6 Tips for Mastering Restaurant Social Media Marketing

A big chunk of life happens in the digital world, which is why your restaurant’s social media presence can often matter more than your signature dish. Without customers stepping foot into your establishment, they won’t be able to taste what sets you apart in the first place. That means you’ll have to prove yourself long before they can feel the atmosphere and smell the aromas. 

Social media marketing is your vehicle to achieving that. Yet, real strategy is required to make it work. Pretty pictures of your restaurant’s best dishes will certainly be eye-catching, but not enough to entice a long-term audience and provide real-world results.  

Get it right, though, and restaurant social media marketing can have benefits that span increased visibility and customer engagement to brand loyalty. In this guide, we’ll show you how to master restaurant social media with a few major tips.

1. Understand Your Audience and Platform

Different social media platforms cater to different audiences and age groups. That’s the same idea with restaurants—a family-style eatery won’t offer the same finesse as a fine dining restaurant.  

Therefore, it’s not worth spreading your efforts thin across multiple popular apps. Instead, you’ll want to unpack two main factors: the audience you’re targeting and the platforms they frequent. 

If your target audience comprises mostly Baby Boomers, it’s pointless to focus your marketing on Snapchat and TikTok. That’s why you’ll want to learn more about each platform and who they cater to. Let’s take a look: 

1. Facebook: Great for reaching a broad audience, often in an older age bracket. Dedicated Facebook Pages and local targeting can help keep your restaurant top of mind. 
2. Instagram: A visual platform with a market for foodies who want to uncover your restaurant’s look and feel, dishes, and behind-the-scenes content. Ideal for (re-)posting user-generated content. 
3. X: Real-time updates and instant interactions with potential customers on the fly. 
4. TikTok: For fast-paced short videos that have the opportunity for viral reach. Popular among Gen Z and young millennials. 

Once you have a strong idea of who your ideal diner is, you can figure out which social media channels are worth exploring. It can help to use analytics tools and built-in social media insights to explore demographic data and find out which platforms bring in results (engagement or traffic, in this case). 

The rule of thumb is to focus on a select few platforms rather than trying to be everywhere all at once. 

2. Create a Compelling Content Strategy

Now that you know where your audience spends time online, it’s time to think about your broader marketing plan. What kind of engaging content are you going to post? What features should you be taking advantage of? How will you make sure to engage with customers frequently?  

Social media strategies for the restaurant industry differ from other sectors: hyperlocal content matters more, online reviews hold incredible weight, sensory appeal is important, and timeliness gets people in the door that day. Here’s a glimpse of some types of content you should post to align with these unique needs: 

1. Behind-the-Scenes Looks: When customers understand the passion behind the food, they’re more likely to form a connection with your restaurant. It’ll help foster customer loyalty and encourage repeat visits. 
2. Menu Highlights: Rather than snapping a picture of your new menu, promote specials using visual content to get people excited to try them. 
3. Customer Testimonials: Real reviews from real visits will help others get an unfiltered sense of what to expect with their own experience.  
4. User-Generated Content: User-generated content serves as social proof, which helps people build trust. 
5. Location-Driven Content: Engage with your local community by mentioning nearby events and collaborations, all while keeping your restaurant in the spotlight. 

Maintaining a social media presence can be overwhelming, even if you work with just one or two platforms. Creating a content calendar and using tools like Buffer or Later to schedule posts can help you stay proactive and organized. These tools can give you deeper insights into the best times to post, so all your content is primed for maximum engagement. 

3. Leverage High-Quality Visuals

While it’s important to provide details about your establishment, your restaurant’s social media profiles should be filled with high-quality content, particularly visuals. After all, we’re talking about food, which is a tactile, sensory experience.  

Even though you can’t showcase these aspects online, your photos and videos should be able to convey elements like texture, flavor, and energy. Nail the visuals, and you’ll effortlessly attract and retain followers. 

These best practices will help you find your footing: 

1. Take Stock of the Lighting: Natural light is key for food photography, but you can also invest in soft-box lights to provide an appealing glow in other environments. 
2. Angles Matter: Experiment with a variety of angles to present your food at its tastiest. Consider focusing on the most crave-worthy aspects of the dish, like the height of a burger or the freshness of a salad. 
3. Focus on Branding: Make sure your social media accounts reflect your restaurant through consistent branding. Using the same brand voice, colors, fonts, and graphic design styles can increase your brand awareness over time. 

4. Engage With Your Audience

Social media sites aren’t just a place for you to share updates or boast about your restaurant, although it’s certainly important to do so. It’s also where you engage with your followers and fortify your relationship with them.  

Aside from posting, you’ll need to reply to comments, “like” tagged social media posts, and answer direct messages, at the bare minimum. These seemingly small actions show people that your restaurant is active and cares about its community. 

If you want to take engagement to the next level, try these effective tactics: 

1. Host Social Media Contests: Running contests on your business accounts will help boost visibility and bridge your social media presence on different platforms. 
2. Use Trending Hashtags: Creating your own hashtags or using trending ones can encourage people to use them in their own content and improve your reach. 
3. Use Live Videos: Live videos can attract viewers and get people talking, all while they get to meet staff, enjoy a cooking demo, or get a tour of the restaurant. 
4. Try Polls and Q&As: Fun polls to discreetly get feedback or Q&As to spark conversations with your followers can do wonders to humanize your brand. 

As mentioned, user-generated content builds social proof, but it’s also a way to deepen connections, especially when a social media influencer with a large following shares their experience online. It’s authentic content, free from internal biases, making it feel more genuine and relatable. These endorsements are sure to draw new customers to your door. 

