22 Jul Should Your Restaurant be on Instagram?
The restaurant business and Instagram can be a powerful combination. Instagram is all about visuals, and what better way to show off your restaurant’s food than by posting a picture or video? Today, it is a popular trend for diners to capture a picture or video of their food before diving into their meal. In fact, 69% of millennials take a photo or video before eating.
As a restaurant, ignoring social media (Instagram specifically) could reduce your reach of prospective customers. Need more convincing? Instagram is easy to join, navigate, and even target a certain audience. Instagram is designed to make your restaurant discoverable. However, to be discoverable, you need to be Insta-Worthy – meaning that your content is high-quality enough to be posted on Instagram.
Tips to Make Your Restaurant ‘s Content “Insta-Worthy”:
#1: Repost Like It is Your Job
Customers want to hear from other customers. It’s a great way to connect with and notice your fans. Reposting positive reviews and visually appealing pictures of your food is a great marketing tool and can help you engage with prospects.
#2: Hashtags are a Goldmine
Hashtags are essential to making your restaurant discoverable. Hashtags on your posts allow your content able to become searchable. For example, if someone searches #dinner, and you used that hashtag in your post, they can find your post and page.
#3 Engage with Your Followers
Followers want to see your restaurant engaging with any questions or comments. Engagement is rewarded with engagement. Be sure to respond ASAP to direct messages and comments, and encourage sharing and tagging. Your customers will be more incentivized to interact with your restaurant if you engage with them. Then, that engagement increases the chance you stay on top of those people’s feed.
#4 Post Consistently, but Keep the Quality
Posting consistently is key. In fact, the average business post 1.56 posts to their feed a day. But never mistake this for quantity over quality. It is important to maintain your post’s quality, especially in the restaurant business. The more natural and authentic (not overly filtered) your content is, the better. The trick to posting consistent, quality content is having a plan. In this case, an Instagram content calendar. Having a content calendar will keep you accountable and consistent because it allows you to plan your content in advance.
#5 Add a Location to your Posts and Stories
Adding your restaurant’s business location in your post and/or stories can be very beneficial. If your restaurant posts an image of a dish and you tag your location, a follower will know exactly where your restaurant is located. Tagging your restaurant’s location also allows anyone who clicks on the location name to be redirected to the search results page that holds all the content tagged with that location. Anyone can go to this location and see other customer’s posts about your restaurant as well.
#6 Make Your Page a Business Profile
It is important to make sure that your restaurant’s Instagram page is set up as an Instagram Business Profile. A Business Profile allows you to add your restaurant’s contact information (i.e. phone number, email, and business location). In addition, it has built-in eCommerce features and access to analytics.
We are Here to Help
Your restaurant must utilize Instagram as a marketing tool. Not sure where to start? Media Venue is here to help! Our experienced digital media team can handle every aspect of Instagram, from account and content creation to scheduling, publishing, and reviewing analytics on posts. Contact our social media manager Michelle Dunaway at michelle@mediavenue.com or 502-855-4795 to get started!
