Owning and running a restaurant is a business as old as civilization itself.
But while good word of mouth might have been good enough as an advertisement tactic, times have changed, and with them came social media – the perfect (and free) space for you to get new customers.
Now, we get it; not everyone has the knack for social media. It can sometimes even feel downright frightening to be there. But we’re here to help! While it might all seem complicated, the truth is that anyone can create and run a successful promotion for their business with social media.
So in that spirit, we’ve gathered what we think are the five most essential pieces of advice you need to get your restaurant to as many phones, tablets, and computers.
1. Cultivate A Proper Social Media Strategy
Having a plan always beats not having one. Simple words, we admit, but they’re as effective as they come. It might seem fine to throw all ideas on the wall to see what sticks, but the reality is that there are specific strategies that have proven to work better than others. And the most important thing is to know which approach is best for which platform!
Using each platform privately helps tremendously, as it gives you an idea of what you and others like and which approach seems best. Find other restaurants and check out how they do it. While we don’t suggest stealing a look and style of a social media account for another restaurant, stealing ideas is entirely acceptable.
But just remember, stealing an idea is fine, as long as you get creative and unique with them!
Another important thing is knowing your audience. What is your target audience, and how can you get to them? Maybe you already know how to recognize the kind of people that are potential customers in your business, but targeting them directly on social media is pretty much an essential part of promoting yourself and your business. If you know the group you’re looking for; you probably know which platforms they use. Stick to those platforms and get as good as you can using them!
The next part of your plan is the brand. What is your brand, what are you trying to sell, and how do you want it to look? Your pages will be halfway there as soon as you figure that out!
2. Make Sure Pople Can Keep Coming Back For Your Content
Depending on the platform, there’s a lot you can get away with while creating content on social media. But, in a way, you need to know your place and stick to it. If you’re in the restaurant business, you should stick to what you know works – food!
If there’s one thing that will always be a successful strategy online, it’s food. People like to look at other people making food, they want to see people sitting down with a tasty-looking meal, and they just like to have food pop up while scrolling.
Sure, putting up beautiful and professional-looking photos to show your place of business is a good approach. Heck, maybe you just renovated and want to show off the freshly selected restaurant furniture – well, great! Use that approach, but make sure to have something that the fans will come back to time after time.
One of the best strategies here is to follow trends. Creating exciting and engaging content is always easier when you know which trends to follow. You must remember that you’ll have to put out a LOT of media on these platforms, whether photos or videos. Either way, having a trend as a guiding hand makes the whole process easier, and if you do good work, it’s pretty much a bulletproof way to gain popularity!
3. Engage With Your Audience And Stay Consistent With Your Activity
Alright, now that you have the audience, it’s time to ensure they’re here to stay! The proper strategy and quality content do an excellent job, but creating a community boosts your restaurant businesses like no other!
Engaging with followers builds that community and makes every person in it feel welcomed and important. Liking comments and responding as much as possible is a great start, but creating some live streams, quizzes, polls, etc., really drives the success along. But whatever you do, however good your content is – just make sure to post it regularly and steadily!
Taking long breaks is a huge mistake, and having a well-planned calendar for posting your content can be a make-or-break addition to the strategy we mentioned earlier.
Conclusion
So there you have it, those are, in our humble opinion, the things you need to look out for when trying to promote your restaurant on any social media. The last thing we feel needs mentioning is keeping track of your analytics. It’s a subject big enough for a whole other article, and there are good reasons for it.
The analytical information can help you catch mistakes sooner rather than later, and they help you zone in on all three of these subjects we mentioned!
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