How To Use Facebook To Help Your Restaurant Business

Whether you own a small independent restaurant in your home town or a popular chain, having a social media account will most probably be able to help you attract and keep customers. According to Drell (2011), everyone has to eat and most of them are also on Facebook. With over a billion people that are active on Facebook and more than 100 million on Instagram (Statista, 2016), restaurant owners should take the opportunity to utilise social media platforms to their advantage.

Mike Harris, a sales representative, talks about how his clients tend to focus on the importance of the dining experience as a way of getting customers to stay loyal to their restaurants as opposed to the post-dining experience. Don’t get me wrong, great food paired with the perfect ambience will definitely make a happy customer return in the future, however research done by Coca-Cola has shown that guests tend to use digital technologies in unique ways before, during and after the meal (Harris, 2015). Customers tend to want to share the whole experience from the beginning, post their opinions and recommendations and also look for special offers.

If you are already in the restaurant business or aspire to open up your own restaurant or cafe in the future, here are a few tips and tricks to help bring people closer to your food:

Visualisation

Facebook is a great place to gain exposure and to establish a connection with your clientele, it’s highly unlikely that one of your patrons do not have an account on Facebook. Based on this blog post written on Wishpond, most of them check the app on their phones or laptops at least a few times a day for any sort of update, therefore you would benefit a lot from having a Facebook page.

Take full advantage of the different types of ways you can visualise your ideas, restaurant and food through the space that Facebook offers. With cover images, profile pictures and tabs; be sure to include enticing photos of the delicious food that are on the menu as well as the interior of the restaurant. People want to know how the food and restaurant will look like before they actually make a booking. Facebook allows you to advertise for free, share images of people enjoying their meal with their family and friends. Change your cover image whenever there’s a new deal or change in menu, keep people up to date and excited.

A great example can be seen below from the Giggling Squid, a Thai restaurant situated in Brighton. Their profile picture on Facebook is currently their logo -making it easier for people to recognise the restaurant, and their cover photo displays an aesthetically pleasing shot of their food from their menu.

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They’ve also kept it interesting with an update post that consists of a short description and an inviting photo of one of their latest dishes with the actual name of the dish on the picture itself (see picture below).

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Deals & Offers

Restaurant owners should also look into posting exclusive deals and offers directly to their Facebook followers. Great deals will lead to customers sharing the news on their feed which will eventually bring you more customers, both old and new, at the end of the day.

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Geo-tags

Facebook allows you to pick your target audience whenever you decide to post an advertisement post. This is very handy as it can help narrow down the target market to a specific location as well as those who have liked similar restaurants nearby or Facebook pages. The blogpost on Wishpond shows exactly how this can be done through tags, click here to view the example.

Digital Menu

A feature that was introduced in 2014 by Facebook was the Restaurant Menu. Facebook describes this new feature as a handy tool that will make it easier for restaurants worldwide to showcase their most important assets directly onto their Facebook pages, as majority of the people tend to turn to Facebook to find the location, opening hours and menu of a particular restaurant (Facebook, 2014).

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It is apparent that mobile and digital marketing is one of the best ways to create opportunities for businesses today. With the right focus on social media marketing, restaurant owners should be able to build loyalty amongst their customers and establish a digital relationship with them. Social media not only offers brand exposure but also helps to build links, reputation and also traffic (Laduque, 2015). According to Google, online digital platforms are extremely valuable to businesses as it is a vital communication tool that provides the key to success, if used properly.

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References:

Drell, L. (2011) ’13 Best Practices for Restaurants on Facebook. ‘ [Online] Available at <http://mashable.com/2011/08/29/facebook-marketing-restaurants/#P1fa6pFcomqw> [Accessed 26 January 2015].

Facebook (2014) New for Facebook: Restaurant Menus [Online] <https://www.facebook.com/business/news/restaurant-menus-facebook-pages> [Accessed 28 January 2016].

Google Inc (2014) Digital Marketing for Business Directors: What you need to know. Nottingham Evening Post. 30 September 2014. [Online] Available at <http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.brighton.ac.uk/docview/1566412260/abstract?accountid=9727> [Accessed 18 January 2016].

Harris, M. (2015) ‘Digital Marketing for Independent Restaurants: After Your Guests Leave’ [Online] Available at <https://www.fishbowl.com/digital-marketing-for-independent-restaurants-after-your-guests-leave/> [Accessed 21 January 2016].

Laduque, J. (2015) ‘Four Digital Marketing Tactics That Attract and Retain Customers’. Franchising World, [Online] Vol 47 (Issue 2). Available at <http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.brighton.ac.uk/ehost/detail/detail?vid=6&sid=c16e75bc-3324-4e5b-9eee-82267265800d%40sessionmgr114&hid=115&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=109040163&db=buh> [Accessed 12 January 2016].

Statista (2016) Number of monthly active Facebook users worldwide as of 4th quarter 2015 [Online] <http://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/> [Accessed 18 January 2016].

Wishpond (2015) Social Media Marketing for Restaurants: 21 Tips [Online] <http://blog.wishpond.com/post/57638303180/social-media-marketing-for-restaurants-21-tips> [Accessed 15 January 2016].

Shareen Mohd Razi

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