Effective Social Media for Restaurants

According to a study conducted by Ipsos MediaCT on behalf of Groupon and the National Restaurant Association, 80% of US restaurants use social media. The majority of people use it mainly for marketing and engagement, but several surveys conducted by MIT Sloan School of Management and Deloitte University Press showed that reputation management and building brand affinity was also given extreme importance.

It is very common to find restaurants that recognize the importance of social media, however most of the time they just don’t know how to use it. Here are a few tips to help you manage social media for your restaurant more effectively:

1- Focus your efforts on a few channels. An article published on FSR Magazine, suggests to choose 2 to 3 channels based on your target and brand, and dedicate your energy and time to mostly 2 of those channels and Yelp. Overtime you might add more platforms, but you should focus first on learning the advantages of each platform and choosing what works best for you.

2- Post the right updates on the right channel. Each social media platform attracts and engages people differently. Below you can see an infograph created by DigitalDining.com that explains the types of updates you should post on each channel.

3- Post engaging content. Post information that you consider might be interesting to your followers. Content does not need to be original or elaborate, but it should always be relevant. You can find content with little effort by following and sharing other’s people content such as articles, recipes, images etc.

4- Stay on top of your online presence. Constantly monitor your stats and learn what type of posts and content are being more engaging in terms of likes, comments or shares. It is also essential to monitor online conversations and handle negative reviews and unsatisfied customers.

5-Stay up to date. Social media evolves quickly and there is always new platforms or features. Make sure to stay up to date by learning new ways to engage with your audience.

Another challenge that restaurants face with social media is that measuring the results gained is a very hard task. Marketingvitals.com created a feature that allows you to effortlessly track the impacts of your social media campaigns. We show you exactly what KPIs were impacted using graph, charts and easy-to-read reports, and you can even see the projected impacts until the end of the campaign which allows you to decide whether or not to finish running the campaign. To request a demo of our product, send an email to info@marketingvitals.com.

Is your restaurant using social media effectively? We’d love to hear what you think, so leave us a comment below or find us on Twitter or Facebook.