Restaurants have it tough, you’re just one of many in your postcode, and one of hundreds in your city.
It’s important to find ways to stand out among the pack. One way to do it is through social media marketing.
There’s a lot more to social media marketing than posting something a few times a day or week. You can use clever tools and think a little differently about how you promote your restaurant, where to reach out and when.
Make it easy to find you
When you do create social profiles for your restaurant, make it as easy as possible to find you. If your restaurant’s name is Raymondo’s, your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other profile names should remain as ‘Raymondo’s’.
Avoid adding unnecessary descriptions like ‘Raymondo’s French Restaurant.’ If your customers like you they will remember your name and they will find you.
The ‘profile’ image for your social channels also should be very easy for customers to identify, like a logo.
Who’s the head chef of your social media?
Your social channels need a voice, a personality. Something that reflects the personality of your restaurant. Think about getting a chef to be the voice of your social media, or a full-time staff member that socialised with customers a lot.
Don’t be afraid to be different, this is one of the best and most engaging tactics you can apply to get more people visiting your social channels and restaurant.
Guide to posting – When, how and what?
When: Are you a café? Or the ultimate dinner destination? Think about what time people are deciding where to go for a morning coffee or dinner. Are they doing it when they wake up? During work hours? Just when they arrive home from work? Or during their commute from work? You want to appear in their newsfeed at that exact time.
How and what: Restaurants are all about food, drinks and people. How can you communicate all three with one post? Use images!
Nothing gets your taste buds excited quite like an image of a char-grilled grain-fed fillet steak, hot English mustard on the side, roasted garlic rosemary potatoes with sea salt and a fresh seasonal garden salad with an olive oil and balsamic dressing, with a glass of matching fine red wine beside it.
Facebook tricks
If you own a restaurant in Adelaide, make use of the geo-targeting tool on Facebook. That way if you have specials or new seasonal menus, you can target the post so only people living in Adelaide will see them.
You can also schedule your posts. If you’re really busy at certain times of the day, but still want to post images of your food or your menu, simply set a time for your post to go live.
There are a few simple things you can do daily to increase interaction:
- Post your menu, specials of the day, wine of the month daily
- Post photos throughout the day – of food, people, funny things that happen, your staff, your community
- Post offers and group deals to attract more customers
- Don’t stop there – be creative
Instagram, AKA your excuse to post pictures of your food & beverages
It’s as if Instagram was created for food lovers and restaurants. Tens of millions of Instagram images are posted daily, and a large number of those are of food. The message here is to incentivise people to post about your food and beverages.
Make it easy for your customers to tag your restaurant on Instagram, and offer discounts or competitions to those who do.
There are a few tricks to posting images on Instagram and getting the most interaction for them:
Use trending hashtags. On Father’s Day, use the hashtag #fathersday while posting a photo of a main course, or something themed to suit the day.
Use niche hashtags. Where are you located? What is your restaurant cuisine?
Group the two together and use #AdelaideFrenchCuisine. It’ll make it easier for your locals to find what they’re looking for.
Involve your staff
Let everyone in your team be involved in social media. Give a little tutorial on what qualifies an appropriate post, just to be safe, and offer login details to anyone that wants to participate.
More people means more ideas, and more interaction. Don’t be afraid to hand this over to other staff members.
The importance of quality images
All the above are important, but by far the most important is the quality of your images. It’s all about the food, and the drinks at your restaurant.
Customers’ intention is to eat and have a drink, so even if you do all the above perfectly, if your images don’t capture your great food, it’ll all go to waste.
The latest camera technology on smartphones is very good, so most of the time you will get away with using your Samsung or iPhone to capture crisp, colourful images of your food.
Before you post a photo on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, ask yourself, would you pay to eat that? If the answer is no, try again!
Hopefully this guide has offered some fresh ideas about how social media marketing can be improved for your restaurant. Have fun and let everyone in the team get involved!