How to Use Social Media for Restaurant Growth

Whether you’re a tech-savvy social media guru or someone who just doesn’t know what they’re doing, there are a lot of great ways to utilize social media for your restaurant. Some tips include harnessing the power of Instagram and Yelp, and finding new ways to optimize your Facebook page. This post is a quick guide on how to make the most out of social media for restaurants.

No matter how delicious your food is, your efforts go unnoticed if you are not driving traffic into your beloved restaurant. That is why a restaurant must have an influencing social media presence around the clock.

Before we get started, here are some critical numbers to consider for your impact on social media:

63% of restaurants use social media for advertising restaurants as was the most common strategy in 2018
37% of social network users use social media to research products, products, or services before purchasing.
49% of consumers learn about food through social networks
Your customers may spend most of their time on social media. If you have never used social media in your digital marketing strategy, these ten tips will help you get started.

Create Social Media Profiles That Matter

These three social media platforms all restaurants should be on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Facebook – 49 percent of people search on Facebook to find restaurants.

Instagram – Instagram is the first social media app for engaging with restaurant brands
Twitter – As compared to other industries on Twitter, Twitter users have very high connections with restaurants.

When filling out details about your restaurant in your social media accounts, make sure you have as much information as possible. The information you need to enter on your profile is your location, business hours, phone number, and a link to your website, to name a few. Ensure the information you provide to these social media accounts matches your local listings, such as Google My Business, Yelp, and TripAdvisor. By verifying that the news in your social media and listing profiles are the same, your restaurant may be at the top of Google Maps for local searches.

Below are some examples of what appropriate Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter profiles should look like:

Proper Facebook Profile
Proper Instagram Profile
Proper Twitter Profile

Use Video

Since public video generates more than 1,200 percent more than text and images combined, your restaurant must use video in its social media marketing strategy. By using video, you can promote new skills, recruit your staff, give your customers a “private” look, offer cooking tutorials, or do Q and A’s with your chef or chef.

Another way to use video marketing in your restaurant is to go to Facebook Live.

Create Social Media Contests

When you create social media competitions, you build relationships, loyalty, and engagement with your customers and fans. You can use other social media competitions for your restaurant to be a free annual dinner, gift cards, and win-free events like Superbowl Party. Seventy-nine percent of people only like the company’s Facebook page for their promotions and discounts.

Optimize Your Photos

On Instagram, nearly 93 percent of users say the visual appearance of the products influences their purchase decision. That’s why attractive posting photos on social media can mean everything. Potential customers should be lured and persuaded to pay for your restaurant with the quality of photos you post on social media. You do not have to limit your photos to your food; if you have created a unique restaurant brand or it has an attractive visual space, you also want to capture that.

Not only do potential buyers care about the quality of the food, but you also want your restaurant to look like a place where they can spend quality time. Your customers may be saying, “I need to visit that restaurant now!” after viewing your photos.

Respond to Your Reviews

Name management is everything in the restaurant. One bad review left unmarked could mean asking your many potential customers if they have to visit your restaurant. Fortunately, 71 percent of users say they are more likely to recommend a company that responds quickly to social media. So, even if a customer has left a negative or positive review on your social media, make sure you react to it as soon as possible. In some cases, if you respond quickly enough to a negative review, you can resolve the situation soon, and users can write a negative review.

Facebook Advertising

With 93% of social media marketers using Facebook ads, it is the most popular way to advertise on social media. The reason that Facebook ads are a blessing in restaurants is because of the rich targeting options. With Facebook ads, you can direct geo, which means only advertising to people in your area. This is especially important, as many restaurants throw their marketing budget into a non-local consumer base through various advertising methods such as television commercials.

If you use Facebook ads in your restaurant, be sure to educate yourself about resources like Facebook Business to get a better understanding of Facebook’s full potential through advertising.

Post at Optimal Times

As the saying goes, “time is everything,” this is especially true in restaurants when posting on social media. If you’re a restaurant focused on brunch, it’s not okay to post a picture of your Eggs Benedict and Mimosa at 10 pm, when most people are getting ready to go to a bar or bed. Also, you want to make sure you know when users are actively working on social media to increase your engagement and make your message more relevant.

Re-share Customer Content

What better social evidence of your restaurant than your customers post about your restaurant on social media? Please take the opportunity to resume customer content about your restaurant as it can build your social credibility and brand awareness as more people will be seen at your restaurant. It also allows you to share content you should not have created for yourself, thus making it easier for you to improve the content that you share on your social media profiles for later use.

An easy way to influence or find content that your customers have sent you is to include your hashtag in your bio. When you click on a hashtag, it pops up various images that form that hashtag, so you have more posting options.

Influencer Marketing

Like sharing customer content, influential marketing interacts with the most influential person in social media, audience, and authority. An example of effective marketing would be the influence of posting a picture of your food in a restaurant on their page. Through impact marketing, you increase your engagement as influencers engage in conversation about their content. You increase your brand awareness and conversions as you gain more reach for an influential audience while using their social evidence to transform that audience. All of this can mean massive traffic in your restaurant.

Cross-Promote Your Social Media Channels

It would help if you did not rely on a single source of communication in your value-added restaurant. That’s why promotion is perfect when one of your social media channels gets more engagement and communication than the other. For instance, if your Facebook page has a popularity tone but your Instagram has fewer followers, you can use your Facebook audience to create posts that will drive traffic to your Instagram account.

Getting the Most out of Your Social Media Efforts:

Social media is a way to stay on top of the minds of your customers. When users turn to their phones looking for a way to satisfy their appetite, you want your restaurant to remember. By applying these ten tips, you will see increased engagement across all your communication platforms to build brand awareness also increase traffic to your restaurant.