Showcasing Your Restaurant on Social Media

With so much competition in the restaurant industry, having a social media account has become a must-have for restaurants. What could be a better way to showcase the uniqueness of your restaurant rather than on social media?

94% of individuals use social networks to choose a restaurant to dine at, and 98% admit to buying a product after seeing it on social media. Missing out on a large, attentive audience would be wasteful for your marketing efforts, to say the least. 

In this article, we’ll give you 8 actionable tips for you to showcase your restaurant on social media to build your social media presence and create content that your audience and potential customers will engage with and help create a positive buzz around your establishment. 

1. Go behind the scenes

Your patrons will appreciate seeing how their food is made and how your kitchen staff develops the restaurant’s ambiance before it opens.

Taking your customers behind the scenes of where your restaurant magic happens is guaranteed to be a hit with your customers. Showing your audience your exclusive back-of-house operations will make them feel unique. 

It showcases a level of trust on the restaurant’s part that it is confident enough to show its customers what truly happens in your restaurant’s backend. Build their trust and grab their attention by giving them a taste of something they wouldn’t often see.

Pro tip: Instead of pictures, posting a video (even a short one!) helps create a link between your kitchen staff and the customers, who seldom, if ever, engage with them.

2. Take pride in your produce

If your restaurant takes immense pride and satisfaction in the fresh food that you serve, it’s only right that you show it off to your customers. Take delectable images of fresh, clean produce and post them on your social media to show your audience that you are serving only the best produce that you can get your hands on. 

Posting images and videos of your food ingredients will transport viewers closer to the feel of dining at your establishment, enticing them to visit and take part in your fresh, delicious dishes.

Videos of your will be appreciated, particularly if you advertise unique seasonal or new menu items. For an inside look into the kitchen, think about displaying food while the chef is preparing them.

Pro-tip: Show-off your interaction with local food suppliers and producers in your posts. Transparency is key when you are trying to make a statement. 

3. Show off your hygiene practices

Good customer service requires a high standard of cleanliness. The cleanliness of each guest’s dining space is almost as crucial as serving the appropriate meal. It demonstrates your concern and desire for your patrons’ pleasant dining experience. Making a strong first impression on guests and fostering client loyalty both depend on a clean business.

In a study conducted by hospitality experts, 66% of respondents said that bad hygiene is the main reason why they would not return to a restaurant, compared to the 16% that would not visit due to bad food or service. Plus, cleaning and reorganizing videos are highly popular on social media platforms, giving you a new avenue to explore when you are creating content. 

Pro-tip: Showcase how your restaurant does a regular deep-cleaning and quarterly spring cleaning to show customers how you operate on a schedule basis to make sure your restaurant stays in top hygiene conditions at any given time. 

4. Talk to your staff 

Make use of your workforce, which is a plentiful resource! Try being innovative when creating videos with the staff; ask them fascinating, enjoyable queries that reveal something about their personalities and characters. 

Use videos to showcase your restaurant’s distinctive atmosphere to prospective audiences as well as future employees.  Make a film chronicling your executive chef’s day to day while emphasizing the aspects that customers and potential workers would find most fascinating. 

Customers rarely get the chance to interact with your staff, so giving them a glimpse of your staff’s back-of-house lives would be like granting your customers a lens into your restaurant’s most valuable assets.

Pro-tip: Posting videos of your present employees enjoying their work on your restaurant’s careers website can help you attract the talent that you are looking for. 

5. Show the public you care 

Supporting your community and showing it on your social media profiles will go a long way. 

Do you frequently contribute to your local soup kitchens, or monthly food bank giveaways at your restaurant? Making a short video detailing your experience will not only bring attention to your cause and demonstrate your concern, showing people that you truly care about your community.

Pro-tip: Host a charity event or choose a cause to support regularly and keep your social media profiles updated on these activities. Restaurants can even pick a day of the month to contribute a certain percentage of their sales to charities to increase customer footfall, as well as giving back to the community. 

6. Communicate, respond, take action 

One of the main reasons restaurants stay away from social media is because of fear over unfavorable, negative reviews.

While it is true that a lot of individuals select a restaurant based on positive restaurant reviews, many individuals still wait to express their opinion on a place until they tried it themselves.

By acknowledging and responding to negative reviews, you demonstrate that you don’t run from criticism. Show you can deal with all kinds of feedback and commit to do better, so that you can turn bad reviews into positive, better experiences for the customer the next time they visit your restaurant. 

Pro-tip: Don’t let negative reviews bring you down. Answer, rectify and repair as soon as you see them to show customers that you care and hold yourself accountable. 

7. Encourage interaction 

Having a social media presence makes it simpler for people to communicate about your restaurant.  For the best and most up-to-date recommendations on where to dine, people are turning to social media. Make sure your restaurant is there when people are hungry and in need of a satisfying, rewarding meal. 

Social media encouragement is also effective, cost-free promotion. When you have your customers promoting your delicious-looking food or spotlessly clean restaurant, you can focus on other important aspects of operating a successful restaurant, such as providing great customer service and exemplary food. 

Pro-tip: Add social media links and icons to your online ordering store and every social media platform to encourage easy sharing. 

8. BONUS: Use your CRM to your advantage 

When you use a restaurant management system with an built-in CRM module, you get detailed reports on your customers’ eating habits that you can use to curate your next social media post to suit the tastes of the vast majority of your audience. A CRM system makes it easier for you to woo your customers since it puts so much customer information at your fingertips. You’ll be ready to respond more quickly and effectively if problems or queries do occur.

Do you notice your customers order a certain menu item a lot during a certain time of the week? Use this data to your advantage to curate special, targeted offers and discounts. This can be posted on social media to create a high-performing, engaging post that you know your customers will value and like. 

The more information you have about your clients, the more you can give them a great experience that actually pays off.

The Takeaway

It takes more than just great food to build an outstanding, popular restaurant. Selling a complete experience should be the goal for restaurants, so harness this opportunity. Many patrons consider posting on social media and showcasing this experience to be an integral component of their dining experience. 

The new form of word-of-mouth is social media. It is the process through which consumers suggest their favorite restaurants to friends and family, or even total strangers. Your restaurant should definitely be on social media if you are looking to grow your business and create positive expectations for customers before they come to your door.