Social media is a big deal for restaurants these days - well - for just about everybody to be honest. You're customers are constantly online, browsing Facebook and Instagram, sending their friends funny selfies on Snapchat - it can be a bit overwhelming, but it's also a great way to connect with your customers and attract new business. Wondering what to do and how to do it? Here are some basic tips to enhance your brand's profile.
For starters, don't feel like you have to post everything to every single network. Start with the basics and build from there. At very least, you should have an active Facebook and Instagram page which you can post to regularly. If you have time to add Snapchat and a cool Youtube channel, great! But these channels will also need to be marketed and have quality content uploaded regularly (ditto with a blog...) so don't get overwhelmed. Keep it simple and high quality and consistent.
Twitter is a great tool also, and can easily be added to your Facebook page so that everything auto posts to your Twitter page. This way you can keep engaging content flowing into Twitter. While your audience may well engage with you more on Facebook and Instagram, there are many people who love Twitter (a lot of them craft beer fans - if you have a big craft beer following) and many food writers are on Twitter. Following your favorite writers and posting regularly is a good way to get the word out to them about press worthy events too!
For Instagram, posting up to once a day is good. Any more should be put into your Instagram story (a fun, engaging feature which allows you to share Snapchat like content which appears at the top of the news feed and disappears after 24 hours). Quality pictures are key. Take some time to develop a list of hashtags which are relevant to your brand and also allow you to be in the search results for people looking for food related results - #food52 for instance - the name of your town, etc.
For Facebook - share your Instagram content! Instagram now has business profiles, which means you can automatically share to your Facebook page. Also use Facebook to share to local 'foodie' groups and create events for your wine dinners, tap takeovers, or anything else that you sell tickets for. This will elevate the exposure and ticket sales for special events in your restaurant.
If you feel overwhelmed, hire a professional or appoint a manager with marketing expertise to manage your brand online. Having a dedicated following on your social media will absolutely trickle into your profit line, so invest in good quality photos and content, and make sure that your online persona is just as engaging as your overall dining experience!
