Food Marketing: how to manage your restaurant's social media

Edited by Riccardo Binaco

A good social media marketing strategy for restaurants aims to entertain followers in a fun and functional way. In the medium term, this will be of fundamental
help to acquire new customers and retain them for a long time. Users love to view and share photos and videos that relate to food.

According to TouchBistro , 41% of people chose the restaurant to eat at based entirely on positive social media feedback. It is evident that the social management is a crucial aspect, and whether an internal resource or a restaurant marketing expert, it is critical to keep up to date and understand what the dynamics are to be successful.
Today the question is no longer: should I have a presence with my restaurant on social media?
Today the question is how and what should I do to grow my restaurant on social media?

Let's try to answer this question with practical, concrete tips that you can apply right away to your social profiles.

How to manage your restaurant's social media to be more successful

1. Create your restaurant's social media marketing presence

First, based on the type of customers in your restaurant and their online habits, you need to choose the social platform On which to focus your "efforts." Facebook and Instagram together they enable them to reach the majority of active users on social networks.

Also TikTok however, has grown exponentially and lends itself well to the informal, humorous and jaunty communication of a restaurant.

Facebook for restaurants. The benefits

Facebook is the most widely used platform in the world. It allows greater integration of any information related to the restaurant business

• Opening Hours.
• Address
• Site URL
• Phone number and other contact details
• Menu and food information, including pictures
• When it is likely to be busy
• Customer Reviews
• Provides for the use of a company page
• Use messenger as an online messaging app
• Allows you to order/buy food online for take-out and home delivery
• Seamless integration with Instagram
• Seamless integration with WhatsApp
• Advertising promotions best targeted to reach specific target niches

Facebook for restaurants. Disadvantages

• Facebook is the most widely used platform in the world. This aspect is yes an advantage, but at the same time a disadvantage. In fact, Facebook is really clogged and overrun with millions of businesses trying to reach potential customers, and the attention of users, who are increasingly annoyed by low-value promotions, is very superficial. This makes it much more difficult to capture attention and grow on Facebook if you are starting now.
• Advertising promotions cost more than other less crowded platforms.

Notes and tips: Respond to online reviews you receive on Facebook and share them occasionally on the company page. Always use good quality images and videos.

Fill in the right way all the information the settings Facebook provides you (I just listed them). Always respond to comments from your followers. Use sponsorships by also integrating WhatsApp, messenger and Instagram.

Instagram for restaurants. The benefits

• Instagram is the second most used platform in Italy and among the first in the world. It is a platform based on visual impact (visual oriented), perfect for images and videos about food.
• User attention is higher than Facebook.
• Interaction toward quality content is higher than Facebook.
• Provides for the use of a company profile
• Allows you to buy food for take-out or home delivery
• It allows you to reach a lower average age group of users than Facebook.
• Advertising promotions best targeted to reach specific target niches.
• Easy to establish collaborations with influencers.

Instagram for restaurants. Disadvantages

• Instagram is a fairly saturated platform anyway, so for those starting out now, it is quite difficult to emerge, but not impossible.
• The cost of Advertising promotions has grown a lot in recent years.

Notes and advice: One Study conducted by Italian food chain Zizzi found that 30% of 18- to 35-year-olds would avoid a restaurant if their presence on Instagram was weak. Write a short, but punchy bio. Include the website link in the bio as well. Has Create beautiful and functional stories to save in the profile, such as: menus, events, locations. Direct users to a specific page on the website, such as: the page for online reservations , ordering take-out or home food.

TikTok for restaurants. The benefits

• It is a platform that is still not as saturated as the other two, so if you create valuable content, you have a very good chance of growing faster.
• Sponsorships (advertising) on tiktok allow you to achieve excellent results with a small budget (as was the case on Facebook years ago).

TikTok for restaurants. Disadvantages

• The platform to far fewer active users than Facebook and Instagram.
• The average age of users is low (16-20 years old), although it is growing steadily.
• The editorial line must be well thought out so as not to fall into the trivial.
• Reduced functionality compared to Facebook and Instagram

Notes and advice: If you want to learn more, I recommend you read the article Tik Tok for restaurants. How to manage your restaurant's social media: 12 practical tips you can apply right away

2. Create valuable posts for your followers

Regardless of the platform you are using, the quality of posts should always be high. I am referring to both the quality of what you communicate and the quality of how you communicate it. For example, if on Facebook you decide to create a long written post or quote, rather than an image with a textual description, it must still be something that has been researched and designed to create real value for your followers and potential customers, and it must be an image with excellent resolution. If you decide to Post photos of your best dishes on Instagram, make sure they are quality images with the right light and ideal framing angle. If you create a video about TikTok, you must ensure good audio and more than acceptable visual quality.

