Introduction
Whether you're a restaurant owner looking to build up your social media following or an experienced foodie who wants to learn more about the world of restaurants, this guide will help take your online presence to the next level.
Learn how to get more social media followers
The first step to getting more followers is knowing who isn't following you. This sounds like an obvious thing to do, but it can be challenging! You'll want to look at your analytics (and those of your competitors) and see which people are not engaging with any of their posts or following them on social media. This can help give you insight into who would potentially be interested in following or interacting with your page but aren't currently doing so.
The next step is figuring out who isn't following any restaurant pages at all--who has no interest in restaurants? This might seem like a weird question since most people eat out at least once per week, but apparently not all demographics are into fine dining experiences. Who knows what kind of people these could possibly be.
Improve your engagement with photos
Photos are a great way to let your customers know what they can expect when they walk into your restaurant. They also give you the opportunity to show off some of the best parts of your business, whether it's a beautiful mural or an award-winning wine collection.
But how do you make sure that the photos actually get used? To make sure that you're getting as much engagement out of each post as possible, try these tips:
Use high quality images whenever possible--this will help keep them from looking pixelated on mobile devices (and also make people more likely to share).
Use photos of real people having fun at your establishment rather than staged shots taken by professionals (but not too many selfies!). People love seeing other people enjoying themselves! It makes them feel like partaking in those experiences themselves--and ultimately leads them back through the door again soon after.
Temporarily boost your posts with advertising
Temporarily boost a post on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
Boosting a post is a good way to get more views. Boosting a post can be ineffective if you don't know what you are doing: If the wrong audience sees the ad and doesn't engage with it, then there's no point in running this kind of campaign at all.
Use a social scheduling app
If you're anything like me, your social media posts are often last minute and rushed. Sometimes I even forget to post something until it's too late and the opportunity has passed me by.
That's where a social scheduling app comes in handy: using one allows you to schedule posts on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter in advance so that they go live at an ideal time for your audience--and best of all? You can do all this from within the same platform! Some platforms even allow users to schedule posts for multiple platforms at once (which is great if your restaurant has accounts on multiple networks).
Boost your restaurant's hashtag (#)
Hashtags are a great way to connect with your audience, but they can also be used as an effective marketing tool.
Hashtags help you find other users who have similar interests and content, which means that you can expand your reach by connecting with them. This is especially helpful if you're looking for new customers or people interested in what it takes to run a restaurant successfully.
Hashtags also allow people who already follow you on social media sites like Twitter or Facebook to easily find more information about your business through their search engines (like Google), which helps build up brand awareness.
Use Instagram stories to get more views
Instagram is one of the best social media platforms for restaurants, but it's also one of the most competitive. The best time to post on Instagram is between 12pm and 3pm, so you'll want to use stories (short video clips) to get more views in that window.
If you post an engaging story with a compelling image and caption, your followers will be more likely to watch it--and then click through on links within those stories like websites or Yelp pages. You can even use hashtags in your caption if there are related words that would help people find your content more easily.
Post at the right times of day
Posting at the right times of day
It's important to post at the right time of day, because if you don't, you could end up getting less engagement.
Mix up your posting topics
Posting about the same thing all the time is boring and will make your followers tune out. Mix up your posting topics to keep followers engaged, but also make sure that whatever you're posting about is interesting to you and your followers. If it's relevant to their interests, too (and not just yours), then that's even better.
Use polls to get more engagement from followers
Polls are a great way to get more engagement from followers. They're also easy to use, and can be used in your posts or on your Instagram stories.
You can ask followers what they think of a new dish, or what they think of a new menu item. You could even ask them what dish they would like to see next.
Conclusion
We hope these tips have helped you get started on your restaurant social media marketing plan. Remember that it's not always easy to increase your followers and engagement, but if you keep at it and try new things, then eventually you'll find something that works for your restaurant!