No matter what, we cannot ignore the fact that Social media is an essential part of running an urban business. It is becoming a trend where a restaurant marketing channel is helping you to expand your target customer base and convert first-time visitors into regulars.

Remember, no matter how delicious your food is, if you don’t show it or communicate it in that way, your efforts will go unnoticed and negatively drive targeted traffic into your hotel/restaurant. Hence it is imperative as a restaurant to have a social media presence.

It is seen that around 41% of people decide to eat at a specific restaurant based on its positive social media feedback.

Hence, this data is enough for you to take baby steps, such as establishing your social profiles, which develops a big difference in how much exposure you gain in the online world.

Before we start, few critical numbers you should consider on the impact social media has on restaurants:

More than 371 million-plus posts tagged #food.

Forty-one million with #drinks, food and beverage photos are easily some of the most popular types of content on Instagram.

63 per cent of restaurants make sure the social media for restaurant advertising

Reviews and online comments influence around 88% of people; having an intentional digital strategy are essential to your restaurant or bar.

75% of customers purchased a product because they encountered a product or service on social media.

Thirty-seven per cent of social network users utilise social media platforms to research products, brands, or services before making a purchase. Your target customers are spending a lot of their time on social media, and you have to be there to track them effectively, or you will lose them to competitors within no time.

The competition among restaurants is fierce, and we, as a social media agency, will give some relevant and practical tips to be successful on social media platforms.

Tips for Restaurant Social Media Marketing

1.Focus on your social media profiles.

When you get started on your restaurant social media accounts, ensure you discuss information like your hours, a short description about the restaurant, location and contact information that It can easily access on your profile. Establish a business profile on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter or YouTube for your restaurant. Link your restaurant logo and colours on your profiles so hence will quickly notice your page.

2.Design Beautiful Social Media Posts

Social media posts Designs are something that can either engage you or just make you bored. Food and restaurant images on your post are the first thing people will see, so make sure you are the best at it; else, consider hiring a professional.

When writing your social media content and posts, consider your target audience and write in a creative content voice that will appeal to them. Hashtags are a productive way to get your post visible to many people as they help your post reflect when someone searches for that particular topic.

Before publishing, always make sure you research trending hashtags people use in your area when searching for places to eat out.

Also Read: Food Social Media Post Design for Inspiration

3.Participate, engage and share.

Competitions are a great way to expand word of mouth about your brand. Ensure selecting an appealing prize.Hence this can be a free meal at your restaurant, just a tiny way of entering the competition to increase the reach of your social media profiles. Support local events and partake in initiatives.

Examples: Request visitors to comment on an Instagram/Facebook photo and tag the person with whom they plan to go visit your restaurant. Select the answers and give the winner a free meal or anything attractive coupon.

Ask customers to share images of your restaurant using a specified hashtag and then choose the best one from the shared images.

Puzzles, polls, contest, memes, jokes are few types in which you can engage your customers.

4.Attract the target audience 

Many customers are searching for great restaurants through social media, especially in this pandemic situation. As your restaurant moulds itself into new models such as online delivery, the people are looking for clear, clarity, specific, and detailed information to guide any restaurant- or food-related decisions.

One of the best ways to convert your happy customers into brand ambassadors is to share their reviews, ratings and experiences on social media. It will get you appreciation and create the kind of social proof essential to driving in new customers.

Ensure you respond to your customer’s online reviews, address negative feedback, and show appreciation for positive reviews. Hence this helps strengthen your restaurant’s online reputation on review sites and social media.

5.Use Emojis

Do you know around 92% of the online population communicate using emojis?

Emojis can give you an important visual clue to not only how you understand your customer’s comments – but how they perceive yours.

Several beverages and food emoji are available; one of the majorly used is the pizza emoji. People love to debate their culinary experiences and use emojis to express themselves.

When you invest in a specific restaurant brand to express your vision and values, you need to make sure that all the content you post reflects this and using emojis is no different. If a particular emoji works for the content of your message but doesn’t fit with your brand image – don’t use it; there are other ways to augment your posts, such as gifs, videos and pictures.

