In the past decade, social media has just about become everything – it’s arguably one of the most revolutionary aspects of technology. Not only has it completely changed how we communicate with each other, but it’s also changed how businesses market themselves.
As the world shifts from television to phones – the food industry has also begun to bustle. A new trend has taken over millennials – eating out at restaurants. This shift in habit could be because of women working outside of the home, more disposable income, or because of the convenience. So, how can restaurants enhance their social media presence, and set themselves out from the crowd?
What is social media marketing?
Social media marketing is exactly what it sounds like – it’s using social media for marketing your brand or services.
It’s super cost-effective, especially compared to traditional advertising. It also can reach a vast range of people, that print, radio or television advertising just cannot do.
Most businesses are employing some kind of social media strategy. This strategy revolves around posting, content, engaging and being present.
As a restaurant, you can use social media to interact with past, present and future customers. Social media marketing for restaurants is easy, effective and can be quite fun.
Below are the top five reasons why you should be investing time into your social media pages, as a restaurant.
1. It increases popularity
When you take the time to communicate with people on social media, you’ll no doubt increase the demand for your restaurant. Something as simple as asking your customers to tag their pictures of food, or check in at the restaurant will make you easily discovered by new customers.
Many restaurants have dipped into the world of online competitions. For instance, post on your social media accounts something like “share this, follow us and tag your friends to be in the chance of winning a free meal.”
Your aim is to always attract new people into coming to your restaurant.
2. More traffic will come to your page
With popularity on social media, if you have links to your website or menu online, you will increase the traffic to your site.
Even posting on your accounts about a discount code, or new menu will inevitably make you get more links to your website, which are all hopeful customers.
As a business owner, you will probably be well aware of just how vital traffic to your site or social media accounts is.
Make sure that you track all the analytics on your social media accounts, this way you can track how many people are clicking on your posts and links every single day. From here, you can decide how to improve your strategy.
3. You can attract your target audience
Every restaurant has a target audience or niche, as a matter of fact, every brand does. Social media will help you reach out to the specific customer that you know will love to sit down and eat at your delicious restaurant.
For example, if you’re a local vegan restaurant, search around on social media for groups or hashtags from local vegans in your area. Post your restaurant to them, and watch as more and more people make their way to you.
Find your unique selling point, and look for those who will benefit from it the most on social media. Perhaps you target parents and children with your built-in play area. Your restaurant might cater to businesses for meetings or events.
You’ll be surprised at how many niche groups and communities there are lying around on social media. Take advantage of it.
4. It will create leads
This is linked to the point about traffic. People clicking on your page and website is great news, but how do you turn those clicks into sales?
If you execute a great strategy and interact with your customers, all that traffic to your site or accounts can become leads.
Don’t forget, social media is a great way to try and get people’s email addresses. From here, you can begin an email marketing campaign, and target potential and existing customers much more efficiently.
5. You can improve your customer service
Before social media, providing information, helping with concerns, and dealing with complaints was hard work. Now, you can interact with your customers in ways that have never been possible before.
You can tell those visiting if there will be anything on the menu for their specific dietary preferences, how many seats or available, how to make a booking or deal with negative comments.
Your dedication and authenticity will be noticed, and it will make your restaurant an appealing one to visit.
What platforms should you be on?
There are three big social media platforms that you should really be on. Which one you focus on depends on your target audience and niche.
- Facebook – This social network has almost become the go-to place for baby-boomers which might be great for your restaurant. They’ll check in and write statuses about their meals out.
- Twitter – A lot of businesses don’t utilizeTwitter as best they can; often being put off by the limited character count. However, Twitter has increasingly become a great way to interact with customers, and achieve a viral post.
Greggs, a UK-based bakery chain went viral in 2019, all over a tweet about a vegan sausage roll. This advertised their food and services in a cost-effective, accessible way. - Instagram – Millennials love Instagram and the best thing about it? They’ll probably make all the content for you. All you have to do to excel at Instagram is to make your food and drink look super aesthetic, and repost all your customer’s content.
You can, of course, delve into other platforms, like the world of Pinterest and YouTube. Finding where your target audience is would be the best way to find the perfect platform for you. This should be something you decide when putting together your plan for the three big platforms.
Conclusion
In short, never underestimate the power of social media. People want to share where they’re eating out, what they’re doing and who they are with. More than likely, your customers will be on social media, which means that you should be too.
Kristin Savage is freelance writer focusing on marketing strategies. Also a reviewer at Pick Writers , Ms. Savage is known for her thorough approach to accurately assess newcomer translation services. You can contact Kristin Savage via her Facebook and Twitter pages.
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