Who doesn’t like to engage with food? If you’re into selling food then practically everybody out there is your customer. So how do you get folks to engage with the food your restaurant is offering? You can do this by utilizing social media tips for restaurants to effectively engage with your audience and reach out to the untapped market eager to sample the chicken cordon bleu and spring cocktails, or whatever you are serving in the cozy yet spacious environs of your establishment.
Below are 5 social media tips for restaurants to earn more business:
- Showcase images of your food items, dishes laden with mouthwatering treats, drinks, recipes…Because they specialize in food, restaurants possess the most visually appealing items to place on social media. As you know, images and videos serve as excellent hooks to get conversations going on social media. Maximize this natural advantage and build your content using visual media. Sites like Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr are tailor-made for restaurants, so take advantage of them to earn more business.
- Project the right persona to attract the right audience. The tone of your content, the nature of your interaction, and overall approach will depend upon the nature of your business, whether for example, you own a gourmet restaurant in New York City and wish to attract an exclusive clientele, or an interstate motel attracting travelers of various backgrounds who are hungry, thrifty, picky, and tired.
- Recommendations matter a lot in the restaurant business. Create a social media plan to garner reviews and recommendations. Reach out to local food bloggers and opinion influencers. This is also a good way to generate one-way back links with favorable anchor text from quality sites. While positive reviews on Google Plus, Yelp, and TripAdvisor are great for business, you should act fast to clear misconceptions and rectify mistakes, especially on social media. Customers view genuineness on the part of a business as an effort to truly connect and a sign of trustworthiness.
- Stoke public interest. Let people know that you have a great restaurant deserving their patronage. Promote contests and giveaways. How do folks qualify for these? By signing up for your newsletter or following you on twitter. Hold a recipe contest on your Facebook page, where the winner gets a special mention and perhaps a souvenir from your restaurant or a free treat. Become creative with discounts and promote them, Examples include one meal free after three meals, discounts on Mondays for the first twenty patrons, free meals for up to three kids under three when accompanied by two adults, etc.
- Work consistently to grow your tribe of followers and fans on social media. Proven ideas include ads on Twitter and Facebook for lead generation and a free item from the menu in exchange for providing email addresses. Take the time to learn about individual interests and send emails and/or SMS announcing deals and discounts. For example, if there are a significant number of burrito lovers on your Facebook business page, you can easily offer discount burritos once a week. If you can get a critical mass for six more dishes, then run discounts each day of the week.
While formulating a social media strategy, keep in mind your goal to draw business to your restaurant. Consider creating a captive audience made up of people from your neighborhood and surrounding areas, geo-target your social media outreach efforts. You can even extend the scope of your social media targeting from the insights gained using above strategies.
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