5. Utilize Paid Social Media Advertising

Many social media marketing strategies are made up of two parts: organic advertising and running paid ads. While free methods like blog post linking and hashtags are useful, paid social ads allow for targeted reach.  

That means a lot more control over who your messages are directed to and in front of online. For maximum ROI, you’ll want to blend targeted ads and naturally relevant posts to leverage each of their strengths.  

There are two main paid social media options that work well for restaurants: 

1. Promoted Posts: Promoted posts essentially boost your organic posts with paid promotion. Invest some money, and your content will naturally show up on users' feeds that fit your target demographics.  
2. Targeted Ads: Pure paid ads that let you reach specific audiences based on age, location, behaviors, interests, and more.  

To do so, start with a test budget so you can figure out which ads perform the best. Then, monitor important metrics like impressions and conversions so you have hard data to back up your decisions. Having this marketing budget in place will help you maximize your investment and avoid overspending.

6. Measure and Analyze Social Media Performance

It’s tempting to create content, set up ads, and wait for the magic to happen. But being complacent is something you don’t want to do. Part of social media management is consistently measuring and analyzing your performance over time.  

How are the paid ads doing on Facebook? Are your restaurant’s Instagram marketing efforts producing the results you were hoping for? Tracking these metrics almost feels like a full-time job, which is why many businesses choose to eventually hire a social media manager.  

A dedicated manager will do everything from track ad performance, optimize content, engage with followers, and refine your efforts on an ongoing basis, relieving you of the task of constant monitoring and adjusting yourself. 

Three notable tools include: 

1. Google Analytics: Tracks the performance of social media traffic that leads to your restaurant website and how they behave on your site. 
2. Sprout Social: A complete social media management app that features scheduling, analytics, and monitoring tools in one place. 
3. CoSchedule: Blends social media scheduling, content management, and analytics for full visibility of your campaigns. 

Important metrics to look out for are: 

• Conversion Rate: The percentage of people who “convert,” and do the desired action, like make a reservation or purchase a product. 
• Click-Through Rate: How often users click on call-to-actions or links. 
• Impressions: The number of people who viewed your content. 
• Engagement Rate: Comments, shares, reactions, and likes. 

All the data you collect is useful in some way, so be sure to use it to fine-tune your strategy, whether reworking your content or allocating more of your budget. 

Case Studies and Success Stories 

Plenty of restaurant social media success stories exist, from Wendy’s witty X (formerly Twitter) interactions to Chipotle’s storytelling about their ingredients. Let’s take a look at these examples in greater detail: 

• Wendy’s: The fast food giant is known for its edgy X persona, where it roasts competitors, replies to commenters in a sassy way, and uses humor to build a following. These attention-grabbing interactions paved the way for other brands to embrace bolder marketing tactics and humanize their online presence. 
• Chipotle: Chipotle is considered elevated fast food, thanks to their focus on transparent ingredient sourcing and sustainability efforts online. This narrative positions them as an authentic brand that aligns with a socially conscious audience. 

From these case studies alone, we can gather that storytelling, personality, and active engagement go a long way. 

Frequently Asked Questions About Restaurant Social Media Marketing 

Got more questions about how to engage your social media users or what the top social media is for your specific business? We’ve got answers. 

How do I advertise my restaurant on social media? 

​​​While advertising your restaurant starts with posting irresistible photos of your food and location, you always want to stay consistent, interact with your followers, and use a mix of organic and paid advertising. ​You can also do promotions, explore influencer partnerships, and leverage user-generated content to reach a wider audience.​ 

What is the 5-5-5 social media strategy? 

The 5-5-5 social media strategy is all about improving your online presence through daily efforts. Each day requires you to engage with 5 posts, interact with 5 people, and participate in 5 hashtags or groups. With this focused routine, you’ll narrow down your efforts and avoid becoming overwhelmed. 

How much do restaurants pay for social media marketing? 

The amount restaurants pay for social media marketing depends on the individual business, its newness, goals, size, and how much of the job is handled in-house. A cafe chain with multiple locations will need a bigger budget than a local diner that can make do with a few DIY posts and scheduling tools. 

How effective is social media marketing for restaurants? 

The effectiveness of social media marketing depends on how compelling your strategy is. The more time and effort you invest in planning and consistent execution, the higher your returns. Understand your audience, potential social platforms, types of content that perform well for your restaurant, and utilize social media tools, and you’ll be more likely to get results. 

What social media profiles should a restaurant have? 

Every restaurant has a unique target audience, so some social media platforms will be more effective than others in reaching them. While TikTok is most suitable for connecting with younger generations, Facebook provides a much broader reach and has a variety of local targeting tools to engage the community. 

Is Facebook effective for restaurant marketing?  

Facebook is an effective tool for brick-and-mortar businesses, including restaurants. Its large user base, mix of visual and interactive content, event promotion tools, review feature, and high engagement opportunities make it a powerhouse for connection with customers.  

Upping Your Social Media Game 

If you’ve been neglecting your restaurant’s social media or making do with a few generic posts and calling it a day, it’s time to change that. Social media marketing is non-negotiable in such a digitally driven society, as it provides the reach, engagement, and visibility that all restaurants need. When you choose the right platforms and create content that resonates, you could see a spike in customers through your door. 

While you want to stick to what works, don’t be afraid to experiment and continue adjusting your approach. Need a little help getting started?  

Book a demo with the Paytronix team to learn about our solutions like CRM and marketing automation. And while you’re at it, our 2025 Trend Predictions Report could give you the insights you need to stay ahead.