As a modern restaurant owner, you’ll know just how important it is to maximise the potential of social media marketing to reach your customers.
In many ways, the opportunities to connect with potential customers and existing clientele via social media are a dynamic and exciting way to grow your business. Yet, the rate of content creation online means that it can be time-consuming, and even exhausting, to keep up with the demands of social media.
If you’re constantly posting and updating your profiles with fresh and engaging content, you may start to feel the strain of feeding the online marketing machine, whatever its potential.
This is where it pays to start working smarter, rather than harder, in your social media strategies. To help you get results from a manageable content creation schedule, here are some ideas for maximising your social media efforts.
Time-Saving Content Creation Ideas For Restaurant Owners & Managers
1. Go Visual
One of the most successful strategies on social media is to harness the power of engaging visuals. As a restaurant owner, you’re already spending your time creating visually appealing food - this can be inspiring fodder for your social media channels. It’s quicker and easier to take a quick photo of a beautiful dish than it is to compose a wordy social post. So, get into the habit of taking great snaps of your most appealing offerings, and quickly sharing them via stories or highlights.
2. Go Behind-The-Scenes
There’s a double benefit to including a good degree of #bts content in your social posts. Firstly, and most importantly, users love them! People are fascinated by other people’s daily lives and work scenes. Secondly, this type of content doesn’t need to be highly polished and perfect - meaning you can share on-the-go footage or candid photos that are quick to create and upload.
3. Embrace Storytelling
Storytelling is a proven strategy for engaging an audience. Sharing the story of your business is a fast track to customer loyalty - people love to engage with companies that have a compelling story. When you include the values and mission of your restaurant, your posts will be more effective, meaning you can enjoy a more manageable posting schedule.
4. Share User-Generated Content
The ultimate social media time-saving tip: let your customers provide the content! Chances are that your customers are already taking photos of your food and tagging your venue on social channels. Repurposing this content on your social feeds is a smart way to woo new customers, as well as acknowledging the people who are spreading the word about your business.
5. Spark Conversations
By asking engaging or even controversial questions, you can spark conversations on your posts and feeds that will engage your followers and help your posts perform well within the algorithm. When your followers take up the conversation for you, the community itself will provide lively content and comments that will draw more people to your posts.
6. Encourage Reviews & Testimonials
If you’re doing a good job of keeping your customers happy, you should have a daily stream of great feedback for your food. Any noteworthy comments or reviews of your offerings can make great snippets for a social media post. And if you get testimonials from celebrities, famous names, or key influencers, these quick posts stand a good chance of getting reshared and going viral.
7. Get Organised
To maximise the time you spend on creating content for social media, it pays to get organised. Some top tips from the experts include having some kind of schedule or marketing calendar, and batch creating posts that can be automated and published while you’re busy running your restaurant.
8. Develop A Brand Voice
Developing a brand can often mean your posts are more effective, which can relieve some of the pressure to be constantly publishing new content. When you cultivate a brand voice or visual style, i.e. a consistent tone, message or aesthetic, your content will be more recognisable to your followers, encouraging brand loyalty and increasing engagement.
9. Be Open To Inspiration
As you go about your work in your restaurant, pay attention to what inspires you. Is it the buzz of the early morning fish market, a newly revamped interior, or a particular character on your team? The things that inspire you are likely to also appeal to your audience and potential customers, so make it a habit to share these aspects with your followers as you go about your work.
10. Enjoy Yourself!
When you choose social media strategies you enjoy, you’ll naturally create more engaging content and feel inspired to share it.
Hopefully, these tips will inspire you to create content for your social media marketing in a way that feels doable alongside the main work of running your business.
If you still feel that social media is taking you away from the real work of creating great food, the smartest move may be to call in the experts. The team at SideDish are experienced social media pros in the restaurant niche, and we would love to help you find the right marketing mix for your business.
