If you own a restaurant and aren’t engaging with your audience through restaurant marketing on social media platforms, you are missing out your presence.
Imagine: you can reach thousands or millions of viewers using popular hashtags of restaurant marketing. For example, #foodporn, #foodlover and #foodphotography.
Foods are one of the most popular and dominant social media posts on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. On Instagram alone, there are over 202 million posts with the hashtag #foodie and 466 million posts with the hashtag #food.
So, this is an excellent opportunity for restaurants to join the social handles and target food lovers on a platform they frequently use.
Platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook let you upload attractive images with location tags, making social media ideal for your restaurant marketing.
After all, who doesn’t like looking at delicious food pictures when scrolling through your feed?
A recent survey by MGH (restaurant marketing agency) shows that 36% of U.S. diners follow restaurants on social media to choose their next dining destination.
Most social platforms are free to use. So, if you use the best marketing strategies, advertising and promotions can be free as well.
This guide will help you understand how to use social media platforms for your restaurants and grow your digital reach.
First of all, let me explain why social media platforms are crucial for the restaurant business.
Then I’ll discuss how to stand out from your competitors and find the most effective social media marketing techniques for your business. 
Why is Social Media important for restaurants?
Using social media strategies to increase your restaurants’ digital reach may sound like a lot of work, but the real effort pays off.
Here are 5 reasons why social media is important for restaurants.
- Brand awareness:In 2021, more than 48 billion people are actively using social media platforms. You can upload your cooking videos, post restaurant pictures, share behind-the-scenes, etc, to reach your target audience on social media.
- Engage with content:Social media platforms let you increase engagement by sharing restaurant posts, testimonials, and featured stories. Engaging content encourages your visitors to share valuable content for your restaurant.
- Customer problems: Unsatisfied customers take their problems to social media platforms. So, this is an excellent opportunity for business owners to reach out and solve their issues. It’ll help you earn a positive reputation while increasing customer reach.
- Helpful Feedback:From Facebook to LinkedIn, you can use social media posts to start a conversation and get helpful feedback. Ask customers about new menu items or change they’d love to see. It would bring them back again and again.
- Increase your digital reach: You can use location tags onFacebook and Instagram to reach new customers around your target area. This can also help attract tourists to grab a bite to eat.
Social Media checklist for restaurants
- Restaurant names: Choose an attractive name for your restaurant and use the same name across all of your social handles so that when food lovers look for you, your social presence pops out.
- Social media handles: Be identifiable with your social media handles. For example, if your restaurant name is already taken, try adding any abbreviation or your city to the end. (i.e.: if “pizzabar” is taken, try “pizzabar.nyc”.
- Logo & Profile Pictures: Your restaurant’s logo and pictures should be the same throughout your social platform.
- Restaurant’s location: If your restaurant has multiple locations, use the address of your most popular restaurant.
- Restaurant Website: Every social media platform has a website field where you can direct your online customers. Don’t leave this space empty. Otherwise, you’ll miss a big opportunity to grow your business.
- “Bio” or “About Me” sections: Fill this section carefully and try to include a brief description of your restaurant business, so potential customers know they found the right food point.
Social Media profile creation
When you start your restaurant venture, you must join social media platforms. To do so, the first thing that you need is to create your social media profiles.
When a customer search for you on their favorite social platform, your profile is the first thing to appear. It is a great chance to make your first impression and also provide all the necessary information to your potential buyers.
Here are 3 best practices to follow while making your profiles:
- Mention your restaurant’s name as you might not always get the exact name for your social media handle.
- Provide all the relevant information like contact details, address, and opening hours to help people reach out to you.
- Add an interesting story or fact about your brand. You can also share your brand story in your bio, as this is another chance to make a strong impression.
These are the things that you can include in your profiles on different social media platforms.
For instance, Facebook business pages offer a few additional options that allow you to add “popular hours” at your restaurant, in addition to opening hours.
You can also upload the “menu” and add a table reservations button. This helps you to conversions as customers can book their table online and then visit at the available or selected time.
You can also add multiple locations for your different locations on Facebook. This allows your consumers to easily find the nearest by looking at the right address if they want to visit.
content strategies for Social Media
Once you have created your restaurant’s social media profiles, it is time to start posting engaging content to build your audience. This is where you can show your brand stories and creativity to stand out from your competitors.
If you only post promotional content or photos of the restaurant, you may fail to communicate with your customers.
To be successful on social media, think from your customer’s perspective and what they would like to see on their feed. For example, people don’t want to see only the pictures of restaurants; instead, they want some engaging posts.
They want something useful and relevant, so you need to have a proper plan.
Following are some of the most useful social media content strategies for restaurants.
Use HD Food & Recipe Images
Of all the things that you can share on social media, this is the most important. Posting High-quality pictures of food and recipes work like a charm for food lovers. Posting pictures of yummy recipes that look delicious makes people want to try it motivates them to visit the restaurant.
Strong Brand Voice
Another top strategy is to create your consistent and strong brand voice. It not only helps you distinguish yourself from others but also connect with your audience better.
For instance, Sweetgreen is a US-based restaurant that believes in sustainable and healthy food. They reflect their brand voice by posting pictures of healthy-looking fruits, salads, and dishes. Also, they maintain a consistent aesthetic in all their images and posts.
Cooking Videos and Step by Step Recipes
Millennial foodies are your loyal audience, and that’s why there has been 280% growth in food channel subscriptions in one year.
So, it is the most effective and brilliant social media strategy for restaurants to post cooking videos and step-by-step recipes.
To engage your audience on your restaurant’s social media handles, create infographic posts with step-by-step recipes and instructions for your popular dishes.
Right Hashtags for Restaurants
To amplify the reach of your posts, use relevant hashtags.
Hashtags like #foodporn, #foodlover, and #foodphotography are trendy, but making your post rank for these hashtags is nearly impossible. Therefore, add some less-popular and relevant hashtags that you can easily rank for.
For example, if you only serve a particular beverage, search for related hashtags instead of adding hashtags like #coffee.
Another helpful tip is to narrow down your target audience by location. For example, if your restaurant is in only a specific area, try using location-specific hashtags.
For instance, if your restaurant is based in London, you can hashtag #londonrestaurant.
Just like blogging, It is far easier to rank for a hashtag that has “10K” posts than for ones that have several thousand or a million posts.
Promote New Product Launches, Offers, and Events
If you’re launching a new product or arranging an event in your restaurant, you can use social media to keep your audience updated.
Sprouts Social‘s survey report shows that 61% of people may make the first purchase after seeing a sale or discount.
Here is an example of MacDonald’s deal. In addition, they added mouth-watering images of burgers and wings, offering $5 for 2.
Have you launched a new product or menu item? Are you opening a new restaurant chain? Don’t forget to promote and create a buzz on social media.
Bottom Line:
If you are a restaurant owner and do not yet have an active social media presence, this guide will help and motivate you to get started. Read the importance of social profiles for your food business, join and build your digital presence.
From setting up a catchy and professional profile to posting the right content, my tips will help you master the art of planning social media marketing for your restaurants.
So, what are you looking for? Go ahead and start social media journey for your restaurant today.
Focus Keyword: “Restaurant Social Media”
