You may ask yourself why a restaurant even needs a social media presence. As we all know, restaurants rely heavily on word of mouth, and in today’s world, those conversations are happening online.
Therefore, social media marketing can be your most important restaurant marketing channel.
A strong social media marketing strategy can bring many benefits to restaurants. By regularly posting high-quality photos, interactive videos, and graphics, restaurants can attract new customers and engage with existing ones, increasing brand visibility and credibility.
Restaurant social media marketing can also serve as a platform for customers to leave reviews, feedback, and recommendations, which can help restaurants better understand their customers’ preferences and improve their offerings.
In the context of food and beverage ecommerce, these insights gained through social media interactions are instrumental in shaping an effective online presence and elevating the overall customer experience.
With the right strategies in place, a strong social media presence can help restaurants build a loyal following, increase customer retention, and ultimately drive more traffic through their doors.
If you want to discover how to effectively market your restaurant on social media platforms, you are in the right place.
We have put together a list of tips and tricks to help you boost your restaurant’s social media marketing:
- Choose the social media platforms to focus on
- Build a social media presence for your restaurant
- relevant hashtags
- Collaborate with local businesses & influencers
- Stay on top of social media trends
- Have a crisis social media strategy
1. Choose the Social Media Platforms to Focus On
The first step in restaurant social media marketing is choosing your platforms. There are a lot of different social media platforms out there. Each tends to serve a different target demographic and not every platform is suited for every business.
Ultimately, the best social media platforms for restaurants will depend on their specific target audience, marketing objectives, and resources.
However, the top 5 most suited social media sites for restaurants are:
- X (Twitter)
- TikTok
- Google Business
Once you choose the platform or platforms to focus on, the first step in the actual social media management process is to create a business profile on each one of them. Include your logo, a bio, and your Google Maps location.
With over 3 billion monthly users, Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms worldwide. Restaurants can use Facebook to create a business page, post updates, share photos of their dishes, and interact with customers through comments and messages.
When trying to come up with the best social media marketing ideas for your Facebook page, it’s important to keep in mind its demographics. The platform’s most active age groups are different from platforms such as Instagram or TikTok. As of 2024, despite most people on the platform being millennials, the age group that spends the most time on the social network is between 55 and 64 years old.
Highlight your restaurant in a way that speaks to a more mature audience, as they are most likely the ones visiting your page and leaving online reviews. Let’s take Australasia, a Manchester-based restaurant with an impressive following on Facebook, as an example.
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Their posts are all designed to give off an impression of sophistication and luxury, from the color scheme to the captions. Their main focus is on highlighting their dishes, paired with copy that sparks users’ appetites. When they’re not making their followers’ mouths water, they remind them that their location also hosts special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, or holidays.
Their posting schedule is consistent, once every few days, and their information is up to date. From a short but clear description of what the restaurant is about to where to find it, where to call, its price range, and a host of positive reviews.
Instagram is a highly visual platform mainly used on a mobile device that allows restaurants to showcase their dishes and establish a strong brand identity. With 2 billion monthly active users, Instagram is a great platform for restaurants to create business accounts and reach younger audiences.
Craft an Instagram aesthetic that matches your restaurant’s vibe to capture attention from the get-go. Instagram’s features that generate the most engagement, such as Stories and Reels, to highlight dishes and promote events.
User-generated content is also your best friend on Instagram. Use Instagram’s collaborations feature to create posts with food influencers and double your reach, as well as monitor your mentions and repost customer Stories of your location and food.
Noma Copenhagen is one of, if perhaps not the most famous fine dining restaurant in the world. They are known for offering a unique experience and ingeniously using ingredients to create 20-course meals. It’s only natural that their Instagram presence is as commanding and interesting as their restaurant.
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The focus in their images remains mostly on their ingredients, as well as how they work with them. The color theme fits the Nordic cuisine while maintaining a lowkey, sophisticated look. Their Highlights take people through the behind-the-scenes of their team, whether they’re working on their menu, their show, book, or just telling the restaurant’s story.
Getting a reservation at Noma takes years and costs a pretty penny. An actual meal at the restaurant is something very few people will get to experience in their lifetime, yet over one million people are willing to experience it through Instagram.
X (Twitter)
X’s fast-paced and real-time nature makes it the top social media platform for restaurants to talk with customers and respond to inquiries or complaints quickly.
While it supports videos and images like any other platform, what makes it stand out is its highly engaging nature. If you want to monitor people’s opinions on your restaurant, as well as be able to provide swift customer support, this is the platform to do it.
You can also interact with your customers by liking and reposting their posts about your restaurant, showing your appreciation as well as further spreading positive feedback with your followers.
Pizza Express is a UK restaurant chain that knows how to use X to advertise its dishes and resolve customer issues.
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When they’re not posting mouthwatering images of pizza and pasta dishes found in their locations, Pizza Express is addressing both the positive and negative feedback that customers mention them in on the platform. They’re highly active, which means the waiting time for a reply is short, minimizing frustration and increasing the probability of people having a positive experience with them, even if their initial feedback was negative.
TikTok
TikTok’s short-form video format has become increasingly popular among younger audiences, making it a great platform for restaurants looking to reach a new audience. Restaurants can use TikTok to showcase their dishes, share cooking tips, and participate in viral trends to increase brand awareness.
The platform’s algorithm and how it curates content on the “For You” page means that participating in trends and using popular sounds is one of the best ways to increase reach and interactions. Don’t hesitate to embrace a more humorous side of your brand when creating your TikToks – while maintaining your authentic tone of voice, of course.
Hard Rock Cafe is another restaurant chain that is killing it with its social media advertising, especially on TikTok.
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The restaurants are famous all over the world, which is why they do not limit their social media presence to one account. While there is an official Hard Rock Cafe page that is international, there are also local pages for multiple restaurants, like the one in Bucharest for example.
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Their official page highlights their signature dishes and apparel and references global events and holidays. On their local accounts, there is more freedom for trends; they collaborate with relevant influencers and rely on the type of humor that best works for each location and language.
Google Business
What is the place people first go to when looking for a place to eat? Google! Having a Google Business account will allow you to be found easily by your customers in the local area.
Keep your Google Business page up to date with:
- A short description of your cuisine
- The exact address
- Opening hours
- Service options
- Contact information
- Menu
- Price range
Take Oxomoco’s example below:
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If someone were to Google their business, they would have all the information they would need to decide on visiting the restaurant or booking a table.
Another important element of Google Business is the reviews. Encourage your customers to leave Google reviews for your business, as they will positively impact your Google Business account. Take the time to address negative reviews and get to the bottom of issues, to show you care about your clients having a positive experience in your restaurant.