The Customer Matters

The demographics of your customers largely determine whether you should begin a social media campaign. Restaurants catering to a younger demographic will likely see better results with a social media campaign than an establishment geared toward an older generation. If your customers don’t use email regularly or have social media accounts of their own, your message is going to fall on deaf ears. The cost of running a social media campaign may not be worth the time and effort required if you’re not geared towards a younger crowd.

Some establishments like coffee shops, mid-range restaurants and bars may cater to a broad audience. These establishments can benefit from using social media to let potential customers know about deals, promotions and special offerings. An establishment that is geared toward people under 30 could also benefit from an active social media presence. Meanwhile, if your crowd is the over 50, retirement-age crowd, it’s unlikely that you’ll see much benefit from a social media campaign.

The Casual Approach

Even if your customer-base doesn’t use social media, it still might be beneficial to run a social media campaign and see if it brings in new customers. If you’re catering to an older audience and want to experiment with this, choose one social media platform and use it exclusively to promote your business. You don’t have to be everywhere for people to find you. Post once a week or even once a month, and list any upcoming promotions for the month.

People will still follow your page if you provide exclusive coupons that are only available to people who come to your page. This requires very little effort on the part of the company, and it can help bring in new business and encourage current customers to return. View your social media platform as an extension of your menu, and post any specials, happy hour times or special events on your site. Just because your main client-base doesn’t use social media, doesn’t mean the people they bring with them won’t benefit from your presence. Imagine the parent who is meeting their child for lunch. The child looks for the address to your restaurant, discovers your social media page and “likes” it for future reference.

Choosing the Right Platform

It’s not necessary to be on every platform. Depending on the nature of your company, there are different platforms that may be more effective.

Facebook is a good option if you only want to have one social media platform. People can search for your business by type, and a wide portion of the population uses Facebook to stay connected with family and friends. If someone likes your page on Facebook, it increases the odds that the people they are connected to will also see your page. It’s like receiving a word-of-mouth recommendation each time someone likes your page.

Twitter is going to be reserved for the business that has lots to say to its customer-base. This would be appropriate for businesses that serve a younger crowd. If you have bands that play nightly, lots of news or want to establishment a mood for your restaurant, Twitter may be a good option. Twitter should be reserved for companies that have a lot to say in short, concentrated bursts.

Google+ is going to be a site that is good for establishments that have a wide social media strategy. Google is not for the restaurant that only wants to have a limited social media presence, but it can bring in extra followers if you are also using other platforms as well. One thing Google is especially good at is finding local restaurants. By setting up a restaurant page, people can quickly find your information in search engines and locate your establishment. If you have a large number of followers, Google can help you turn up more prominently in the search engine results which may increase your business presence.

What to Post

So you’ve decided to jump in the game and start a social media campaign. All restaurants can benefit from social media if the goal is to target more Internet-savvy users. While it’s generally true that the older generation is not using social media, this is not a hard and fast rule. Many Baby Boomers are very active on social media accounts, and would benefit from learning more about your establishment. So, what types of things should a restaurant post?

If you have unique furniture, take photos of the inside of your establishment. For example, a company that features a particular line, like Adage Furniture could benefit from showcasing some of that furniture online. The reason for this is because people like to see lots of details about your restaurant online. They want to take a virtual tour of your restaurant before they walk through the door. Take pictures of anything interesting and post them in your “Photos” section on your social profile. If you post on Twitter, this happens automatically. Facebook and Google provide options to organize your images into albums.

Most importantly, you want to post shareable content. Don’t just post a coupon, offer a shareable item. Post recipes, helpful articles and new trends on your social media page, which other people can like and share with others. Or, if you just want a basic profile, add your address, contact information and hours on your social media platform and then just post one update each week or month. A word of caution, if you change your hours, make sure to go online and change the hours there too. Few things are more annoying than going online to check a restaurant’s hours only to find the establishment is closed and the hours were changed.

Conclusion

Social media a cheap way to bring more attention to your restaurant. If you’re uncertain about social media, then it might pay to hire someone with the expertise to manage your profile. This could be a freelance worker that doesn’t need to be on the company payroll. It only requires a few moments each week to post menus, specials and new coupons. The great thing about a social media campaign is that it can be as inexpensive or as expensive as you want it to be.