Social Media Marketing Guide: How To Serve Success For Your Restaurant?

The answer is an absolute yes. Social media holds prominence to build and promote restaurant brands and generate more sales. A recent study by Deliverect claims that up to 68% of consumers use social media to look for place recommendations of where to eat and get a drink.

How to use social media for your culinary business, then?

This article will unravel a comprehensive guide to social media for a restaurant brand, covering the importance of social media marketing and actionable practices you can instill in your next campaign strategy.

From Plate To Post: What Makes Social Media Important For Your Restaurant?

Social media is a not-so-new platform for us. We use it almost every day. From Facebook and Instagram to YouTube and TikTok, you name it. 

We often use those platforms to share personal updates, join online communities, or reconnect with old friends. Interestingly, sociamedia’s’s capabilities stretch beyond that. You can also use social media for promotion or branding activities.

Whether you own a restaurant brand or build a dark kitchen business, these social platforms offer great value for your marketing effortHere’s’s why.

A Door To A Whole New World

Before social media, restaurants only relied on conventional advertising methods, such as newspaper ads or local listings. They were limited to reaching people in their nearest area.

Alternatively, social media provides a global stage where you can showcase your restaurant and menu to a vast and diverse audience. Building a robust online presence allows your eatery business to reach potential customers beyond your local area.

Like connecting with online friends, you can also connect with your customers in a unique way through social media. In addition to posting your signature foods, you can present your brand stories, values, and the love you put into your dishes.

Affordable Marketing

Almost every social media platform provides a targeted advertisement setting if you aim to use it more professionally. For example, you can tailor foodie animated ads to reach specific demographics for effective results.

Compared to traditional advertising, social media marketing is often more budget-friendly. Many platforms (like Facebook Ads, TikTok Ads, and others)allow you to start with a smaller budget and scale up when you see results, making it more accessible to restaurants of all sizes.you’reu’re on a tight budget and opt for organic growing your restaurant chains on social medwe’vee’ve compiled some tips for yLet’set’s jump right in.

Engage And Turn Your Followers Into Foodies

Grab your apron and put your stove on medium heatwe’ree’re about to reveal the bread and butter of social media marketing.

1. Build A Consistent Brand Voice

Consistency is vital to every success. That principle also applies to social media marketing. Ensure that your account reflects your restaurant persona when building an online presence. Being consistent helps create a solid and memorable brand image that resonates with your audience.

Share yrestaurant’snt's story and values through your social media content. Use posts and captions to convey what makes your restaurant special. It can be yrestaurant’snt’s unique history or commitment to serving high-quality culinary experiences.

While you want to be unique, watch how your competitors use social media. Understanding what others in your industry are doing can help you refine your brand voice and stay relevant.

2. Share Some Recipe Tips

There are moments when you need to soft-sell instead of doing aggressive promotions. Let your followers breathe for a while by sharing refreshing and helpful content. In this case, some cooking tricks or recipe tips.

Sharing this type of content is one way to connect with your followers. It provides value to the audience and showcases your culinary expertise, enticing them to visit your restaurant and experience your dishes firsthand.

3. Initiate A Food Challenge

This tip is also related to UGC. If you plan to create one, initiating a fun and engaging food challenge is the way to go. You can link back to your menu items for the challenge topics. For instance, challenge your followers to finish a massive burger within a specific time frame and share their attempts on social media using specific hashtags. 

A good challenge can lead to food trends on social media. Seeing others participating and having a blast triggers the fear of missing out (FOMO). They can be influenced to visit your restaurant and take on the challenge themselves or to be part of the excitement. 

4. Start A Trend through User-Generated Content

When customers begin sharing their experiences online, it creates a buzz that can quickly spread across social media platforms. Friends of participants, curious onlookers, and followers of your restaurant may all join in, broadening your audience reach.

