The Social Gourmet: How can Small Restaurants Use Social Media Effectively on a Budget?

 

Here are just a few of the effective ways you can promote your restaurant through social media.

 

Each social media platform effectively reaches a different type of customer and serves a different role (see our post on how to use each social platform), so that means you should take a few minutes to figure out which of these platforms your customers are most likely to use and how to use it.  If your restaurant already covers the broad spectrum of customer types (e.g., families, professionals, foodies, lunch crowd, etc.), then you may want to have a slightly different strategy for each platform so you can best target EACH of your choice customer types.  More importantly, there are some great tools, such as Hootsuite and IFTTT , to help you manage and automate your social media accounts and save time. 

 

Additionally, each social platform has a unique sets of capabilities.  For example, Facebook allows you to provide updates, photos, videos in a “personal-oriented” environment, where as Twitter might be ideal for shooting out coupons, new menu items, specials and other timely updates to your audience.  The great thing is, you don’t have to use all social platforms, but you should be aware of what other restaurants like yours are doing and do your best to provide a competitive experience to your customers.  You can turn to firms like ours for help (affordably) as well as use automation tools to make it more efficient for you or someone on your staff to do personally.

 

 

Social media can be a great addition to any restaurant’s arsenal of outreach and marketing vehicles, because it is generally quite affordable, allows for excellent targeting and when you post something interesting, it can easily be shared by your fans.  Having one of your customers become a fan on social media and spread the word about your business with enthusiasm is the best kind of advertising.  Creating a great experience at the table, as well as online, is the best way to get them to do this.  So, be sure to find and claim your business profile on Yelp! (http://biz.yelp.com), which has become the go-to source for feedback and reviews, particularly for restaurants.  By claiming your profile on yelp, you can respond to reviews (especially bad ones) and show other potential customers that you care about their perspectives.

 

For the flip side, there is nothing wrong with encouraging your customers to give you good reviews on Yelp! and other social platforms, after they have had an excellent dining experience with you.  Be sure to train your staff to explicitly ask customers to post positive reviews, as well as include your web address, social accounts and other online details on receipts and menus to make it easy for them to do it. 

 

Also, keep an eye out for emerging feedback platforms, like Roaming Hunger, a site dedicated to providing up-to-date lists of details, catering information, and menus for local street food vendors, particularly food trucks, in cities throughout the US.  Not only do potential customers and curious foodies use this site to find new restaurants with food trucks, they can visit Roaming Hunger's website, Twitter or Facebook page to read comments, see photos, and learn about real customer experiences. That will always win new business and create momentum among interested customers.   New online experiences emerge each year – so take a moment a couple of times a year to see what folks are using and talking about to make sure that you have influence or control over your business’  profile in these new sites.

 

 

 

Once you’ve got a good strategy for your preferred social media platforms, you can start to take advantage of their paid ads. Facebook Ads, LinkedIn and Twitter ads give you the ability to target key customers with a great deal of granularity (based on local, gender, interests, etc).  This allows you to target your most desired customer types, a well as tailor your message and ad, based on this information. When it comes to these types of ads, it might be better to turn to a professional marketer, at least initially, so that you can ensure that your targeting and ads are set up the best reflect your desired message.   Working with an agency, like Change3, on a campaign doesn’t have to necessarily be expensive.  Most smaller agencies, like ours, are happy to examine your budget and goals to see if they can help you achieve them.

 

Even though you’re in the food experience business, it is becoming increasingly important for you to also get into the social media and marketing business.  Though this might be outside of your comfort zone, using and engaging in social media platforms is something you can learn, just like you learn new cooking techniques and recipes all the time.  And if you’d like to focus on your first love – running a restaurant, you can turn to a variety of professionals to help you manage your presence and achieve your goals, while staying within your budget.

 

ChangeU: For your independent study….

National Restaurant Association http://goo.gl/UyVENR The National Restaurant Association (NRA) is the largest foodservice trade association in the world*—supporting nearly 500,000 restaurant businesses. 

National Restaurant News Social 200 http://goo.gl/yXTB7 The NRN Social 200 is a daily look and ranking of the social media activities of the nation’s largest restaurant chains. Built with social analytics firm Sprinklr, the NRN Social 200 index quantifies restaurant brand efforts and consumer engagement with scoring from 0-1,000.

Restaurant magazine World's 50 Best Restaurants' for 2014  http://goo.gl/RdFKs0 The annual event, sponsored by S.Pellegrino and Acqua Panna, is a celebration of the crème de la crème of global gastronomy. The list, now in its 12th year, is curated by 900 restaurant international leaders, including chefs, food critics and restaurateurs.