is expected from a traditional "sit down" restaurant). In Ancient Rome, cities had street stands—a large counter with a receptacle in the middle from which food or drink would have been served.[12]It was during post-WWII American economic boom that Americans began to spend more and buy more as the economy boomed and a culture of consumerism bloomed. As a result of this new desire to have it all, coupled with the strides made by women while the men were away, both members of the household began to work outside the home. Eating out, which had previously been considered a luxury, became a common occurrence, and then a necessity. Workers, and working families, needed quick service and inexpensive food for both lunch and dinner. The traditional family dinner is increasingly being replaced by the consumption of takeaway fast food. As a result, the time invested on food preparation is getting lower, with an average woman in the United States spending 47 minutes per day preparing food and the average man spending 19 minutes per day in 2013.[13]Pre-industrial Old WorldIn the cities of Roman antiquity, much of the urban population living in insulae, multi-story apartment blocks, depended on food vendors for many of their meals; the Forum itself served as a marketplace where Romans could purchase baked goods and cured meats.[14] In the mornings, bread soaked in wine was eaten as a quick snack and cooked vegetables and stews later in popina, a simple type of eating establishment.[15] In Asia, 12th-century Chinese ate fried dough, soups and stuffed buns, all of which still exist as contemporary snack food.[16] Their Baghdadi contemporaries supplemented home-cooked meals with processed legumes, purchased starches, and even ready-to-eat meats.[17] During the Middle Ages, large towns and major urban areas such as London and Paris supported numerous vendors that sold dishes such as pies, pasties, flans, waffles, wafers, pancakes and cooked meats. As in Roman cities during antiquity, many of these establishments catered to those who did not have means to cook their own food, particularly single households. Unlike richer town dwellers, many often could not afford housing with kitchen facilities and thus relied on fast food. Travelers such as pilgrims en route to a holy site, were among the customers.[18]

 

Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. Fast food is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredients and served in packaging for take-out or takeaway. Fast food was created as a commercial strategy to accommodate large numbers of busy commuters, travelers and wage workers. In 2018, the fast-food industry was worth an estimated $570 billion globally.^[1]

The fastest form of "fast food" consists of pre-cooked meals which reduce waiting periods to mere seconds. Other fast-food outlets, primarily hamburger outlets such as McDonald's and Burger King, use mass-produced, pre-prepared ingredients (bagged buns and condiments, frozen beef patties, vegetables which are pre-washed, pre-sliced, or both; etc.) and cook the meat and french fries fresh, before assembling "to order".

Fast-food restaurants are traditionally distinguished by the drive-through. Outlets may be stands or kiosks, which may provide no shelter or seating,^[2] or fast-food restaurants (also known as quick-service restaurants).^[3] Franchise operations that are part of restaurant chains have standardized foodstuffs shipped to each restaurant from central locations.^[4]

Examples of fast food (left to right, top to bottom): Cheeseburger, soft drink, french fries, pizza Margherita, hot dog, fried chicken, submarine sandwich, and donuts.

Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, withMany fast foods tend to be high in saturated fat, sugar, salt and calories.^[5] Fast-food consumption has been linked to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, colorectal cancer, obesity, high cholesterol, insulin resistance conditions and depression.^[6][7][8][9] These correlations remain strong even when controlling for confounding lifestyle variables, suggesting a strong association between fast-food consumption and increased risk of disease and early mortality.^[10]

History

Pulling wheat dough into thin strands to form lamian

See also: Fast-food restaurant § History

The concept of ready-cooked food for sale is closely connected with urban developments. Homes in emerging cities often lacked adequate space or proper food preparation accoutrements. Additionally, procuring cooking fuel could cost as much as purchased produce. Frying foods in vats of searing oil proved as dangerous as it was expensive. Homeowners feared that a rogue cooking fire "might easily conflagrate an entire neighborhood".^[11]

Thus, urbanites were encouraged to purchase pre-prepared meats or starches, such as bread or noodles, whenever possible. This also ensured that customers with strictly limited time (a commuter stopping to procure dinner to bring home to their family, for example, or an hourly laborer on a short lunch break) were not inconvenienced by waiting for their food to be cooked on-the-spot (as is expected from a traditional "sit down" restaurant). In Ancient Rome, cities had street stands—a large counter with a receptacle in the middle from which food or drink would have been served.^[12]

