Try This Restaurant Social Media Strategy

Posted on January 03 2024

Social Media is an easy, informative and entertaining way for you to communicate with your customers on a regular basis. While you may have a good handle on main platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, you could be wondering how to leverage some of the newer channels to build your brand. Social Media is increasingly moving toward visual story-telling, most prominently in Pinterest and Instagram. Below are quality tips to effectively harness these image-heavy outlets to connect with your customers.

Instagram:

Go Behind the Scenes – Post pictures of your kitchen staff and chef prepping for meal service. This can be a great way to humanize your restaurant and make people feel a deeper, more loyal connection.

Use Hashtags # – Feature more than one hashtag in a post, but we suggest keeping it under ten. Hashtags are Instagram’s way of categorizing the posted images, so be sure to use hashtags that are relevant to your restaurant and receive a lot of engagement. For example, #tbt represents Throwback Thursday.

Use the Public’s Snapshots – Displaying customer photos allows you to capture great moments happening in your restaurant, as well as make patrons feel appreciated. You can do this by offering contests where people post pictures to receive a free appetizer or dessert. Contests not your thing? Create a hashtag specifically for your restaurant and post it around the dining room. People will take notice and know to use it if they post a picture of themselves or meals at your restaurant.

Geo-Tag Your Photos – This allows your images to show when users search for a city. Geo-tags also let followers know your location. This helps potential guests, who are unaware of your establishment and location, to find your business.

Pinterest

Create Appealing Pins / Boards – When developing your Pinterest profile, add strong visual images and popular content that is relevant to your industry. The more appealing the pin or board, the more likely people will repin or follow your boards on their personal Pinterest profiles. For example, have a board that showcases your restaurant’s signature dishes and update the board often with new menu choices to entice individuals to share your board and potentially stop in and enjoy a featured entrée.

Engage with Your Followers – Build a stronger community that can turn into a real-life group of dining guests by engaging with your followers. Pinning, liking and commenting on pins from your followers will also help grow your network and gain more exposure for your establishment.

Optimize for Search Engines – Help promote and increase traffic to your restaurant’s website by including keywords in the descriptions for your pins. By incorporating this strategy into your Pinterest profile, it will ensure that your website and pins are easily found in online searches.

Promote Your Pins – A common practice is to link your Pinterest profile from your website, other social media channels, and articles on your blog. Consider installing a Pinterest app to your Facebook page to maximize the number of people viewing your profile.