Influence your customers to upload user-generated content (UGC) by running contests or challenges. For example, ask them to share their favorite dish from your menu with a unique hashtag. UGC not only generates excitement but also serves as authentic testimonials for your restaurant.

5. Post High-Quality Content

Visual appeal matters for building your social media. Invest in high-quality food photography and well-designed graphics to showcase your dishes. Eye-catching content is more likely to grab the attention of potential customers scrolling through their feeds.

Take note that high-quality content is more than just aestheIt’s. It’s also a reflection of the quality and excellence your restaurant represents. It sends a message that you pay attention to every detail, from the ingredients in your dishes to the presentation on the plate. 

6. Take Advantage Of Social Media Tags 

Hashtags are like keywords for social media. They allow you to categorize your posts and target specific interests or themes. For restaurants, you can use relevant food-related hashtags (e.g., #foodie, #instafood, #culinary) or location-specific hashtags (e.g., #NYCeats, #LAfoodie, #ChicagoDining).

Using hashtags helps increase the discoverability of your posts. When people search for nearby restaurants or specific cuisinerestaurant’saurant's posts will pop up in their search results. You can also use unique hashtags based on your brand to track the UGC posts discussed above.

7. Write Back To Online Reviews

Engage with customers who leave reviews on your social media platforms. Responding to positive and negative feedback indicates that you value customer opinions and are committed to improving their dining experience.

Online reviews also help you identify areas for improvement in your restaurant business. It provides valuable insights into your customer preferences. This feedback loop enables you to make meaningful changes that can lead to enhanced culinary experiences and customer loyalty.

8. Drive More Email Leads From Social Media

Who says social media is pointless? You can leverage the use of it to grow a prospective email list that converts. Offer incentives like exclusive discounts or a free appetizer in exchange for email sign-ups. This allows you to market directly to interested customers.

Every social media platform allows you to attach additional links to your account. Put your website or landing page link on your social media bio. You can also refer your followers to follow you on other social platformsyou’vee you've gathered email leads from social media, use email marketing tools to divide your list based on customer preferences and behaviors. Personalize your email campaigns to provide relevant offers. Et voila. You can seamlessly blend social media marketing with email marketing for your culinary business.

9. Differ Your Content

Don't limit yourself to one type of post. Experiment with social media content like animation videos, stories, and live streams. Diversifying your content is a dynamic strategy that keeps your social media presence fresh, engaging, and appealing to a broader audience. 

you’rer you're leveraging the power of video for visual storytelling or going live to connect with viewers in a real-time setting, each content format adds depth restaurant’saurant's online persona.

10. Be Unique And Communicative

Finally, be authentic and communicative on social media. While your account is yours, the platform is for everyone to use. Millions of similar accounts in culinary niches perhaps exist today, creating a challenge for you to tackle.

Every restaurant has a don’t; don’t be shy about sharing it with your audience. Positive interaction and openness to feedback help humanize your brand and build genuine, lasting relationships with your followers.

11. Show What’s In The Kitchen 

Cooking videos always have a charm on their own. Watching and showcasing the dedication, passion, and expertise that go into every meal is satisfying. Invite your followers to your kitchen operations through a virtual behind-the-scenes video. 

Sharing glimpses of your chefs in action also helps humanize your restaurant brand. It allows you to connect with your audience on a deeper level. You can further highlight the use of fresh and locally sourced ingredients. Transparency fosters trust and makes your restaurant more relatable.

Over To You

So, get your utensils ready to cook this recipe to success. From opening boundless opportunities to cost-effective marketing strategies, social media is a worthwhile tool for growing your restaurant and any culinary businessthere’se there’s no secret ingredient to success, you can leverage the power of social media to turn your followers into dedicated foodies by following the tips outlined in this article. Social media is all about strategy and creativity, after all.

About the author

Andre Oentoro is the founder of Breadnbeyond, an award-winning explainer video company. He helps businesses increase conversion rates, close more sales, and get positive ROI from explainer videos (in that order).