It was during post-WWII American economic boom that Americans began to spend more and buy more as the economy boomed and a culture of consumerism bloomed. As a result of this new desire to have it all, coupled with the strides made by women while the men were away, both members of the household began to work outside the home. Eating out, which had previously been considered a luxury, became a common occurrence, and then a necessity. Workers, and working families, needed quick service and inexpensive food for both lunch and dinner. The traditional family dinner is increasingly being replaced by the consumption of takeaway fast food. As a result, the time invested on food preparation is getting lower, with an average woman in the United States spending 47 minutes per day preparing food and the average man spending 19 minutes per day in 2013.^[13]

Pre-industrial Old World

In the cities of Roman antiquity, much of the urban population living in insulae, multi-story apartment blocks, depended on food vendors for many of their meals; the Forum itself served as a marketplace where Romans could purchase baked goods and cured meats.^[14] In the mornings, bread soaked in wine was eaten as a quick snack and cooked vegetables and stews later in popina, a simple type of eating establishment.^[15] In Asia, 12th-century Chinese ate fried dough, soups and stuffed buns, all of which still exist as contemporary snack food.^[16] Their Baghdadi contemporaries supplemented home-cooked meals with processed legumes, purchased starches, and even ready-to-eat meats.^[17] During the Middle Ages, large towns and major urban areas such as London and Paris supported numerous vendors that sold dishes such as pies, pasties, flans, waffles, wafers, pancakes and cooked meats. As in Roman cities during antiquity, many of these establishments catered to those who did not have means to cook their own food, particularly single households. Unlike richer town dwellers, many often could not afford housing with kitchen facilities and thus relied on fast food. Travelers such as pilgrims en route to a holy site, were among the customers.^[18]

 

Social Media Marketing for Businesses

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Social media marketing is a powerful way for businesses of all sizes to reach prospects and customers. People discover, learn about, follow, and shop from brands on social media, so if you’re not on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, you’re missing out! Great marketing on social media can bring remarkable success to your business, creating devoted brand advocates and even driving leads and sales.

In this complete guide to social media marketing, you’re going to learn:

• What social media marketing is, with benefits, stats, and tips.
• How to build a social media marketing strategy and a plan to carry it out.
• The seven best social media marketing platforms and how to use them

What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing is a form of digital marketing that leverages the power of popular social media networks to achieve your marketing and branding goals. But it’s not just about creating business accounts and posting when you feel like it. Social media marketing requires an evolving strategy with measurable goals and includes:

• Maintaining and optimizing your profiles.
• Posting pictures, videos, stories, and live videos that represent your brand and attract a relevant audience.
• Responding to comments, shares, and likes and monitoring your reputation.
• Following and engaging with followers, customers, and influencers to build a community around your brand.

Social media marketing also includes paid social media advertising, where you can pay to have your business appear in front of large volumes of highly targeted users.

Benefits of social media marketing

With such widespread usage and versatility, social media is one of the most effective free channels for marketing your business today. Here are some of the specific benefits of social media marketing:

• Humanize your business: Social media enables you to turn your business into an active participant in your market. Your profile, posts, and interactions with users form an approachable persona that your audience can familiarize and connect with, and come to trust.
• Drive traffic: Between the link in your profile, blog post links in your posts, and your ads, social media is a top channel for increasing traffic to your website where you can convert visitors into customers. Plus, social signals are an indirect SEO factor.
• Generate leads and customers: You can also generate leads and conversions directly on these platforms, through features like Instagram/Facebook shops, direct messaging, call to action buttons on profiles, and appointment booking capabilities.
• Increase brand awareness: The visual nature of social media platforms allows you to build your visual identity across vast audiences and improve brand awareness. And better brand awareness means better results with all your other campaigns.
• Build relationships: These platforms open up both direct and indirect lines of communication with your followers through which you can network, gather feedback, hold discussions, and connect directly with individuals.

The bigger and more engaged your audience is on social media networks, the easier it will be for you to achieve your marketing goals.

 

                What Is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is the use of websites, apps, mobile devices, social media, search engines, and other digital means to promote and sell products and services.

Digital marketing involves many of the same principles as traditional marketing and is often considered an additional way for companies to approach consumers and understand their behavior. Companies often combine traditional and digital marketing techniques in their strategies. But digital marketing also comes with its own set of challenges. Digital marketing started to become popular with the widespread adoption of the internet in the 1990s.

                  How Digital Marketing Works

Marketing encompasses a wide range of techniques and media that companies can use to promote their products and services to potential consumers and improve their market share. To be successful, it requires a combination of advertising and sales savvy. Professional marketers take on these tasks either internally at individual companies or externally at marketing firms that may serve many different clients.

