How social media marketing can help your restaurant

How social media helps restaurants

• Spreads the word
• Authentic and reliable reviews
• Shows a human side to your business
• Inspires trust in your brand
• Showcase your customer service
• Gain customer feedback

Not everyone gets it right every time. Be honest and open about that. Don’t shy away from bad reviews – publicly take ownership of your mistake, apologise and offer to put it right.

You’ll be sure to obtain a loyal following and impress potential customers with this integrity and willingness to make the customer happy.

Why is social media important for restaurant businesses?

There are multiple reasons why social media is important for restaurants.

Firstly, whether you like it or not, people are talking about you on there.

The question is – do you want to know what they’re saying and be part of the discussion?

People are praising you, critiquing you, asking their friends about your menu or your opening hours.

Hungry diners are also looking to book a table online, so make sure you’re there to take advantage of this!

It’s also free marketing. A tweet or Facebook post costs nothing, but if you get it right it can resonate with countless vital retweets and shares – boosting your profile and exposure.

What do people want from your social media page?

Interaction! Everyone is either a potential customer or someone who has already walked through the door once before, so engage with people and interact with those who show interest in your page and business.

• Book a table
• Menu options
• Give feedback
• Read reviews
• Your location
• Opening hours

Even though food drives people to restaurants, it’s ultimately the experience that keeps people coming back. Using social media to promote an experience rather than just a meal is key to your success online.

Article: From using our clearance and special offers section to multi-functional equipment, find out How to budget for catering equipment and make your money stretch further.

How restaurants should use social media

Make it a one-stop-shop for everything you need to drive a customer through your doors.

People need to know where you are. Make sure your social media pages contain your address and post code – ideally with the location honed in on Google Maps embedded on the page so people know exactly where to find you.

As well as showing people where you are, they also need to know what you are.

Social media users’ attention span is notoriously short, so people must quickly identify exactly what your brand is. Whether you’re an independent Mexican or a gastro pub, let people know what you have to offer at the top of your page.

Showcase your employees and their everyday work. “Behind the scenes” content humanises you and inspires customer trust and confidence. Rather than a faceless company, you can show that you’re real people providing a good service. Portraying happy, likeable staff enjoying their job will encourage guests to visit. This positivity will also help with both recruiting staff and retaining them.

By posting a Snap at 1am of you cleaning the dishwasher, it can also show how seriously you take hygiene and how much hard work goes into the business. You can show off camaraderie between workers, show food as it’s being prepared; even ask customers if they’re happy to pose for a photo or a clip. Better yet, ask them to post online about their experience!

Remember, not all users are on every type of social media. And if they are, they won’t necessarily follow you across all platforms. It’s a good idea to tailor your content to each specific channel, because each type of social media has its own unique way of operating and things won’t always work across them all.

TIP: A short clip of your chef flipping a pancake on Shrove Tuesday is great on Instagram and Snapchat, but won’t be quite so suited to Facebook. Facebook is better suited to photos and customer interaction, such as answering queries.

Less is more

Don’t bombard your followers with information. No-one wants to see you retweeting endless praise from the previous night, or to be spammed with the usual offers and constantly asked to ‘book now’.

Mix up your content, be engaging but not pushy, and learn to adapt to what your followers are reacting to.

A great way to promote with minimal effort on your part is to offer free WiFi to your customers, and set a mandatory check-in on their social media pages when a customer connects to your WiFi.

Their Facebook friends will see where they have checked into, giving you instant and free promotion that is a credible validation of your business.

Twitter for restaurants

Twitter is based around a short and snappy piece of text up to 140 (potentially 280) characters long, though this can be accompanied by a picture or a video. It’s also where the hashtag was born.

Before Twitter, social media was confined to a private friendslist. Twitter opened the door for each individual user to connect with the world, and hashtags play a key part in this.

You can go for generic tags that people may be searching for, such as ‘dessert’, or create your own. Encourage people to share their own home-cooked meals with a specific tag, or host a question and answer session.