3. Curate images of the dishes on the menu

With the term #foodporn, you describe a photo so beautiful and truthful, of a delicious dish, that it arouses a very strong desire to eat it. That's what should be your goal, when you make and post on social media a picture of a dish you offer on the menu. Pictures of delicious food and recipes, always arouse molo interest on social, above-all on Instagram. In fact, there is also talk of "Instagrammable dishes," that is, presented, plated, so well to customers that they cannot eat them without first taking a picture and sharing it on Instagram.
By working well on these concepts, you will be able to notice immediate growth on your restaurant's social profiles. To top it off, add a persuasive description, format text well and use hashtags in the right way. Images are a key part in your social content, as they are the first thing that captures users' attention.

4. Make room for special offers

Use Special offers to advertise on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok Is definitely a winning strategy. The important thing is that they are offers with real value. Let me clarify one point. By special offers I do not mean exclusively, cheap discounts. A special offer, could also be an invitation to a tasting at your venue, limited in number and reserved only for selected customers. A special offer could be a reservation in a coveted area of the restaurant, lounge, private room, etc., with priority over other customers. A special offer could be a bottle birthday gift. Several statistics confirm how most users book in a restaurant as a result of the promotion of a special offer. In these cases, in order to be successful, it is essential to sponsor the special offer by targeting the right niche of people who are on target with the offer. This last piece of advice might seem trivial, but in many cases I have witnessed offers such as "Selected Meat Tasting" being advertised, even to vegetarian and vegan recipients.

5. Give space to user-generated content

La Re-sharing of user-generated content can turn a simple patron into a small influencer. Through targeted initiatives, you can stimulate your customers to take photos or short videos in the restaurant and post them online. In this case, the user either "registers" with your venue, i.e., tells Facebook that that photo was taken while they were in the restaurant "Da Mario," or tags the business page/profile directly. Either way, this mechanism will help you grow on social, increase interaction and online reputation.
It is also a good way to get high quality content for free and be sponsored by your own satisfied customers. It is a good habit to check notifications and re-share stories and posts that users spontaneously publish on your restaurant profiles.

6. Don't forget social contests

Social contests, viz. small online contests, greatly stimulate interaction and help the restaurant brands to strengthen the relationship with their customers. The mechanism is simple, you invite patrons to perform a certain action online, in exchange for a recognition or reward.

Here are some practical examples:

1. Take a beautiful photo of a dish on the menu and ask followers to creatively comment and tag a friend who loves that very dish there. At the end of the contest, choose the comment that received the most interactions and offer that follower a chance to come and eat that delicious dish for free.
2. Ask customers to photograph the dish they ordered, post it, and tag the restaurant. The content with the most interactions wins a free invitation to the next gourmet event.

7. Jokes, memes or quotes

Depending on the type of restaurant and the "Ton of voice" that distinguishes your communication, then decide to supplement your editorial plan with food jokes, memes, and quotes (food-themed) from chefs or celebrities. This is an effective way to connect with your target audience and entertain them in a fun way. You could also post such content in relation to current trends, special historical moments, and national and international events. During the World Cup you could post a quote about food from a well-known soccer player, for example.

8. Behind-the-scenes content

Anything that a customer of yours does not normally know or experience inside the restaurant is a source of attractiveness and inspires a lot of curiosity. That's why posting behind-the-scenes content always guarantees you a lot of success on social media. Pictures of a chef preparing food for the evening with a description of the various steps. A short video of the pre-service meeting. How that particular dish is prepared, who is behind the preparation of the recipes, how the chef moves around the kitchen.
Use this type of content to bring on the same communicative level as the customer and show as much transparency as possible.

9. Engaging and well-formatted text

The title of a post, the use of emoticons, the use of hashtags, the space between paragraphs. All of these elements are crucial both to capture users' attention and to enable them to read easily. In addition to the visual part, take advantage of the persuasive copywriting techniques, eliminate redundant words and use the right words in the right place. Always reread what you write to avoid grammatical errors or typos. Underlying everything, however, always consider, depending on the target customers and the type of your restaurant, what "tone of voice" to use when writing. Always remember at the end to clearly state what the user should do after reading (call to action).

10. Collaborate with influencers or micro influencers in the area

Influencers are people who, by communicating consistently and constructively on social media, have managed to build a close relationship with their followers, with whom they share passions and values. Followers recognize competence, authority towards the influencer and have esteem and trust. This is why if an influencer "recommends" a service or product, followers feel more predisposed toward that service/product. So if an influencer in your area, posts a photo while eating in the restaurant, posts a story announcing attendance at one of your events, creates a short reel while eating a delicious steak tagging your brand, it increases the likelihood that his or her followers will want to experience the same thing.
If you can identify the right influencers, who truly share your restaurant's values and appreciate the concept, it will be much easier to create successful initiatives.
This is because their followers, too, share these same values.

• You can pay an influencer for a post/story/reel.
• You can offer freebies or discounts to those who make posts tagging your restaurant.
• You can hold an event and invite them as special guests.
• You can also target micro influencers, people who perhaps have already shared and posted photos tagging your restaurant, this way you could engage them, developing a small group of people in your area who are very active on social media.

This was the article Food Marketing: How to manage your restaurant's social media, I am sure that by applying what you have read, you will be able to grow your restaurant on social media and build a solid and ongoing relationship with your followers.

Good business!