Food is one of the few topics that are always consistently training online and never gets old. High engagement levels in social media platforms and slim chances of controversy make it a popular niche. With the influx of social media users on the internet in the last couple of years, social media platforms heavily influence where diners choose to eat. A recent study reports that 93 percent of consumers say that social media directly impacts their dining decisions via reviews, posts, pictures, and more.
This makes social media marketing essential in any restaurant or diners marketing strategy. If you’re a restaurant or diner owner who hasn’t harnessed social media marketing, you should do so ASAP. Here’s a complete social media guide for restaurant owners.
Set-Up All Your Profiles
The first step of getting your brand out on social media platforms is creating your profiles. Even a few years back, most online business profiles used to be created via general settings. Now, many social media platforms come with specialized business profile options that provide visitors and followers with a streamlined shopping experience.
The first thing you need to ensure is that the business name you’re using is not taken. The chances of this happening are low, but it can happen nonetheless. If the name is familiar, you might find a business similarly named, especially on Instagram and Facebook. This can make things a bit difficult, but choosing a good logo and a unique business name can help customers differentiate you from the other brand.
When you’re creating the business profile on social media accounts, make sure that the essential information such as operations, address, website, etc., is clearly visible. Once these necessary details are complete, it’s time to create your brand’s voice or personality, or craft one if you don’t have it yet.
Capture Images
To gain traction on social media platforms, you need to stand out of the crowd in the constant stream of advertisements and posts users sift through daily. The easiest way to do this is through images that draw immediate attention. You can demonstrate your brand’s personality by posting pictures of your diner/restaurant and the famous and new additions to the menu.
According to a study by SproutSocial, 60.7 percent of people need to see something two to four times on social media before making purchase decisions. People can’t taste food online, but they can form a definite opinion through images. Food photography is an art form, so you should hire a professional photographer for the best results. You should also have an excellent graphic designer to create good quality text and information based images.
Engage With People
The single most effective way for a brand to grow on social media platforms is by engaging with the people interacting with your brand. If you promote your business mindlessly by placing sponsored ads on social media, you won’t get any results. The best way to do this is by replying to their messages and comments on social media platforms. If you don’t engage with people on your business’s social media profile, your digital marketing budget will go down the drain.
Stop making generic posts and get creative with them! The most successful businesses on social media platforms create posts that encourage the audience to engage with them. When interacting with the audience, try to ensure a consistent tone and take a person-centric approach to each message and comment even if they are negative. Get involved with relevant people and online communities, have conversations, and be a presence the audience enjoys online—your business will automatically gain fans and engagement. Sharing user-generated content can also earn you some brownie points.
Show Off Behind the Scenes
In the last few years, video content has become increasingly popular. According to Hubspot, 81 percent of online businesses consider video as the most viable content medium. You can create food videos that show how individual dishes are being made straight from your restaurant’s kitchen. These videos tend to draw more views as you can show off behind the scene footage of your business. You can host the videos on YouTube and integrate the links to your business’s social media profile.
The kitchen isn’t the only place to shoot a video—you can show off your staff, how they get their work done, and some behind the scenes stuff like the kitchens, point of sale area, and the inside of the restaurant when there’s no one around. These make for great storytelling opportunities. You can also demonstrate your restaurant point of sale software if you make a presentation or pitch video.
Make Maximum Impact With Minimum Effort
Branding a restaurant business has never been an easy job, and the current pandemic only makes it harder. It would help if you used the most effective strategy to reach out to potential clients—social media marketing. If done correctly, a loyal customer base will sustain your business even through challenging times.
