One of the biggest reasons a lot of restaurant owners or restaurant managers fail is because they do not engage with their clients effectively on social media, and most restaurant business owners and executives do not even know how to go about it.
Even though it can be a bit challenging for seasoned or new restaurant business owners to get started with social media, it is a tool that should not be ignored when you consider all the benefits your restaurant business can derive from its use.
In today’s restaurant business industry, the competition is cut-throat. The use of social media, as part of the marketing strategy of every restaurant business, has become inevitable.
Any restaurant owner or restaurant manager who fails to take advantage of social media as part of their online restaurant management strategy will miss out on a large number of prospective customers who may be interested in their offer.
Best of all, using social media is an inexpensive way to enhance your restaurant, create awareness about your unique cuisines, engage with both old and new customers, and maximize profits for your restaurant.
Let us take a quick look at why you need to maximize the use of social media to enhance your restaurant business.
7 Tips for Starting a Successful Restaurant Social Media Strategy
1. Start With A Plan
A good plan is a fundamental characteristic of every good business strategy. With social media, it might look easy for you to jump in and start posting content; however, you need to have a good plan so that you can effectively measure your performance and see if you are achieving your business goals.
Here are some points to consider when creating your social media plan.
- Come up with goals and objectives that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely (SMART).
- Find out what your competitors are doing. This would give you an insight into what other restaurants are up to, and you’ll be able to know how to position your brand.
- If you already have an online presence on social media, this might be a good time to re-evaluate your strategy in line with your goals and objectives.
- Get a social media calendar so you’ll know the perfect time to post content and make sure you’re consistent.
2. Decide On The Right Platform(S) To Use
You need to come up with the platform(s) you intend to use for your social media strategy. You do not have to be on all the platforms at the same time. All social media platforms are special and require a unique approach and strategy to get the best out of them for your restaurant business. Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter are all popular choices to use.
3. Define Your Brand
Even on a tight budget, you need to show that your restaurant is different from other restaurants. How do you want your restaurant to be perceived? You need to create a tone or character that makes your brand unique, easily identifiable, and different from others. Make that unique tone or character consistent across all your social media handles. For instance, you can come up with an idea of using a chef-like role in your posts.
4. Use Lots Of Photos And a Captivating Cover Image
Just as I mentioned earlier, the food industry is highly visual. If your food tastes great, then people will get that idea from how good they look. Endeavor to include in your posts a lot of quality photos of your delectable dishes by utilizing a high resolution camera and photo editing software. You can even post a short story behind every food photo to make your meals stand out.
Likewise, ensure to exploit the full length of your cover image for your social media page. Make the image bold and attractive.
5. Embed Videos
You can embed a short video on how you made a particular food and all the ingredients needed to prepare the dish. There is no limit as to what you can do with videos for your social media strategy. You can even interview happy customers or a chef who would give insights on certain delicacies.
6. Reward Your Clients With Offers, Deals, And Contests
Ask your followers to share your posts and give them deals or discounts in return. Organize social media contests to keep your customers engaged and have them coming back to your page and your restaurant. Create exclusive offers to reward loyal customers.
7. Know When To Post And Be Consistent With Your Posts
You have to get maximum engagement with your posts from your customers. To do this, you need to know when they are most active, and this is where the analytic tool comes in handy. It is also wise to post menus when you are open for business and when the menus are readily available.
Furthermore, be consistent with your posts so that you can stay top of mind with your customers.
Pro tip: Always endeavor to post entertaining, educative and informative content that will be valuable to your customers, and do not look to sell or promote your business with every content you post on social media.
Benefits of Using Social Media for Your Restaurant
Opportunity To Show-Off Your Delectable Menu
Social media allows your prospective customers to visually interact with your menu and all the types of food you have. Keep in mind, a lot of people are easily convinced with what they can see with their eyes, and social media gives you that opportunity.
Better yet, when it comes to food matters, visual is the way to go if you want to stimulate the appetite of your prospective clients.
Helps You Identify Your Ideal Clientele
When you utilize social media for your restaurant business, you can know who your ideal clients are, and you’re able to re-strategize and re-target based on the analytics, clicks, and impressions you get from your social media posts.
Most social media platforms give you analytical tools you can use to assess your social media strategy. With these tools, you can get vital information on your core customers, your best performing menu or content, and you can use all this information to reposition your business and keep your restaurant customers coming back.
Engage With Your Customers
As a restaurant business owner, social media provides a platform for you to engage with your customers regularly; this can come in handy as you can keep your business at the top of the minds of your clients. In situations where you’ll need to engage with your customers in other languages, online localization, and translation services from The Word Point and other brands can be a useful tool. If you are still wondering how to go about combining social media to give your restaurant business a boost, continue below.
Conclusion
For most restaurant owners or restaurateurs, integrating social media into your already busy schedule can be a daunting task. There are a ton of equally important tasks behind the scenes that you need to handle.
However, incorporating social media into your restaurant business is a free opportunity to create awareness for your restaurant, identify and engage with your core customers, grow your business, and skyrocket your profit potential.
These are just a few out of a whole lot of ideas you can use to kick start your social media strategy, ensure to exploit them and be creative with new ideas.
Learn More
Not all point of sale (POS) systems for restaurants and bars are created equal. Today you need software with the built-in tools to help you manage your social accounts all from one location. With customer engagement tools, social media management, and reputation management, you can get everything you need with a Harbortouch POS system.
