Venturing onto social media platforms is a steady step forward for your business, as we all know by now, social media marketing is one of the fastest ways to heighten your rep and influence future customers. But to do this successfully and reach the numbers you want, the direction your content is heading towards is an essential factor to contemplate. Your overall demographic, along with the identity and character of your business will lead you to understand your venue’s online presence and personality. The best way to start this process is by going through the characteristics your online page will need, as this industry relies on engaging content to keep future customers interested and distracted from nearby competitors.

Focus Points:

As generations progress, attention to detail and shorter attention spans are also a factor to include. This will hopefully be a reminder for you to put someone in charge of your online pages, in order to create different ideas at a weekly rate. By creating weekly or monthly plans which factor in your business’s present promotions and/or dishes, your content will remain dynamic and manageable. Online plans also help your management team add in or change content that may not work on a specific day, allowing them to direct your online persona in the same direction your restaurant is driving through. By focusing on a few key topics and changing them up throughout the week, a steady and dynamic stream of content can be achieved; mainly food content, specials, events, chef commentary, key facts and behind the scenes visuals can be stimulating for most online passers by- added that your keywords and hashtags are used appropriately!

If you are an avid user of Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and possibly Snapchat, you will notice that the only thing that keeps viewers from swiping by your content is for it to be visually enticing in some way or another. Being individual to your brand identity will reel in the right customers you need- if you head into the mainstream direction of posting, followers will drop you and viewers will quickly lose interest. Food posts with good lighting, great composition and direct headlines will boost your views, as long as you add in ingredients and possibly hashtag words such as #dishoftheday #(city)restaurant and the specific meal your advertising, the right person will find your business page. Aesthetics rule all social media platforms, as well as original voices and opinions that are relevant to social situations of the time. You need to be time sensitive, culture sensitive and passionate about what your business is there for, if your dishes’ are unlike any others in the area, make it known!

Expert Opinion:

Another important factor is to keep your voice in its ‘expert’ tone, to let viewers know that you understand what you are serving to every detail and aim to influence and educate your customers any way you can. Your online pages will reveal the pleasure your establishment feels to host their future customers, so keep them informed about the inside work your staff accomplish to make the business stand out. To present this sense of ‘expertise’ can be through video content of your kitchen staff and bar staff, who have invested and detailed knowledge about the beverages and products they serve at a daily rate. Your staff hold a sense of passion and pride towards their products and wish to get this across to others, allowing video posts to be a win/win situation for your team and your business. By posting quick interviews during service times, asking the questions customers usually want to know the answers to, viewers will be sure to tune in. Thanks to Facebook Live and Instagram stories, this kind of content can be achieved in real time and customers can add in comments whenever they please for instant responses.

To get this type of content up and running, you will first need to let your viewers know that an interview will be held during certain hours and your ‘chef’s’ are available to answer any questions that are asked via the app. Videos with interview content or fun behind the scenes visuals give customers the direct insight into your establishment that they desire, this info then provides an overall impression of your brands identity at a different level. As ridiculous as that may seem, it’s how it is. Many café’s, clubs and restaurants which hold a strong number of followers, all have professional and individual content posts that you can’t help but keep up with, as aesthetics stem from professionals and give interesting information to viewers, you can understand why some users chose to travel to random venue’s to test out.

Social Influencers:

By keeping content original and brand focused, it’s a guarantee that your followers won’t drop off. One way that businesses lose interest from users is by reposting and forgetting to update and create content that relates to their current situation- because as you know, people lose interest quick and hop onto the next venture as soon as possible. As long as you have this social media marketing plan sorted and someone is in charge of headline your content, then the work will run its own way through- allowing you to monitor and understand the type of demographic you are hitting from your posts. Also, if you wish to expand, detailed plans can be a good way to see where your brand needs to improve and branch into. To branch off, you will of course need to target foodie influencers, who have strong followers and a sense of understanding towards the hospitality world. If you are able to get in contact with a relevant social media foodie, by getting them to come by your venue and try out a few dishes, their opinion will surely influence a whole lot of new users. Social Media influencers are known to reach new ranges of demographics to each business, so use this factor to your advantage and try and reel in as many people as you can to test out your venue’s products!

Social Media Marketing is the new frontier, providing fast results and easily fixed personas. To hit a new range of demographics and expand your brand in as many ways as possible, venturing into social platforms is the right way to do it. Whether it be focused on your inspiration, décor or dishes, you are in charge of your business’s reputation and persona, so make sure to understand your brand from every angle so that your customers can do the same.