A Crash Course on Restaurant Social Media Marketing
Social media is a powerful tool in this day-in-age for industries across the board—from real estate to restaurants. Especially for restaurants.
Restauranteurs may think maintaining fresh social media accounts for their businesses isn’t all that necessary. It’s already expensive enough as it is to run a business – especially in the food industry. Investing in social media marketing services may seem like just another unnecessary expense to tack on. After all, if the food and service is good, people are bound to hear about it, drop by, and give it a shot, right?
Wrong.
Social Media Marketing for Businesses
In this day-and-age, having a fresh and current social media presence is absolutely crucial to attracting new customers and getting the word out about your business. Don’t believe us? Let the numbers speak for themselves:
-
42 percent of American diners say they have interacted with restaurants on at least one social media platform.
-
Of that group, 66 percent said they are more likely to visit or order food from the restaurant because of its social media presence.
-
According to Social Media Today, 30% of millennial diners actively avoid restaurants with a weak Instagram presence, and 59% say they often review menus online.
The numbers don’t lie! Now, attracting new customers and solidifying an online presence isn’t the only benefit of keeping your Denver restaurant social media marketing channels up to date.
Restaurant Social Media Channels Help Your Business’ Professionalism
Social media marketing for a restaurant is so much more than colorful pictures of delicious eats. Most businesses share social media content that informs their customers and potential customers of the following:
-
Contact number or link to make a reservation
-
Restaurant location(s)
-
New additions to the menu
-
Holiday specials
-
Awards and recognitions
-
Events, like happy hour, trivia night, or a sports event
In just a few seconds of interacting with restaurant social media accounts, customers can be in the know of everything there is to know about a business. This will help them feel more confident about dining at / ordering from your establishment. In other words, a well-done restaurant social media account can up your brand awareness while adding a welcome layer of professionalism and legitimacy to your business.
Communication is a Two-Way Street
One of the biggest trends in marketing for a restaurant (as well as most other industries) is incorporating authenticity and transparency into your brand. It’s one of the easiest ways to maintain and build customer loyalty. A great method of showing your audience that your business embodies these two characteristics is through community management of your social media profiles. By using your comment sections and direct messages to initiate conversations, answer questions, and respond to any affection or critique, you’ll be able to communicate directly with your customer base and potential customers!
Targeting Locals and Travelers
We don’t know about you, but when it comes to finding a new spot to try for happy hour or brunch, the first thing we do is head to Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to do some digging. If a specific restaurant isn’t very active on any of the above platforms, we probably won’t find them, and thus, there’s a good chance we won’t visit the restaurant at all.
Did You Know?
We’re willing to bet your target audience isn’t too different from us, so make sure to add your location information in your bio and social media posts so people can easily find you! And don’t stop there – make sure to devote a small chunk of your marketing budget towards some Meta ad campaigns to target locals and tourists alike. This restaurant social media marketing tool helps keep you top of mind.
What makes a great restaurant social media presence?
Now that we’ve got you reading this far in, we can safely assume you’re now looking for the secret sauce to what exactly a great social media presence looks like, especially for the restaurant industry.
We’ve got good news and bad news for you.
The bad news is – it varies. Certain restaurant social media strategies that work for your competitor may not work for you. That’s just the way the cookie crumbles.
The good news is – every great restaurant social media strategy has three ingredients: clever copywriting, quality photography, and a solid social media strategy.
Let’s dive in.
Take it Up a Notch with the Visuals
A restaurant is so much more than delicious food, and your customers should feel that the moment they’re on your social media feeds!
For centuries, humans have gathered around the table to drink, eat, and engage with one another. Whether it be a business dinner or an outing with friends, restaurants aren’t just selling food – they’re selling the “experience” of their restaurant. From the chefs making culinary masterpieces in the kitchen to customers laughing over a glass of wine and delectable appetizers on the front patio, every detail counts. That’s where the visuals come in.
