With TikTok and Instagram being the number one place (yes, even more so than Google) where people are getting their recommendations for places to eat, you better believe you should be on social media promoting your restaurant! While itās one thing to have a website and Google/Yelp reviews, you also need a place where you completely control the images, the brand feel, and more to really boost your brand awareness online. So how do you do that? And how in the world can you boost your awareness? Letās dive into why restaurants need to have effective social media marketing.
How to promote a restaurant on social media? š
There are a few ways restaurants can use social media for their business and get new people through the door. Some of our favorite ways are:
Posting photos and videos of your food
Yes, this is a very obvious one but itās effective. Work with a photographer that can capture your food well because the better the photo of the food, the more likely people will follow your account and want to try your food. Ever seen a terrible photo of the food before? Yeah, you donāt want that. Make the photos and videos enticing. Show off your best-sellers. Show off the cocktails you make. The more content you have around what you serve and make will be huge for your social media pages.
Show off your employees
As I stated before, people love to feel connected to a brand and as if they know the people behind the brand. Start showing off your employees so people feel connected and as if they are part of your local community.
Highlight your favorite customers
Have regulars that come in often? You should show them off online! Give them a little shoutout, mention their favorite food, and ask them for a little testimonial that you can use in the caption of the photo.
Do you have a special promotion or holiday coming up that you want to highlight? A big way to bring in new customers and get new followers is by sharing a promotion or deal if someone follows you online. Social media is also a great way to promote a limited edition item or talk about daily specials on your story.
Respond to feedback
Social media is a great way to quickly respond to feedback and reviews from your customers. A lot of people will send feedback through comments or DMs and the faster you are at responding to this feedback, the more likely your customers will stay loyal and want to continue coming back to your restaurant.
Show off behind-the-scenes
Go in the kitchen and show off how the back-of-house team works together. Show off the ins and outs of making the food at your location. People love to see whatās cooking in the kitchen (is this a bad pun?) and showing the behind-the-scenes is a great way for them to feel connected to your restaurant.
User-generated content
If you donāt know what this means, itās basically posting what your followers and customers have taken and posted on their own social media channels. You can use this content (always ask for permission first!) and post it on your own channels. A lot of people like seeing their own photo on a companyās social media channel and makes people want to take more and more content for the chance to be featured.
Ask questions
When posting a story or feed post, ask your audience a question! Insert a poll. Ask them about their favorite meal. This will help the engagement on your posts and can get conversations started in the DMs and comment section.
How often should restaurants post on social media?
Like any social media, the more consistent you are online, the more likely your posts will get shared and seen by followers. A good rule of thumb is to post at least 3 times a week online, or you could lose out on anyone seeing your content at all.
What social media platforms should restaurants be on? š²
If youāre unsure of which social media app you should be on, here are the top ones that will help you get noticed in the online space.
Facebook
Yes, you should be on Facebook. Older generations are still on Facebook and itās a great way for you to post your hours, locations, and more on the app. Besides being seen by more people, you can utilize Facebookās account manager where you can run ads, respond to customers, and so much more.
Instagram
Oh, Instagram. The millennialsā favorite app (well, I thinkā¦). Back in the day, Instagram was THE place to post your #foodstagrams and it still is heavily overloaded with food photos on the feed, in Stories, and on Reels.
You can include all relevant information about your restaurant in your bio and use niche, location-specific hashtags in your post so people can easily find you and your restaurant. Similar to Facebook, you can create ads for your Instagram posts (you will need a Facebook account to do this though!).
One of the best things about Instagram is its Stories, where you can post about daily specials, behind-the-scenes at the restaurant, and more!
TikTok
Want to get into the eyes of the younger generation? Then, youāll want to give TikTok a try! The platform is video-only, so itās a great place to show off how to cook your signature dishes, show off more of your personality online, and live events happening at your restaurant.
Social media marketing for restaurants āØ
Hashtags
Hashtags & Analytics
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Captions
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Scheduling