Social media for bars and restaurants

Social Networking

The social networking subject is probably the most controversial and the one you will see the most opinions about. There is no magic wand when it comes to bringing people in your door using social media, no matter what platform or what technique.

This is the most important are to THINK LIKE A CUSTOMER!! What do YOU stop and read when you see it in your Facebook feed? What type of photos/ text/ links/ people do YOU pay attention to? Do YOU read about some restaurant’s amazing new happy hour with $1 off appetizers? No? Either does anyone else. Social media is only as successful as it’s message and shock value.

Sex sells, use your most attractive staff members in photos and get them involved in posting as well (different subject I’ll discuss in a different post). Get professional food photoshoots done, do NOT take blurry looking cell phone pictures of food, it makes your food look way worse than it does in real life.
social networking
CONTENT IS KING! Make sure your posts are photo or video based and consistently put out great looking content with a great message. Do not overdo it when it comes to social networking, the “correct” amount of posts should be around 3-5 per week. If you’re posting the same image or flyer over and over it quickly gets mentally filed under “spam” in people’s heads.

Facebook knows when you’re posting flyers, advertisements or otherwise trying market to people.  Anyone who’s tried to create “sponsored ads” on Facebook knows this.  Facebook hates  marketers so much it won’t even let you sponsor an ad that is over 20% text.  It’s algorithms can crawl images and know if it’s text (flyer) or a photograph of a burger.  If you’ve ever noticed why your flyers don’t ever get any traction on Facebook, this is why.  Facebook will censor your reach of anything “promotional” right out of the box.

I can’t say that I entirely disagree, remember Myspace?  That’s what they’re trying to avoid so think your promotional materials out thoroughly before posting some ugly-ass flyer for something of very little substance.  For more on how this relates to website design, check out this link to restaurant website design.

Where to post has also become a subject of much debate when it comes to social networking.  In the bar and restaurant business the Big Two are Facebook and Instagram but you must also appeal to your demographic.  Snapchat (especially Snapchat filters) is one to keep on your radar you younger crowds.  Here is a quick guide to what people use per demo.

Twitter is all but non-existent when it comes to people making decisions on where to eat or drink.  You can always link your Facebook content to Twitter automatically by going to this page A lot of people will tell you it’s a bad idea to duplicate your Facebook content to Twitter but since your customers aren’t on Twitter, I wouldn’t invest a ton of time into the platform but give them your Facebook posts and hopefully convert them to a FB follower.

bar-and-restaurant-social-networking-interaction