You’re not along if you have setup and designed a Facebook page for your restaurant but no one is liking your new page.
If you have no likes not only does it make the page essentially useless but it also reflects bad on your restaurant for the few people that are visiting the page. Would you trust a restaurant with 5 likes or the one across the street with 5,000 likes? More likes on your page gives your restaurant more credibility and will attract more customers.
Buying Facebook likes doesn’t do you any good as the likes are from fake accounts of users that won’t be engaged in your content at all. Spending money on Facebook ads is a great way to target specific groups of people around your restaurant but you require a hefty budget and a bit of patience.
So how can you get more likes and fans on your restaurant’s Facebook page without spending a fortune?
Create Content That People Want to Share
People often share content they like and find interesting on Facebook. When someone shares your post their friends see it also, getting you even more exposure. Some of those people will then go back and like your page.
Get the most out of your current fans by convincing them to share your content with their friends and you’ll see an immediate impact on your restaurant’s Facebook page.
So how do you create great content worth sharing?
1. Be Consistent
Consistency is key in social media. For your restaurant’s Facebook page, you should try to post once a day. Spend a couple minutes making one really epic Facebook post each day rather than several posts that don’t connect with your audience and get them to engage. Posting too often can cause your best posts to be lost in the clutter and lose your fans attention.
2. Use Images
Good posts with images are the ones that get shared the most and go viral. This doesn’t just relate to Facebook but Twitter as well; and why Instagram and Pinterest are so popular.
Find good, relevant, and eye-catching images to use on your restaurant’s Facebook pages to get more shares and more likes.
3. Write a Great Headline
Have you ever read a headline that you couldn’t resist clicking to see the rest of the content? We’ve all been there, and it’s a strategy that you should be using for your own posts.
On average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy. However, only 2 out of 10 will read the rest. This means that the success of your Facebook post, and the likelihood of you getting more likes, requires you to write a great headline. It’s the first impression you make on a reader that will either convince them to click through or ignore your post entirely.
4. Be You
Your Facebook fans are your fans because they like you and your restaurant. Be yourself on Facebook and use that same authentic tone consistently. Don’t post like a robot, no one wants to read something that sounds boring and doesn’t relate to them.
5. Keep it Simple
Twitter puts a 140 character maximum on their posts for a reason. If you can’t engage people enough within 140 characters to click a link back to your website or blog then your post has too much content or doesn’t have a good enough headline.
The quicker your post is to read the more likely people will actually read it. A big paragraph of content will get skipped over for those short and enticing headlines that people can’t resist clicking.
6. Be Relevant
You’re in the food industry so you should be writing about the food industry. It doesn’t do you much good posting about the latest news in politics or what celebrity did what last weekend. Keep your posts focused around your restaurant, food and events your hosting that are relevant to why your fans liked your page in the first place.
7. Offer Something of Value
It’s becoming more and more difficult to get eyes on your Facebook posts. Don’t waste a post that people will see. Provide value in each and every post and you will be giving people a reason to share it with their friends.
Before you post something ask yourself this question, “If I were a fan of this restaurant, would I find enough value in this post to share it with my own friends?”.
8. Run a Contest
Running a contest can encourage your fans to like and share more of your posts with their friends while also posting about your restaurant themselves. Create a unique contest to get people to post about your restaurant and reward the winner (ie. the persons picture with the most likes or shares) with a gift card to your restaurant.
This gives people a big incentive to like your page and share your content.
9. Use a Call-to-Action
Use some kind of call-to-action in each of your posts. Posting a plain statement or fact isn’t going to get you results. Make sure most posts link back to your website or blog to get the most out of your Facebook fans.
Also, actually asking people to like, share or comment on your post is a great way to get more people to do just that. So if you don’t mind, please share this post with your friends on Facebook or Twitter!
10. Time the Post
Like we talked about before, it’s becoming more and more difficult to get your posts seen on Facebook and other social media platforms. Timing your post can help you get the most out of your content.
What is the best day to post my best content?
On Facebook, 86% of posts that you publish during the week with get peak engagement on Thursday and Friday. So why is this? The less people who are at work or highly engaged in their work, the more they are on Facebook. This is why people see more engagement in their posts later in the week, more people are on Facebook looking forward to the weekend.
What is the best time to post?
The best time to post is in the early afternoon. Posts at 1pm get the most shares and posts at 3pm get the most clicks. Most people are more concentrated with their work in the morning but lose that concentration in the afternoon and drift over to Facebook. Use that time to post your best content to get more shares and likes on your posts and restaurant’s Facebook page.
You can use social media tools like Hootsuite to schedule your posts in advance or Edgar to help you find the best time of day to post.