Companies once focused on marketing through print, television, and radio because that was all they had. Although those options still exist, the internet gave companies another way to reach consumers and gave rise to digital marketing.

The new technologies and trends forced companies to change their marketing strategies and rethink their budgets. Email became a popular marketing tool in the early days of digital marketing. Then the focus shifted to search engines like Netscape, which allowed businesses to tag and keyword items to get themselves noticed. The development of social platforms like Facebook made it possible for companies to track user data and deliver their messages to very specific audiences.

Types of Digital Marketing Channels

Digital marketing channels have evolved since the 1990s and continue to do so. Here are eight of the most common channels in use today.

Website Marketing

Companies often use their own website as the centerpiece of their digital marketing activities. The most effective websites represent the brand and its products and services in a clear and memorable way. A website today must be fast-loading, mobile-friendly, and easy to navigate.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising enables marketers to reach audiences on news and other websites and digital platforms through paid ads. Marketers can set up PPC campaigns on Google, Bing, LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Pinterest, and Facebook and show their ads to people searching terms related to their products or services.

These campaigns can segment users based on their demographic characteristics (such as age or gender), or their particular interests or location. The most widely used services for PPC are Google Ads and Facebook Ads.

Content Marketing

The goal of content marketing is to reach potential customers through the use of written, visual, or video content that interests them. That content is usually published on a website and then promoted through social media, email marketing, search engine optimization, or even pay-per-click campaigns. Content marketing attempts to be more subtle than advertising, and the product or service the sponsor is attempting to market may or may not be conspicuously highlighted.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is still one of the most effective digital marketing channels, though many people associate it with spam and treat such messages accordingly. Many digital marketers use their other digital marketing channels to collect names for their email lists. Then, through email marketing, they try to turn those leads into customers.

Social Media Marketing

The primary goals of a social media marketing campaign are to build brand awareness and establish trust. As you go deeper into social media marketing, you can use it to obtain leads and as a direct marketing or sales channel. Promoted posts and tweets are two examples of social media marketing.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the oldest forms of marketing, and the digital world has given it new life. In affiliate marketing, companies and individual "influencers" promote another company's products and get a commission every time a sale is made or a fresh lead is added to their list. Many well-known companies, including Amazon, have affiliate programs that pay out millions of dollars to affiliates that help sell their products.

                  What Is Social Media Marketing (SMM)?

Social media marketing is the use of social media—the platforms on which users build social networks and share information—to build a company's brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic. In addition to providing companies with a way to engage with existing customers and reach new ones, SMM has purpose-built data analytics that allows marketers to track the success of their efforts and identify even more ways to engage.

According to DataReportal and Kepios, there were 5.31 billion social media identities across the world as of April 2025.1 As a result, SMM has incredible reach to consumers. Let's take a closer look at the strategies and practices and drive social media marketing.

Key Takeaways

• Social media marketing uses social media and social networks—like Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and Instagram—to market products and services, engage with existing customers, and reach new ones.
• The power of social media marketing comes from the unparalleled capacity of social media in three core marketing areas: connection, interaction, and customer data.
• Social media marketing has transformed the way businesses can influence consumer behavior—from promoting content that drives engagement to extracting personal data that makes messaging resonate with users.
• Because social media today is so ubiquitous, marketing techniques using these platforms are extremely important for businesses.
• Social media marketing is often more cost-effective with great exposure, though it requires ongoing maintenance and might have unintended negative feedback consequences.

  Why Is Social Media Marketing (SMM) So Powerful?

The power of SMM is driven by the unparalleled capacity of social media in three core marketing areas: connection, interaction, and customer data.

Customer Data

A well-designed social media marketing plan delivers another invaluable resource to boost marketing outcomes: customer data. Rather than being overwhelmed by the 3Vs of big data (volume, variety, and velocity), SMM tools have the capacity not only to extract customer data but also to turn this gold into actionable market analysis—or even to use the data to crowdsource new strategies.

       How Social Media Marketing (SMM) Works

As platforms like Facebook, X, and Instagram took off, social media transformed how we connect and how businesses can influence consumer behavior—from promoting content that drives engagement to extracting geographic, demographic, and personal information that makes messaging resonate with users.

