How Resturants can use Social Media

Firstly the important thing to understand and follow: “A man not only eats with his mouth but also with his eyes”

This is because once we have seen the food’s picture and it looks presentable and edible half of the battle is won then and there. Only what remain are people visiting the restaurant to enjoy the same food they had seen the pictures.

Social sites which can be used:

• Facbook
• Instagram
• Twitter

Facebook

A facebook page is a MUST for the restaurant. Among all the social media sites facebook is one which gets most of the fan following. When I say fan following I mean true followers. People blindly following a particular brand will first search a facebook page of the brand to get all the latest updates about it. Having a fan page that customers can “like” on Facebook can lead to brand recognition.

Just like putting up a hoarding facebook provides similar thing called “Cover Picture” with no chargers. It can be changed whenever there is a new offer or new menu being launched or any contest or any event.

Posting images is necessary because visual is everything in this business.

Conducting contest and letting them know about the different deals and offers available. This will generate customer interaction.

Facebook has added a new feature for restaurants and bars of posting menu.

It allows the business owners to upload their entire food or beverage menu onto facebook page.

Instagram

Instagram is popular photo sharing site.

People generally use it to share Instagram images with facebook or twitter friends.

Restaurants can link their Instagram with facebook and twitter. This will help in keep all the connected social sites up-to-date.

Use Trending Hashtags: To spread awareness about the restaurant and the Instagram profile. For instance #100happydays was trending, restaurants could have posted daily images of the cuisine served and restaurant for 100 days with this tag being added to the image.

Use Niche Hashtags: Get found more easily by your niche market by using specific hashtags. Eg: using #mumbai #streetfood #mumbailocal #mumbaifood if the restaurant is a Mumbai based.

Conducting Contest: Interaction customers. Running up different contest where they have to post images of the food as the contest requirements. Making a unique hashtags which can be used only for the contest of you restaurant.

Posting: Images of the menu card and its contents, posting employee, you can use these types of photos to shows that you’re an establishment that values the people that work for you.

Twitter

Twitter is a very successful marketing tool for restaurants, both large and small and from high end to fast food. With only 140 characters per update, tweets get read, and shared at very faster rate comparatively.

Tweeting: When you tweet something interesting about your restaurant, your Twitter followers have the option of re-tweeting it so it reaches an even broader audience. You can even tweet fun photos like customers reading their menu covers or of the lunch-time rush. Time your tweets, tweet to you followers during different meals time and add hashtags such as #lunch, #dinner #breakfast or during a some particular event.

Add Link: Adding link to the website or the link to the menu, this gives your followers further action to take, and lets them interact with your more.

Interaction is important: Interact with your customer. Reply to their tweets. It can be a complaint or a suggestion or just question they have about your restaurant or food. Answer to always with timely intervals. This will build their trust upon you.

Use Promoted tweets: Choose your best tweets, and pay to promote them to a targeted audience. This is particularly effective for your timed updates being sent out around meal times.

Some other social sites which can be used:

Pinterest:

Pin images from website, it retains the URL of the page it originally came from. Share quality content, a great pin can spread like a wildfire. More people re-pinning more the buzz is created. Use proper keywords related to your restaurants for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). You can never play with the keywords. Create different pin boards of wide variety of cuisine from the menu. Turning it into an online menu. Start a conversation with someone or re-pin other people’s content, interact with the audience

Foursquare:

Foursquare is a website that allows users to “check in” to the different venues including stores, restaurants and events. Many Foursquare users have downloaded a mobile application that allows them to “check in” to places on their smart phones. By claiming business listing on Foursquare you have the ability to see who is “checking in” to your restaurant in real-time.

                                                                                                   

 You Tube

Videos are a great way to give people a behind-the-scenes look at your restaurant and even short videos capturing employee interviews or of the chef cooking up a signature dish. Once you record the videos, upload them to YouTube and start promoting them on your other social media channels.

           

Blogs

You can blog about anything related to your company or your industry, but make sure it is worthwhile for the reader. Share interesting facts or information about the food you serve, or even recipes of your most popular dishes!

  

Get Alerted by Google

Setting up Google alerts for your restaurant name is a great way to track brand mentions on the Internet. To do this, visit

http://www.google.com/alerts and set up an account. You can tell Google to send alert messages to your e-mail whenever your restaurant name is mentioned online and they will send you a link to the site where your restaurant is mentioned. By doing this, you can track the sentiment people have with your restaurant whether it is positive or negative and even respond to them.

--- CHEERS!! ---