By now we all understand that one of the greatest marketing challenges that restaurant operators face is making their businesses stand out amongst the crowd. Even once you have defined your niche and mastered your specialities you still have to overcome the competition by setting your business apart from others. This can be extremely difficult to do for businesses who have not yet defined their brand using branding. It becomes even more challenging for restaurant businesses that have failed to implement a social media strategy and are entering late in the game.
The good news is that marketing your restaurant online through social media can help you create an identifiable brand and leap ahead of your biggest competitors. Today, we are going to talk about three of the best ways that you can do this and start right now! The strategy that we recommend is a social network driven one that focuses on creating a distinctive online persona for your business. We recommend that operators incorporate plenty of pictures, videos and other content that reminds their followers about the unique aspects of your restaurant that are consistent with the online persona that you have created.
Next, encourage your customers to be involved in the social promotion of your business. This way you can nurture loyalty and let your fans help become part of your business identity and the online content that you present to them.
Develop An Online Persona
A common error made by many online marketers (not just individuals in food industries) is that they fail to define their online voice when posting new content on the web. Basically, instead of creating a web person that lets the audience know “who” is speaking to them they just do random promotional shoutouts every now and then.
Marketing research has proven that people respond and engage more when the person who is managing the social media is defined. This means that you should say clearly, and often who is posting, updating, and interacting with users on your social media platforms.
Two ways that you can approach this is with a mascot or web moderator who is honest about their role within your restaurants team. He or she could post updates like this.
“Hey guys Steve the bartender here at Sam’s Cafe, Sam left me in charge now I am cutting drink prices in half. Yay, it’s happy hour.”
This type of update would be used in place of an update like this.
“Happy Hour starts at 4:30 pm all drinks are half price.”
Do you see the difference? Which post would you be more likely to respond to?
Use Imagery and Videos That Are Reflective of Your Brands New Voice
The next step is to use different visual components to help concrete your new online persona and help to make your online brand more approachable. Some ways that you can do this is with Instagram and Snapchat accounts that are operated not by “you” but by your online mascot. Have the person in charge of these accounts participate in them as a user and engage and interact with fans just as if the account were their personal account with one catch: they are constantly plugging your brand and it’s product.
Think about the example we used above, in order to make the Steve the bartender persona work you also want to include images and videos that help to distinctly demonstrate to followers who Steve (your social media guy) is.
When using this approach you’ll want to post videos, pictures, and other content from Steve the bartenders perspective, not just your own. Consistency throughout is key the here.
How to Get More People Engaged and Create A Welcoming Community With Social Media
So, now you have created a distinctive web persona for your restaurant business that is providing a more down-to-earth look at your brand. This type of approach is certain to get people talking but now you really want to push it into high gear. After you have clearly defined who the voice is behind your social media and web content you want to get your accounts working by driving in customers and nurturing client loyalty. One of the best ways to do this is by inviting your audience to play along and interact with the social media character that you have created.
Let’s return to the bartender Steve idea for a minute. How would this Steve character engage and interact with his friends on social media?
Jump back in, maybe Steve takes a selfie of a drink he just stirred up at the bar.
“Voila, Steve’s signature Bellini beverage, What is your signature drink?”
The audience has now been invited to participate. They can post and share pictures of their own drinks and these can now be shared as content on Sam Cafe’s wall.
Tips To Help You Make This New Strategy Work, Follow These 4 Steps
- When a customer engages always tag them back directly when privacy settings allow, this makes them feel like an instant celebrity and will make them more likely to share your content in the future.
- Repost your customers engagements. If someone participates in a call to action make sure that you give them credit by reposting it later on. Say, “thank you for sharing” and show your gratitude for their response. This makes users feel welcome and appreciated.
- Encourage customers to interact with each other and welcome a sense of community on your social media profiles. For instance if someone participates and another user comments on their post, encourage interaction amongst the users. At the same time, make sure that moderate for negativity or heated debate. Remember, you want your social media to be a welcoming and happy place.
- Comment, like and share your customers engagements just as you would do your own. If they tag you in an image thank them for that acknowledgement and give them props for being a fan. The more you do this, the more people will see it and continue to promote your business for you. This is a wonderful way to create buzz and get the word out there!
Don’t Be Afraid To Provide An Incentive
If you are lucky you can get your followers to engage and participate online on their own. However, sometimes you are also going to have to offer an incentive. Be prepared to offer something to your customers for getting involved and playing along with your online engagement attempts. Take advantage of the tools that the social media platforms provide to make this an effective marketing tool.
Returning one last time to Steve the bartenders open call for people to show off their signature drinks. One way that you can make this engagement opportunity more inviting is by providing a prize or draw for the individuals who participate.
Steve’s picture post that once looked like this:
“Voila, Steve’s signature Bellini beverage, What is your signature drink?”
Now looks like this:
“Voila, Steve’s signature Bellini beverage, I showed you mine now show me yours. Post a picture of your signature drink, tag us @Sam’s Cafe and you are instantly entered to win a $25 bar credit for this Saturday!”
Now you’ve got it.
These days most restaurants “get” that they have to use social media as a marketing tool if they want to keep up with the times. The real trick is in making your food business’s social media stand out from all of the others. One of the best ways to do this is by developing a distinctive online voice. Be candid about who your social media operator is and be consistent in the way that they behave and participate online for best results. You also want to utilize all of the best social media devices such as vivid imagery, short but engaging videos, and the sharing of blogs and articles that are related to your business. When you use these elements make sure that they coordinate with the persona or online voice that you have created.
Once you have mastered this don’t be afraid to let your customers do a bit of the work. Make your social media profile a welcoming place for customers to interact in community and share content that they believe relates to your brand. In fact, take advantage of your loyal usership by offering them incentives for sharing and posting. Try to interact with them using “their” language – and don’t be too much of a salesmen; remember they already “Like” you.
One strategy for setting your restaurant apart from the crowd on social media is to create a unique and distinctive voice that nobody else can emulate! This will help to make people feel loyal towards your services and encourage a sense of community around your brand. This marketing strategy has proven to be much more successful when implemented correctly. Give it a try yourself and see what happens!
