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Social media is the wave of the future, and not just for teenagers looking for another way to connect to their friends. Social media is one of the best marketing tools for businesses, especially restaurants.
Like any marketing tactic, social media requires a little bit of knowledge and skill to make it work. Simply posting updates to your personal accounts to friends and family won’t get you new customers, which is the point of any type of marketing.
Before you embark on the social media journey, it helps to know how to use it to your advantage so that you’re not wasting time. Read on for some tips and tricks on managing social media campaigns that will turn a profit.
Sign Up For The Sites That Benefit You — Forget the Rest
There are social media sites that allow you to share status updates, videos, pictures, and short words and phrases. You may think that signing up for all of them will get you the most customers’ possible, but in reality, this isn’t the case.
Instead, focus on who your core customer is, and which types of social media they are using. If you own an upscale steakhouse, signing up for a site that is mostly used by teenagers will be a waste of your time.
Some of the bigger sites, like Facebook and Google Plus, tend to cater to everyone, which means a wider audience for you. They’re also easy to use, and you likely have some experience using them personally, which means they’re an easy way to get started.
Encourage Customers to Follow You
Once you sign up, you need to get people to follow your pages, or you’ll be talking to no one when you post updates. Getting a good group of followers takes time to build up, but there are ways to get there faster.
Post your social media sites on your website, especially on your menu page, and tell people about your page in the restaurant as well. Mention it on customer receipts, and print it on your menu. You can also give people discounts and small rewards for following you as well.
Forget About Buying Followers
Getting people to follow you can be difficult, especially if you don’t have as big of a presence in your city as you would like. It can be tempting to fork over big bucks to companies that promise hundreds of followers or subscribers, but resist the urge.
While it may be true that having a lot of followers will encourage others to get on board as well, the lists of people these companies offer are not going to be customers at your restaurant. Many accounts are completely fake, which also means you might get a bunch of spam on your page. This never looks good, and is a pain to manage when you have to constantly delete useless posts and comments.
Tell Your Customers What They’ll Get
Why would your customers sign up to follow you? What are you giving them? Are you going to put exclusive coupons up? Daily specials? Contests? Whatever it is you plan to do, be sure to let your customers know. Many people are very careful about the businesses they follow on social media, and they want to be subjected only to content they find useful.
Create Content That Makes Your Business Look Good
The whole idea behind social media for business is to make your business appealing to customers. For restaurants, this is particularly important.
If you’re going to post pictures of your food — and you should — don’t take a quick snap with your cell phone under poor lighting. Take the time to compose images that make your food look good, and will make diners want to visit. When describing dishes, do your best to make them sound appealing. Not only does this make people want to eat there, it also makes them want to share your posts, which can increase the number of followers, and in turn, customers.
You should also watch your grammar and spelling, and try to keep your updates as professional as possible.
Create Posts That Are Useful Or Interesting to Your Customers
A good marketing strategy doesn’t just require you to post about your restaurant; in fact, you can benefit from posting other items — as long as they are interesting and relevant to your customers.
If you specialize in local, seasonal food, posting an article about a local farmer may be of interest. Take a picture of your kitchen staff in their chef uniforms with their kitchen knives. Link to articles, recipes, blog posts, and anything else that you think your customer may find useful. This keeps you on their radar, and makes them want to share your content.
No matter how interesting your content, too much of it will overwhelm your followers. Once a day is plenty, with maybe a special announcement every now and then. You don’t have to have a set schedule for posts, but be careful that you’re not posting too much. If you notice your number of followers suddenly dropping, ask yourself if you’ve posted too much recently; many people don’t want to see one person or business clogging up their news feed, and will get rid of those that do.
Interact with Your Customers
Many people use social media as their main way to interact with both friends and businesses; it’s becoming even more common than email to get a question answered or give comments.
Make sure that you follow up with each post, even if it’s just a quick “Thank you!” or “Let me check on that and get back to you.”
Stick to Business
Remember that in the case of business, social media is a marketing strategy. It’s not a way to shout out your religious, political, or personal views to the world. Be very careful about saying or sharing anything that may come across as offensive to anyone. If you have doubts, either ask a co-worker’s opinion, or just don’t post.
Handle Negative Posts With Care
It’s becoming all too common for customers to post negative remarks to a businesses social media page to get fast attention. While it can be easy to get angry and upset when someone does this, the worst thing you can do is fire off an angry response. Going back and forth with an angry customer in a public forum is just as bad as doing it in your dining room in front of customers.
Instead, take a breath, let your customer know politely that you want to solve the problem, and then ask if you can engage them privately to offer a solution. Most customers are reasonable; they just want to be heard.
Hire a Social Media Manager if You Can’t Do it On Your Own
If you’re not computer savvy, or you simply don’t have the time to do it right, it’s not a bad idea to hire someone to manage your social media campaigns for you. The right person will know what to post, how often, and how to attract more followers.
Conclusion
While getting into social media can seem overwhelming and exhausting, it is an inexpensive and easy way to not only increase your business, but engage with your existing customers as well.