There are many ways to use Twitter to drive your brand and create awareness. Twitter will be there alongside Facebook as the main outlet for feedback on social media, take the time to thank patrons for their kind words and offer great customer service to those who maybe have a concern.

As with Facebook, allow users to book a table via Twitter.

Instagram for restaurants

Instagram is great for visual imagery. It has 130 million active users per month, and there’s a big ‘foodie’ culture you can tap into. It’s heavily linked with Twitter, with many people’s “Insta” posts automatically appearing on their Twitter page too.

So keep this in mind with your captions – any more than 140 characters won’t appear on Twitter, although this may be increased to 280 characters. As with Twitter, hashtags are important for easy sharing.

Showcasing your meals in their greatest light is key to Instagram, but you’ll also find success by sharing more unique dishes. Colourful concoctions that tie in with the ‘uber indulgence’ trend work well here, so if you have any special desserts don’t hesitate to share them.

A great looking pizza is always going to resonate and widen your social media outreach! Pizza is the most-shared food on Instagram and the pizza hashtag will bring more exposure.

TIP: Use the embed feature so that your Insta photos appear on your website or blog. This cross-platform content makes best use of your time, and gives visitors a quick link to your social channels.

Snapchat for restaurants

Snapchat has 300 million active users every month and its premise is short videos, pictures and drawings that disappear in a few seconds. This gives you limited time but crucially allows you to make an immediate impact when the customer opens up your snap.

Figures show that these 300 million users log in multiple times a day, sharing tens of thousands of photos a second. In UK terms, 25% of smartphone owners are Snapchat users. This is a large chunk of the social media population and therefore makes Snapchat a great channel to connect with customers.

It’s slightly more informal than other social media channels, a simple 5 second video of your chef smiling over a sizzling pan, or of a ‘Happy Birthday’ rendition to a customer, is enough to remind your ‘friends’ you’re open for business.

Facebook for restaurants

Facebook is the traditional social media outlet, with over a billion users worldwide. It’s a platform for a variety of types of content, from photos and videos to status updates and two-way communication. People are now using Facebook as a direct search engine, therefore a website is not enough. You need a strong, active Facebook page to capture this traffic.

You can also take reservations through Facebook, which is a great way to prompt people into an impulsive visit when they’re checking out your page.

Facebook is arguably the most text-happy social media platform. However, you’ll need to stand out in amongst the text. A “secret” discount obtained via a password, exclusive to Facebook followers, is a simple but effective marketing method.

Show photos of different aspects of your business. Showcasing the delivery, or perhaps the farmer you source food from, gives customers an insight into how you operate. Offer a contest whereby sharing your page can win one lucky customer a free meal. This will give you wider exposure and better engagement.

Simplicity will also work here. Post your specials board at the same time, daily. Make it something people will look forward to seeing, this will also challenge your chef to raise their game!

Case study

Industry writer Jackie Mitchell spoke to Jordan Addison, manager at Giro Café in Esher, Surrey, which is a café that also sells cycling equipment.

Giro Cafe sees social media as a beneficial way of sending out news about events and promotions at the café.

“It’s an excellent marketing tool and an effective way of finding your customers,” he says. The café was voted the “Best UK Coffee Shop for Cyclists 2015”.

Since it opened two years ago, Giro Café has been on Instagram (9,310 followers), Twitter (3,610 followers) and Facebook (1,400 likes).

“We find our customers spend most time on Instagram and we use it to tell them about new menu items and any new cycling kit and this encourages them to come in,” he says.

Every morning, Giro Café writes an inspiring quote of the day on the blackboard outside the café, takes a picture of it and posts it on social media. This morning it was a Mark Twain quote “Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”

“The quote of the day is one of our most popular posts,” adds Addison.

“We try to be as interactive as possible. We’re self-taught. It’s very much a case of trial and error and seeing what posts get the most reactions.”

Finally

One last thing – it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t expect 100,000 followers overnight, it takes time. Trust your brand, stick with it and don’t be afraid to try different things.

You need a combination of engaging content, a personable touch and a great product to sell.

This approach will grow your social media channels and bring exposure for your business, while also generating customer loyalty and tempting potential customers to walk through the door.

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