The imagery you use on your social media feeds is one of the first ways you interact with your customers. It pays to invest time and energy into getting great shots of food, your employees, and your establishment so you can cultivate the right experience and make a good first impression. Plus, having good quality photography adds yet another layer of professionalism to your restaurant social media presence.
Here are some cool content ideas that we love to see on restaurant feeds:
-
Beautiful shots of your restaurant’s dishes.
-
Snap a photo or a quick video of your bustling restaurant on a Friday or Saturday night to give your followers a healthy dose of FOMO (fear of missing out).
-
Repost user-generated content to your stories – it’s a great way to interact with your customer base, and it’s free product photography!
-
Introduce your audience to your local suppliers. This is an especially great content idea for you farm-to-table restaurants.
-
Are you a people-first, community-oriented restaurant? Show off some photos of your staff with their favorite dishes.
Below are two incredible Denver-based restaurants that have mastered the imagery game on their social media channels.
Mister Oso, a Latin American inspired eatery based right here in Denver’s RiNo Arts District, is all about creating a cozy-yet-energetic experience for their customers. The bright colors, leafy greens, and beautiful photography all come together to create an unmatched experience for viewers. We love this spot for ah-mazing caipirinhas!
Birdhouse is a ramen and taco spot in Erie, Colorado. Their main goal? To give their customers a place to come together to escape from the stresses and messes of real life through addicting food and an oh-so-relaxing environment! Our creatives here at Red Egg Marketing took the reins of their social media marketing strategy, and we’ve been working to ensure that the laid-back nature of their restaurant combined with their kick-ass food really shines through their social media feeds. What do you think?
Get Clever with Your Captions
Even if your brand is more on the conservative and refined side, having crisp, creative copywriting to complement your gorgeous imagery is a crucial component to pulling audiences deeper into your restaurant experience and thus, prompting them to visit your establishment or place that take-out order.
Now, you may be asking yourself…how exactly should I go about putting together the best captions? Where do I even start?
There are a few things you should keep in mind when writing your restaurant’s social media captions. Here are a few tried-and-true rules our copywriters here at Red Egg Marketing like to follow with every post.
-
Keep it Short – Whenever possible, short and sweet is a great rule of thumb to live by for writing captions.
-
Keep it Clever – Don’t overthink it. The secret to a clever caption is just to be as genuine and authentic as possible (keeping your brand voice in mind, of course). Write as your target audience speaks!
-
Keep it Simple – There’s no need to use overly complicated words to get your message across. Elaborate wording gets in the way of people understanding what you’re trying to tell them.
-
Keep it Clean – By clean, we mean keep the formatting easy to scan. This is especially important if you’re working with a longer caption. Emojis are a great way to break long paragraphs up into more bite-sized chunks. If you have a lot of information that you want to convey, we suggest trying to incorporate a list of some sort to break the information up. Whether you’re looking to unveil the secret recipe to a renowned cocktail or giving quick a step-by-step tutorial on how to make a reservation on your new booking platform, a list is the best way to get the information across!
-
Keep it Interactive – While you don’t HAVE to include a CTA for every post, CTAs are a great way to encourage engagement and create a sense of dialogue and conversation with your audience. Plus, encouraging engagement increases the likelihood your post will appear in other users’ feeds as a “recommended account” to follow.
Here’s a post from one of our clients, Community Supper Club, that hits a lot of the above notes.
Building a solid social media strategy that enables you to see real results in the short and long term for your Denver restaurant is probably the single most important thing on this list. Your social media strategy is essentially your North Star – your blueprint to success – your treasure map!
Developing a social media strategy that works in the long run for your restaurant is not a quick and easy process. It takes a bit of finessing, a bit of trial-and-error, and a careful hand to get just right. Lucky for you, Red Egg’s marketing creatives have been developing effective social media strategies for businesses across a myriad of industries for more than a decade. If you’re looking for a partner to help you out with your Denver restaurant’s social media marketing strategy, our creatives would love to give you a hand. Drop us a line at 720.782.0597 or shoot us a message at hello@redeggmarketing.com and we can get the ball rolling.