How to Attract More Customers to Your Restaurant Using Social Media

Are you looking for more efficient ways to attract customers to your restaurant via social media? No wonder.

75% of people admit they purchase a product after seeing it on social media, and 94% use social networks to make restaurant decisions based on online reviews. It would be a sin to miss such a broad audience, right?

This list of steps will teach you how to attract more customers to your restaurant using social media, stand out from your competitors, and engage the audience. So, let the game begin!

How to Attract More Customers to Your Restaurant via Social Media

1. Design your social media profiles like a boss

First and foremost, check your restaurant’s social media profiles and ensure you’ve designed and filled them right. Restaurant marketing design is critical for brand visibility, recognition, and trust.

Use your logo and brand colors for profile design. Decide on your brand’s tone of voice and fill in the information about your restaurant accordingly.

For your Facebook page, enter all the essential information such as your website, working hours, location, menu, and contacts. Attract customers with a catchy cover image: It’s your board to announce specials, happy hours, and other offers.

Please pay attention to the cover design because it’s the first thing users see when visiting your Facebook page. High-quality images of your yummiest food will work well.

Read more: Facebook Marketing for Restaurants: 10 Tips & Secrets

For Instagram, make the most of your bio. Speak directly to your customers, and remember to include many calls to action. The same goes for Twitter bios: If your restaurant has several locations, mention them in your bio section.

Learn more:

• Restaurant Instagram Marketing Ideas That Will Help You Increase Sales
• Why Using Twitter for Restaurants Can Spark Your Sales

2. Update information and content regularly

When people visit your restaurant page on social media, they look for clear and detailed information. Ensure your menu, prices, phone numbers, working hours, and other details remain updated.

Also, develop a content strategy and come up with writing ideas for your social media profiles. Consistent messaging, imagery, and tone of voice are critical here. Develop a plan of what, when, where, and why you’ll post – and stick to it.

Additionally, find a balance between engaging and promotional content. Users come to social media for communication, entertainment, and news, not clingy ads and obtrusive promos. Try to diversify your content and post it at least three times a week.

3. Use high-quality visuals of your food

The most effective way to promote your restaurant on social media is by showing lots of food photos from your menu. Ensure the pictures and any other visual content you use on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are high-quality and look delicious.

People love “yummy” words and lip-smacking visuals when it comes to the food they consume because such content appeals to their basic instinct, known as self-preservation. This instinct is about physical health and safety, so users will respond to everything that helps them achieve it.

As a restaurant, you’re lucky to have access to tons of mouth-watering shots to satisfy this instinct. So don’t stint professionally-looking images for your social media profiles. Use a tool that will help you resize images for every social media platform.

4. Add location tags to social media posts

“Thanks” to the pandemic, more and more customers narrow down their searches by looking for “near me” options. This search term grew over 100% in 2020! By adding your restaurant’s location tags to social media posts, you’ll improve the visibility of your business and help people find you.

Another trick to try here:

Use already trending hashtags on your social media posts. It will allow you to increase exposure and cover a broader audience. But don’t use it as mere clickbait: Ensure your content is relevant to those trending topics.

5. Share your menu and allow people to order online

Given that 83% of people use social media to discover products and 87% are ready to purchase after seeing product information, it’s time to take your restaurant online.

Post your seasonal, weekly, and daily menus on social media. Add an option to see the ingredients and appearance of your food, and don’t hide prices from users. Provide an opportunity to learn everything about your dishes and order them online.

While you can create an app for online orders or add online ordering to your website, you can also accept food orders on Facebook, or at least add a link to where people can order in your Instagram and Twitter bio.

6. Share UGC and customer reviews

User-generated content (UGC) is photos, videos, comments, and any other forms of content your customers make about your restaurant. And since 79% of people confess that UGC on social media impacts their purchasing decisions, you can use it as social proof to engage new customers.

Repost UGC about your restaurant that shows your brand in a positive light. Remember to credit the author in your post and respond to their content. It will show other guests that you appreciate your customers and are open to communication.

Plus, consider online reviews of your restaurant from Yelp, Google My Business, and other review websites. You can design them as social media posts and share them on your channels.

7. Respond to customer feedback

More than 80% of visitors choose restaurants that respond to online reviews.

Monitor your brand mentions on social media regularly, and check review websites to respond to customer feedback. It strengthens your reputation and shows potential clients that you care about visitors in your restaurant.

Google is constantly expanding features for local businesses to help with customer communication. Thus, now you can talk to users who visit your restaurant page in Maps directly through chat.

Answer the comments that have questions, appreciate the positive feedback, and don’t ignore negative comments. Always address critical feedback, ask what you can do, and apologize if necessary.

Your restaurant’s reaction to negative comments on social media is a chance to turn disappointed/angry customers into loyal clients. It shows customers and new clients that you care about what they say.

8. Communicate with customers

Improve engagement by active communication with your customers on social media. Use your restaurant profiles to create a two-way dialogue for visitors to interact with your business, not simply scroll down the page.

Ask questions, create polls, and design funny quizzes related to your menu or restaurant niche. Share them as traditional posts or try question and poll functions on Instagram Stories.

You can also boost visibility on social media by participating in food-related holidays.

Plan some content related to Marshmallow, Coffee Day, or any other food relevant to your menu offerings. Additionally, create corresponding visuals, and remember to add hashtags.

Download our Food Holiday Calendar 2024 to keep track of relevant holidays and get promotion ideas for each.

Another way to attract new customers is to organize contests on social media. It can be photo or caption contests, fill-in-the-blanks tasks, surveys, or tagging a friend. Such content boosts engagement, influencing your brand awareness and visibility.

9. Show your employees and share behind-the-scenes content

Don’t hesitate to spotlight your staff in social media posts. It’s a great chance to show potential customers that you care about your people and celebrate their strengths.

Such content also allows you to humanize your brand and make followers feel more connected to your business.

Post photos of your staff, talk about their achievements, and share pictures from “behind-the-scenes.” Tell the audience about special occasion events in your restaurant, stream parties, or show your kitchen.

And don’t limit yourself to pictures: video posts on Facebook, Instagram IGTV, and TikTok short videos are also super engaging and attractive for social media users.

Read more: How TikTok for Restaurants Can Shake up Your Marketing Strategy

10. Collaborate with Instagram influencers

Working with food bloggers and influencers on Instagram is a sure-fire way to build brand awareness and attract a new audience to your restaurant. They have thousands of loyal followers who trust their opinion and listen to their advice.

Find local influencers living in your city or near your restaurant. Invite them to a free dinner or send samples of your menu items – and ask for a review. Additionally, you can order sponsored posts from influencers or turn them into your brand ambassadors.

Let them manage your social media account for a day or provide a discount code they can share with their audience and attract new customers to you that way.

You can also share influencers’ posts about your restaurant on your social media profiles. Such content will work as social proof for new visitors who come to learn more information about you.

Conclusion

Social media is a powerful instrument to attract more customers to your restaurant. People make restaurant decisions based on what they see on social networks and read from other users. So, learn how to attract more customers to your restaurant by applying the steps above. You’ll see a boost in engagement and new customers in no time.

This article is a guest post.

Author: Olesia Filipenko

Olesia is an experienced content writer and a blogger behind WritingBreeze.com. She is a regular contributor to digital marketing, social media, and content creation publications.