7 Need-to-know Social Media Tips for Restaurants
Social media is an essential marketing tool for restaurants. It is a cost-effective way of reaching local audiences, building an engaged community and attracting them to your restaurant.
However, it isn’t as straightforward as just posting a photo of the latest dish from the kitchen. Like every other industry, gaining momentum on social media if you have a restaurant requires consistency, a strategic approach and of course, engaging content.
I’ve worked with local restaurants, food brands and run a food blog, so I know how to make an impact. I also see a lot of mistakes on social media from restaurants, so in this blog post, I am sharing my top tips for getting it right if you run a restaurant.
1. Maintain consistency.
The food scene is FAST, so keep a consistent presence as a basic goal. Often, disappearing from socials for more than a few weeks can lead to the interpretation that you aren’t open or temporarily closed. Posting regularly will remind your customers you are still there!
If you are looking for a guide, 2-3 times per week on the same day each week is a great way to kick-start consistency. Then you can start to look at when your audience is most active and what content they love to see.
TIP: Block out time at the start of the week or during quieter periods to schedule for the week ahead before the weekend rush.
2. Use original images & videos.
Restaurants are certainly not short of content! The kitchen is churning out content in the form of food. Customers can smell a stock image. a mile off, so make sure you invest a little bit of time or money in capturing your menu, interior and team. From a personal perspective, I really love to see what I’m food I’ll get when I visit a restaurant and an image of your own food is FAR more engaging and enticing than a stock image from Google.
TIP: Create a bank of your own stock images and videos. You don’t need a fancy camera - your phone and a well-lit area will be fine! Take a photo or video every time something comes over the pass. You will be surprised how quickly the content mounts up.
3. Introduce your team.
One of the best things about eating at your local pubs and restaurants is getting to know the team on a personal basis. Introducing the people behind your business creates a more personable presence online and is a very easy win for engagement. Starting a meet the team series could not be easier. Simply take a head shot of each member of the team in their natural habitat (so chefs in the kitchen, bar tenders by the bar) and then include their name, job title and their favourite dish or drink at your establishment.
TIP: Super-charge engagement and reach by doing a mini video of each team member!
4. Share behind the scenes.
True fans love to see the behind the scenes of running your restaurant. Reels are great for this - You can showcase a dish being put together, cocktails being made and so much more.
TIP: Share behind the scenes content once a week. You can batch create this content on quieter days.
5. Create a series.
Creating a series can be a really great way to keep people checking back for more and let them know what's going on in a fun way. This works particularly well for specials if you have them weekly or monthly. A series worked particulary well for one of my restaurant clients. We shared their specials every Tuesday and gradually their audience came to expect the posts. They always performed within the top five most engaging posts of the month.
TIP: Increase engagement by adding a poll to your Instagram stories for your specials or ask your audience to vote for their favourite dishes each week.
6. Optimise your profiles.
Make sure that your bio and your profile are optimised so that customers can find you. This includes having key words in your bio that relate to your restaurant (e.g Italian Restaurant in Milton Keynes) You should also include your location, especially if you are serving a particular area. And finally, don’t forget to add a call to action in your bio telling people how to book!
TIP: Turn on auto responses for any messages you get. We don't recommend managing bookings through social. Tell people to call, email or head online to book and include this in your message.
7. Don’t sleep on video.
Video is still one of the best ways to reach new audiences and tend to get more engagement. I am not suggest every post needs to be a video, but try and post one video per week as a starting point. They can be SO simple - Dishes comign over the pass, a dish being plated up, drinks being poured… Often the shortest, simplest videos are the most effective and engaging.
TIP: Create a bank of evergreen video content that you can post at any point. You can then pair with a trending audio for an easy-win piece of content.