6.Employee Appreciation 

Take a snap of your employee working with your specific product or menu items. It could be a waitress, chef, or busboy. Post them to your company’s Instagram feed, with a brief description.

You can use these types of snaps to show that you’re an establishment that values the people that work for you.

source: blog.vantagecircle.com/employee-appreciation-ideas/

7.Use Instagramhashtags

Focus on trending hashtags as the Instagram post will be featured among the favoured posts at a specific time. The chances of getting noticed increases. Do not forget to use your town name as a hashtag!!

Make sure to have some fun with hashtags – whether jumping on the hype of existing popular Twitter hashtags like #ThrowbackThursday or inventing your own, hashtags are a great way to have fun with fans.

8.Influencer marketing

Here it is all about cooperating with people of considerable social media influence who have an audience and authority in a given field.

Social media monitoring can be most of the help here. It’sIt’s pretty simple to monitor keywords related to your business area, i.e. restaurant, review, food, blog. Identify lifestyle and food bloggers. Later on, you need to reach out to them and invite them to your restaurant for review.

It’sIt’s a win-win situation where they get fresh content, and your restaurant gets social media exposure.

9.Focus on customer-generated content

UGC is an essential tool for Boosting Social Media Metrics, numbers show growth, so it makes sense that numeric goals are still an essential part of a successful marketing strategy. The user-generated content will majorly include opinions, ideas, experiences and feedback.

User-generated content can tell amazing brand stories that are not possible with the videos or images created by the brand itself. Users post many visuals about their experiences during their hotel stay, travel or while eating at a restaurant.

Role of Social Media Agency

Big brands or start-ups are very well aware of the importance of social media in today’s era; hence they should now start investing time, effort, and money in social media marketing. While not all can manage this challenging job, there are plenty of social media agencies that bring in many opportunities and a boom to your brand in the market.

Social media company always came into existence with the core promise of executing the heavy lifting of social media marketing based on businesses and brands.

1. They are responsible for your research and analyse trending social media content that will attract your target audience.
2. The agency will plan out relevant posts and videos of your restaurant as per the social platform and at its correct timings, along with content calendars.
3. They also have technologically upgraded and expensive social media software which can make things on time.
4. They craft new strategies identifying the niche areas which needs to be improved. A Social Media audit provides you with a detailed report on your social media profile success and failures.
5. It also helps uncover the business strength and weakness, which will be essential as a part of growth.
6. Social media agency will invest correct resources in competitive analyses and learn their strengths/weakness and plan campaigns accordingly.
7. They are the correct people who will establish your social media profiles on various platforms in such a way that hooks up customer engagement.
8. Social media agencies offer to provide social customer support as one of their services. It is essential to understand that whatever happens on social media, the world sees it.
9. The experts in social media agency will help you keep all your responses reverted as per the need of the hour.
10. They help in building brand awareness, paid ads, increasing followers, improving leads for the business. Social media agencies offer search engine optimisation as one of their services.
11. It creates a baseline of content to populate accounts such as blogs, articles, customer reviews, ratings, white papers, many more.

Restaurant Social Media Posts for Inspiration

Source: pinterest.nz/pin/329888741457539368/

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Source: behance.net/gallery/68637317/PIZZA-HUT-Venezuela-Social-media-Design-(JWT-Ccs)

Source: pinterest.nz/pin/247346204524212010/

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Source: pinterest.nz/pin/23151385574781593/

Source: pinterest.com

Source: in.pinterest.com/pin/18929260929055486/

Conclusion

As social media is constantly evolving, so as hoteling industry due to lockdowns and hygienic lifestyle, people are now aware of all their food what they are going to consume. Hence there are plenty of standalone services that social media agencies do and offer.

Now you have to reach your customers where they are, and today, they are on their phones, desktops from where they order. The role of the physical environment is least with time online is future hence stay updated as your competitors are already reached there.

Don’t miss the train; hire a social media agency today; with their experience and the latest technology, they will ensure you mark your presence in the digital world. Connect us today, and we will provide you with the best results which will make you stand out in the crowd. If you have any queries that are left out? Drop them as comments; let’s keep the social conversation going on.