SMM Action Plan

The more targeted your SMM strategy is, the more effective it will be. Hootsuite, a leading software provider in the social media management space, recommends the following action plan to build an SMM campaign that has an execution framework as well as performance metrics:2

• Align SMM goals to clear business objectives
• Learn your target customer (age, location, income, job title, industry, interests)
• Conduct a competitive analysis of your competition (successes and failures)
• Audit your current SMM (successes and failures)
• Create a calendar for SMM content delivery
• Create best-in-class content
• Track performance and adjust SMM strategy as needed

           Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Compared to traditional marketing, social media marketing has several distinct advantages, including the fact that SMM has two kinds of interaction that enable targeted customer relationship management (CRM) tools: both customer-to-customer and firm-to-customer. In other words, while traditional marketing tracks customer value primarily by capturing purchase activity, SMM can track customer value directly (through purchases) and indirectly (through product referrals).

Intro

Digital marketing typically refers to online marketing campaigns that appear on a computer, phone, tablet, or other device. It can take many forms, including online video, display ads, search engine marketing, paid social ads and social media posts.

Digital marketing is often compared to “traditional marketing” such as magazine ads, billboards, and direct mail. Oddly, television is usually lumped in with traditional marketing.

Why is online marketing important?

Any type of marketing can help your business thrive. However, internet marketing has become increasingly important because of how accessible digital channels are. In fact, there were 5.56 billion internet users globally as of February 2025.

From social media to emails, there are many ways to use digital marketing tactics in order to communicate with your target audience. Additionally, digital marketing has minimal upfront costs, making it a cost-effective marketing technique for small businesses.

 

                                                 

B2B versus B2C digital marketing

Digital marketing strategies work for B2B (business to business) as well as B2C (business to consumer) companies, but best practices differ significantly between the two. Here's a closer look at how digital marketing is used in B2B and B2C marketing strategies:

         

Types of digital marketing

There are as many specializations within digital marketing as there are ways of interacting using digital media. Here are a few key examples of types of digital marketing tactics.

          Search engine optimization

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is technically a marketing tool rather than a form of internet marketing in itself. It is often called "an art and a science."

The "science" part of SEO is what’s most important. SEO is a science because it requires you to research and weigh different contributing factors to achieve the highest possible ranking on a search engine results page (SERP).

Today, the most important elements to consider when optimizing a web page for search engines include:

• Quality and uniqueness of content
• Optimization of key elements for the targeted keyword (URL, title tag, H1, sub headlines)
• Level of user engagement (time on page, bounce rate)
• Number and quality of backlinks
• Internal linking
• 
  

In addition to the elements above, you need to prioritize technical SEO, which is all the back-end components of your site. This includes mobile-friendliness and loading times. Improving your technical SEO can help search engines better navigate and crawl your site.

The strategic use of these factors makes search engine optimization a science, but the unpredictability involved makes it an "art" that often requires experienced SEO professionals.

Ultimately, the goal is to rank at or near the top of the first page of a search engine’s result page or in Google's AI Overviews. This ensures that those searching for a specific query related to your brand can easily find your products or services. While there are many search engines, digital marketers often focus on Google since it's a global leader in the search engine market.

                       Content marketing

As mentioned, the quality of your content is a key component of an optimized page. As a result, SEO is a major factor in content marketing, an online marketing strategy based on the distribution of relevant and valuable content to a target audience.

As in any marketing strategy, the goal of content marketing is to attract leads that ultimately convert into customers. But it does so differently than traditional advertising. Instead of enticing prospects with potential value from a product or service, it offers value for free in the form of written material, such as:

• Blog posts
• E-books
• Newsletters
• Video or audio transcripts
• Whitepapers
• Infographics
• 84% of consumers expect companies to produce entertaining and helpful content experiences
• 62% of companies that have at least 5,000 employees produce content daily
• 92% of marketers believe that their company values content as an important asset

                 Social media marketing

Social media marketing means driving traffic and brand awareness by engaging people in discussion online. You can use social media marketing to highlight your brand, products, services, culture, and more. With billions of people spending their time engaging on social media platforms, focusing on social media marketing can be worthwhile.

The most popular digital platforms for social media marketing are Facebook, X, and Instagram, with LinkedIn and YouTube not far behind. Ultimately, which social media platforms you use for your business depends on your goals and audience. For example, if you want to find new leads for your FinTech startup, targeting your audience on LinkedIn is a good idea since industry professionals are active on the platform. On the other hand, running social media ads on Instagram may be better for your brand if you run a B2C focused on younger consumers.