If your restaurant is not using social media marketing for promotion and building your brand, you might be missing out on a valuable resource. Social media marketing is a powerful way to spread the word about your restaurant to your customers and it can bring a lot of traffic to your dining establishment. It will also increase brand awareness in your community, which will improve your reputation and help you to increase your sales and overall Restaurant Marketing activity.
Every restaurant is different, so the image and tone of its social media marketing campaign will be different as well. However, there are some best practices to keep in mind that will ensure that you are using social media marketing effectively. So what is the best way to make the most of social media marketing when you are promoting your restaurant? Here are some valuable strategies that you can use:
Develop Your Niche
Before you put together your social media marketing plan, it’s important to think about what your niche might be. Consider what makes your restaurant unique so that you can highlight your aspects in your social media marketing campaign. You can then tailor your social media posts to focus on these unique aspects. A late night greasy spoon diner will have a very different social media marketing campaign than a classy and romantic gourmet French restaurant or a family friendly waffle house.
Ask Your Followers for Feedback
On your social media pages, ask your followers to give you feedback based on their experience at your restaurant. It is a great way to build engagement and to figure out how you can improve what you have to offer. You might just find out a way to improve and offer your customers better food and service. Don’t panic and delete the post if someone makes a negative comment. No one expects a restaurant to be perfect and you will create a much better image if you face the problem head on, offer an honest response and offer to resolve the situation.
Also, by asking for their opinion you will build interaction, trust and loyalty. Make sure that you identify the fact that you followed up afterward, so that your customers will know that you are listening!
Share Great Photos
Photos can make a big impact and a beautiful shot of a stylish cocktail, a steaming cup of coffee, a tasty plate of food or a decorative dessert will have your customers drooling as they scroll through their news feed. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google Plus and Pinterest are all excellent websites for sharing images. Make sure that your shots are well-composed and in-focus!
Make It Easy to Share Content from Your Website
When your customers are visiting your restaurant’s website, they should be able to quickly and easily share the content that they find interesting. There are plug-ins that you can add to your website that will allow your visitors to share your blog posts, photos and other content at the touch of a button.
Offer Deals and Contests
Another great way to build engagement on your social media accounts is to offer deals and contests. This will generate a buzz, especially if you are offering great prizes. Make it easy for your social media followers to click through to your website and enter. Also, when they enter the contest you can collect their email addresses – which gives you the opportunity to market to them directly in the future.
Provide Interesting and Informative Content
What should you be sharing on your social media profiles for your restaurant? You have the opportunity to share content with your followers that is engaging, interesting and cool – which will help to build your brand and your social media presence. For example, you could provide recipes, stories about the history of a food or even videos of chefs making favourite dishes. If the content provides value to followers, then they are more likely to click on it or share it with their friends.
These are just a few of the ways that restaurants can use social media marketing to their advantage when promoting their business online. Social media marketing can be complex and there is a lot to learn, so many restaurants choose to hire a social media marketing company. A company such as this has a lot of experience and expertise in the world of marketing, so they will be able to develop the most effective custom designed social media campaign for the restaurant.