September 06, 2016

How to Promote Your Restaurant with Social Media Marketing

By developing consistent efforts, using social media can become an easy way to communicate with customers and show off your restaurant’s specialties. Here are eight social media marketing tips that will help develop your establishment’s social media presence, which can ultimately increase your revenue!

8 Social Media Marketing Tips for Restaurants

1. Go Account Crazy

Maintaining multiple social media profiles may seem daunting, but your restaurant will reap the benefits. Producing content specifically tailored to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google + and LinkedIn will help your business be seen by more customers, and each platform can be utilized in different ways.

2. Hire a Pro

As a small business owner you may not have time to personally handle social media. It may be worth hiring someone to take professional photos, manage social media accounts and focus their efforts on marketing tactics. Even if you’re on a tight budget, social media marketing will help your company bring in business.

3. Get Camera Happy

Many popular restaurants have an artsy Instagram account that features delectable food photos. Instagram is a great platform to share indulgent photos of your menu’s best items, so snap away! Make sure to avoid posting too often or over-editing photos, rely on natural light and share photos at peak hours. Later.com offers a helpful widget that can help you decide when to post, so that you can get as many likes as possible.

4. Get Customers Involved

Instagram users love to share delicious food pictures with their followers. Pay attention to the pictures being tagged to your account, and re-share ones that are especially artistic or in-line with your brand. This will get customers involved, and chances are other foodies will want to get their picture featured on your page.

5. Tweet Your Heart Out

Social media marketing is a great way to keep customers updated on new menu items, operation hours and exclusive deals. If you’re doing a special for an extended period, utilize Buffer to schedule the same tweet multiple times.

6. Update, Update, Update

Marketing for restaurants isn’t successful unless it is consistently updated. If a customer visits your social media accounts and sees old content, they could question if you’re still in business, or lose interest in trying your cuisine.

7. Try Snapchat

Snapchat is a fun, easy way to market your company, especially if you’re trying to reach a younger crowd. While it may seem like a juvenile platform, adding photos or videos to your Snapchat story will show off the vibe of your restaurant. Viewers will see your Snapchat story and want to join in on the excitement!

8. Give Stuff Away

People love free things, plain and simple. Offer an incentive like a free appetizer or discounted meal, which will get your followers interested in a contest. It could require a creative entry, or simply ask users to follow your page or like a photo. Regardless, the additional traffic will be well worth giving away a few small prizes. Not everything about running a small business will be fun, but social media marketing for restaurants is something that you can get creative with. Taking the time to customize your accounts to reflect your restaurant’s ambiance and cuisine will impress customers and hopefully inspire them to frequent it. Incorporating these social media marketing tips will help promote your restaurant, so get to work!