The Ultimate Guide to Social Media Marketing for Restaurants

Social media marketing for restaurants is a critical component in modern restaurant marketing. Too many restaurant owners fail to give marketing a restaurant with social media the thought and diligence it’s due, which is unfortunate as social media extends your reach, clarifies your brand image, and contributes to increased sales and customer engagement. It also happens to be one of the most cost-effective forms of marketing out there. 

More than ever before, people are online and on their phones. When potential diners are looking to try a new dining experience, they’ll look at online reviews and your restaurant’s social media profiles to see if they should try out your restaurant. If your social media hasn’t been updated in a long time or is absent, they may assume that your restaurant is closed or, at the very least, outdated. 

There are five key platforms to include in your restaurant social media strategy: Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Google Business Profile, Pinterest, and Instagram. Facebook makes it easy for customers to follow you and reach you on a platform they likely already spend time on. X is an easy way to share short messages and upcoming restaurant promotions. 

Google My Business is what potential customers might see when they research businesses like yours and check out reviews. Pinterest is a great place to share recipes and photos of your amazing menu items. 

Instagram is an awesome platform for showing off your restaurant and menu visually. Ready to master the basics of each? Let’s dive in.

Developing a Comprehensive Social Media Strategy for Your Restaurant 

Effective social media marketing for restaurant businesses requires a clear and actionable strategy. Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure via specific metrics.

Real-world examples include increasing brand awareness (measured by the number of followers or views), boosting customer engagement (like video view time and shares), or higher foot traffic (measured by a location's daily number of visitors). Remember to measure bottom-of-funnel (BOFU) performance like customer loyalty, too, otherwise you're focusing only on feel-good metrics without business growth. 

Each objective would require the focus of your strategy to be slightly different. If your goal is to boost customer engagement, this may require having a dedicated staff member promptly responding to comments, messages, and reviews. If your goal is to increase brand awareness, you often need to invest in advertising to have reliable restaurant customer acquisition and customer retention.

The truth is that your social media strategy will (and should) change over the years as your restaurant grows. It’s important to keep an eye on your social media marketing strategy and to adjust it as needed. 

In your strategy, identify which social media platforms you want to be on. You don’t need to be active on all platforms; often, it’s wise to pick the two where your core audience is most active. What kind of content resonates best with them? 

Create a content calendar to keep posts consistent and relevant and keep any account or page you have active by posting multiple times per week. You can use scheduling tools like Hootsuite or Postly to schedule a large number of social media posts across various platforms at once. This way, you may only have to create new content once a month and ensure you keep to your posting schedule. 

Creating Engaging Content That Captivates and Converts 

The best social media for restaurants usually involves posting appealing pictures of your tastiest dishes. Ideally, you would use photos taken by a professional photographer to present your food in the best light. However, there are three actions to take to acquire more share-worthy photos: 

1. Start by getting the best lighting possible, which is often by a window or outside. You want to avoid creating any harsh shadows on your food or relying on artificial overhead lights. Consider the background you have your food against. You don’t want it to be cluttered or take away from the food itself. 
2. Try taking photos from different angles. Some of the most appealing food photos come from side angles, not directly overlooking the food from the top. Remember that you should also edit your photos, not necessarily to change the food’s appearance, but to have the highest quality photo possible.  
3. Don’t forget to share positive reviews or other user generated content (UGC). If a user tags your restaurant in a post and shares the yummiest looking dessert you offer, ask the user if it’s okay to share their image on your page. Highlight positive reviews by thanking and engaging with the reviewer.

Good posts for social media for restaurant accounts also include sharing the stories behind menu items, profiles on staff members, and behind-the-scenes shots of daily operations. This can build authenticity and deeper connections with your followers. 

If you’re able to produce and edit video content, make it a priority. Whether you live stream an update about upcoming daily specials or demonstrate how to make a tasty dish, people love to watch video content. You can even use social media to host virtual events.

Boosting Engagement Through Interactive Social Media Practices 

Some interactive social media practices effectively boost engagement. Running contests and giveaways can dramatically increase engagement and follower counts, just be sure to create fair and enticing promotions with clear rules. Polls, questions, and user shout-outs can also improve engagement and foster a sense of community around your restaurant’s brand. 

Consider incorporating temporary content through Facebook stores, Instagram, and Snapchat to drive urgency and more frequent check-ins from followers. They might be more likely to check on your page’s content regularly if they’re experiencing fear of missing out (FOMO)--one of the oldest and most effective marketing tactics.   

Measuring Success and Optimizing Social Media Efforts 

There are multiple key metrics to keep track of on social media that often go together with restaurant digital marketing success. These include:  

• Followers  
• Likes 
• Engagement 
• Comments 
• Conversion rate 
• Audience demographics 

Another type of data you can gather on social media is customer insights. If customers frequently leave negative comments about a specific server or dish, it warrants an investigation. Truthfully, even one negative comment may be worth looking into. You might not agree with what they said but addressing it could reveal an opportunity for improvement. 

Monitoring these metrics enables you to pivot your strategies to continuously improve the effectiveness of social media marketing. You should discontinue tactics that don’t drive results and increase effort for what’s proving to work for you. 

The Bottom Line 

There’s no reason why social media marketing isn’t a part of every restaurant’s marketing plan. It’s cost-effective, is a useful way to boost both customer future value (CFV) and customer lifetime value (CLV), and is an easy way to engage with new and existing customers. A well-executed social media marketing strategy can drive brand awareness, customer engagement, and more revenue.  

As we’ve seen, social media isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it solution. You must continue to adjust and improve your efforts for the best results. Don’t worry about creating accounts for every platform. Start with one account on the platform your customers are most likely to be on. 

Want to bring more of your social media visitors and customers into your brand’s online ordering platform and loyalty ecosystem? Book a demo now and discover how Paytronix is your end-to-end tech solution.