It is not necessary that if your restaurant is functional it is profitable or successful. Even if you are doing everything right, you are providing good food, good services at a reasonable price and for marketing; you are just relying on word of mouth.

It is not enough for your restaurant. Restaurant industry is considered as one of the most competitive industry. To stand out in the competition you have to follow an effective marketing strategy.

As we all know it is the era of social media so social media marketing is a great option for restaurants. According to a recent survey, 88% of people are influenced by online reviews and comments. So it becomes essential to target and attract online customers.

If you are new to social media or want to know more about social media marketing. Check out this complete guide of social media marketing for restaurants.

Why Restaurants cannot Ignore Social Media

According to the latest data, the number of monthly active social media users is expected to reach 3.02 billion by 2021 which is around a third of the world’s entire population.

On average internet users spend around 135 minutes per day surfing social network. These data prompt marketers to use social media to promote their products and services.

If you are ignoring social media means you are losing opportunities. It is the time to stay active on social media to grow your restaurant business. Now your customers want you to be available on social media.

When you are active on social media you can have new opportunities to attract your customers and to connect with them.

The advantage of being on Social Media

Social media is a platform where companies can discuss and promote their products and services. Social media community can also give you the insights and feedback about your services which you can help you to improve your services.

Social media is a free marketing tool where you can get plenty of data to mine in terms of consumer needs, sentiments, and reactions.

Though mass media channel of marketing such as television is a great way to raise general awareness about your products and services but you can also use social media for the same purpose.

On social media, consumers can also leave feedback for restaurant. These feedbacks and review also help to attract new customers.

If you want to take the advantage of social media you have to follow below steps:

Complete your Social Media Profiles

When you are launching your social media profiles do not forget to include important information such as your working hours, address, contact details, etc. It is very essential to complete your social media profiles because your profile can easily be accessed by your customers and they can see the information about what they are looking for.

Make sure your customer can see the important information about your restaurant in a few clicks. You can also upload menu, set Book Now button if you are accepting reservations, etc. Including more information such as good for family, good for groups, good for kids, and home delivery can help your customers to make their decision.

Add multi-location

If your restaurant is present at multiple locations do not forget to add all location on your Facebook page. It will help your customer to show them the closest location. For each location, you can create Facebook subpages which are linked with your main page.

By this, each location can handle their posts. Setting multiple locations will help the customers to post location-based reviews so you do not have to navigate the review to each location.

Post Regularly

Posting regularly is very important to engage customers. Restaurants make mistakes by either posting too much or by forgetting to post. You must post on social media in a balanced way so that you can engage your customers.

For customer engagement, it is also important to create relevant social media posts. In your posts, you can talk about your products and services, discounts, offers, etc.

Post at the right time

For effective social media marketing for restaurants, it is important to know what the right time to post is. To know the best time to post you have to analyze the response which you get on your posts.

The time when you get the maximum response is the best time to post on social media, in order to reach maximum customers, start posting at the time when you are expected to have a higher reach.

Geo-targeted ads

Geo-targeted ads are an effective way to attract local customers because people prefer to eat at their nearby locations. When a customer enters in a particular radius geo-targeted ads show them your advertisement. It will not only increase brand awareness but also attract more customers.

These are some steps which you can follow for social media marketing for your restaurant. An effective social media marketing strategy will help you to stay ahead of your competitors. You can also use restaurant management sytem to manage your social marketing campaigns.