Owning and operating a restaurant can be rewarding but also very challenging. The market is incredibly competitive and assuring your business runs smoothly can be time-consuming. Many restaurant owners simply don’t have the time, nor perhaps the knowledge to successfully maintain a strong social media presence. Luckily there a few tricks that owners can use to really bolster their brand identity and hold court in the digital world.
1. Showcase the Food
This really seems like an obvious point but so many restaurant owners fail to take the time to properly showcase the food they are serving. Simply looking at a dish can cause stomachs to rumble in hunger therefore it is of great importance to focus on presenting your meals in a manner in which potential or existing customers will lick their chops in anticipation.
It would be wise to spend some money for a one-time professional photo shoot of all your main dishes, in all stages of creation. From the kitchen to the table, everybody loves to look at high-quality pictures of succulent dishes. With different, creative captions for each one, this can provide months of solid posts. Be sure to use proper hashtags, especially while uploading these pictures to Instagram.
2. Introduce the Staff
People tend to forget the most important part of Social Media: the word “Social”. People use these networking tools in order to remain active socially and interact and engage with their friends and favourite places.
That’s why it is important to become proactive on Social Media. Ilene Polansky from Maestro SVP does a great job of this as an entrepreneur, liking and sharing posts from current and potential clients. This helps her create and maintain a more human connection with her clientele.
Another good example of being proactive is introducing your staff to your social media followers. Encourage people to take a peek behind the curtain and invite them into your kitchen by posting pictures and videos of your chefs in action. Don’t be afraid to let your employees’ personalities shine through! Encourage one of them take the reins of the social media accounts for a day, letting them provide their own spin on things. Not only will this encourage engagement on Social Media, but it will also boost the morale of the staff by allowing their personalities to shine and allowing them to have a little fun at work.
Seeing your staff in action will also humanize your business. People sometimes struggle to relate to a corporation, but it is very easy to relate to a quirky waitress or funny Maitre-D!
3. Highlight Special Occasions
For a lot of restaurant owners, special occasions and holidays are the most important dates on the calendar. The Super Bowl, Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving and Easter are all days where content comes by a little more easily. Just because it’s a holiday and traditionally one of the busier days of the year shouldn’t mean your post should be thoughtless. Remember: while it may be a busy day for restaurants in general, you still have to ensure your restaurant is busy! A nice picture and caption can really set you apart from the pack.
Ever wish that there were more holidays in a year? Don’t be afraid to celebrate some non-traditional special occasions. Almost every day of the year has a food attached to it: you can check it out here by glancing at the Foodie Holiday Calendar. March 11th, for example, is Oatmeal-Nut Waffles Day. Okay, so they’re not ALL winners. You can still find one that works and have some fun with it!
4. Hold Facebook Live FAQ Sessions
Here’s a secret about people in general: they want to be in the know. That’s why an FAQ with you as the restaurant owner or even your Head Chef is a fantastic idea! Have people submit their questions over social media and take a few minutes to film a quick video on Facebook Live of someone answering the questions. Be brutally honest, but most importantly, answer everything! Don’t limit questions to topics regarding the restaurant business.
This will let people get to know you on a more personal level and is also a great way to gain their trust. If people feel like they can ask you anything, they’ll be more inclined to give you a chance at proving yourself. Be creative and make it your own. Another great example is to do an FAQ with the chef and title it “Live from the Kitchen!”
5. Run Contests
There’s an important rule that rings true for pretty much any industry, in all walks of life: people love free stuff. Running contests not only provides excitement and promotes interaction with potential clients, but it also keeps people coming back to both your restaurant and your Social Media pages.
It’s important to be creative when running your contests. Have people nominate deserving friends or have them guess what dish they’ll make by putting up a picture of 3 ingredients. Remember: the more engagement from the people, the better it is for your brand identity.
Conclusion
Hopefully you have gleaned a bit of insight regarding what it takes to run a moderately successful social media page. Obviously, having someone do it full-time and really focusing on the ins and outs of the medium can take your business to the next level and is ideal, but in the mean time, taking the advice listed above is a good start to creating that brand identity.