Top 3 Tips: Social Media for Restaurants
Why It Matters
Social media works—but there are best practices and more effective ways to utilize social media for restaurants. Here, we’ll cover our top three tips you can implement now.
Tip #1: Encourage & prioritize UGC
Our number one tip on social media for restaurants is to leverage User-Generated Content, aka UGC. UGC refers to assets your audience (your customers!) posts to social media because they’ve enjoyed engaging with your brand.
For restaurants, this could look like photos of the food or drinks, a group of friends sitting at your bar, a selfie in front of aesthetic wall art, or anything that signals that the individual is a patron at your restaurant.
What’s best about UGC is that it’s free and the most trusted type of content. Why? When one of your customers posts about their awesome experience at your restaurant, it’s different than a paid foodie influencer or your social media team whose job is to promote, promote, promote. When a customer does it, it’s unprompted and unpaid. They had no reason to post besides the fact that they simply enjoyed themselves. There’s nothing better than that.
Encourage guests to share their positive experiences by regularly sharing UGC with other visitors to your page. People love being featured by businesses. You can also run contests regularly, asking to be tagged in customer photos to win a free appetizer.
Most importantly, once the UGC starts coming in, prioritize it on your pages and give credit to the original creator. You’ll thank us (and them) later.
Tip #2: Partner with local influencers
Social media is flooded with influencers, and there is a niche for everything. Odds are there are a handful of micro-influencers near you, and some may even be popular for being foodies. Research which influencers may work best on social media for restaurants and connect with them!
This connection may entail a fee, comping their meal when they come in, or simply an agreement that they will be brutally honest in their review of your restaurant—whatever the case may be, if you’re confident and eager for an influx of business, it’s worth it.
Tip #3: Run regular social media contests and giveaways
The ONLY way to track results on social media is to combine IRL (in real life) offers with social promotion.
If you’re active on social media, you’ve probably noticed how often brands and businesses conduct contests and giveaways. If not, it’s A LOT. Offer a simple and easy to redeem, like a free cocktail or appetizer, or even a dinner for two, and collect entries by making the “cost” of entry something that benefits your social media promotion effort.
For example, are you trying to build your follower count? Ask your social media audience to follow you to be entered, and then perhaps have them tag friends in the comments to get follows from them as well.
There are so many strategies for contests and giveaways on social media for restaurants. It may take trial and error to determine what your audience responds best to. Put in the effort and then use your most results-oriented promotions as a template for future initiatives.
Can we help?
Running social media for restaurants is a heavy task, and maybe you don’t have the time for it. Nonetheless, we promise it’s worth it, and with the right strategies in place, you’ll see ROI.
Get in touch with us today for a free audit of your channels. We’d love to support you!
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