You need a strong social media presence to compete in the modern restaurant economy. We would encourage you to sign up for every single social media site you can handle in order to maximize your outreach. Each site will be slightly different in the format you use to promote yourself, but they will also be similar enough to manage several simultaneously. If you do find it getting untenable and taking too much time, we would recommend finding a social media promotion company to help you. They can be found on our Vendors page.

We would recommend 5 universal strategies for your social media sites:

1. Get Customers to Sign UpIf you don’t have any followers your social media presence is useless. The more followers you have the better chances they will share your posts. So clearly the goal is to get people to follow your accounts. How do you do this? One of the best strategies is offering discounts or promotions to people who follow you on certain accounts. For example if they like you on Facebook they get 15% off their next meal. This can be done through your website or in person at the restaurant. Many people will gladly follow or like you to save a few bucks on dinner. Another strategy is to promote your social media through emails sent to loyal customers. You should create a customer database with people’s emails and encourage them to follow you on social media sites in order to get real-time updates on deals or new menu items. And finally you can encourage people with exclusive deals only found on your social media sites. If they don’t follow you they won’t have access to these deals.

2. Promote YourselfUse social media as a medium to put out weekly deals, coupons, new employee profiles, community service, and pictures of appealing food. Every different platform is an opportunity to get your name out there and encourage followers to come back. If you have a popular menu item make sure to put a picture of it up every few days to remind people how good it looks. If you’re doing events or fundraisers, mention them on social media with pictures to encourage other people to use your space for similar things. Put out daily specials in real time to encourage people to constantly monitor your social media looking for deals. If you’re donating food to a homeless shelter make sure people know. Make sure you share positive reviews that customers create about you. No matter what you do make sure to promote yourself and keep your brand positive.

3. Post ConsistentlyYou want to post at least a few times every day to keep yourself relevant. People may only check their social media a few times a day, so you want to make sure your posts are near the top of their feed when they do. A good strategy is to stay consistent on when you post every day. Maybe in the morning put out a employee profile or charity work, in the early afternoon put out some special deal for the day, late afternoon put out food photos, and late night share a positive customer review. If you do this every day customers will know what to expect. For example they’ll know to check your site early in the afternoon to get the best deals. On the flip side make sure you don’t overpost, clogging up people’s feeds and desensitizing them to your deals. You should post max 10 times a day, and that shouldn’t be a consistent number you’re hitting. The ideal number is 4-7 times per day.

4. Offer ContestsA great way to get people involved in your social media is to hold contests. A great example of this is having a food photo contest, where the participants have to post their pictures on your Instagram and the top 5 photos get a free meal. This will encourage people to follow you on Instagram, take free high-quality photos for you, and fill up your page with positive press. Another contest can be encouraging customers to post pictures with their favorite waiters/waitresses, with a description, and a specific hashtag. Again you have to offer incentives, where the winners get free meal or some kind of merchandise. There are a million different contest ideas you can use to get people to follow you, use your social media sites, and offer free positive press. As a restaurant owner you’ll have to determine which work best for you.

5. Think About PostsThis should go without saying, but be careful what you post. A misspelled word or bad photo can ruin your online reputation and make you look like a fool. Make sure to read and re-read everything before you hit “Post.” Also there are some topics you should probably avoid posting about, such as politics, religion, etc. If your specific restaurant business model is meant to appeal to a certain political or religious group than you’re an exception, but if it isn’t don’t offend any customers by taking a side.  

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