Social Media 101 - Restaurant Industry News and Resources in Georgia

Know what to post, when, where and how to measure if it’s working.

By Ellen Weaver Hartman, APR, Fellow PRSA

Having a social media platform is an integral part of a restaurant’s marketing plan. Unfortunately, many operations don’t have a clue about how to set up a social marketing platform nor guidelines on what to post, when to post and how to measure if it’s working.

Social media experts Sirena Carpenter, founder of Muse Creative, and Ashley Dion, founder and owner of Moody Blue Media, have a wealth of experience and offered to outline the basic steps to get a restaurant off on the right foot for social marketing. Below is a bit of their collective wisdom.

Social media is a way to communicate in real-time with your audiences – customers, potential customers, suppliers, the media and potential partners. Social media can be your customer service department, research firm, advertising agency, human resources and brand management department – and help you keep tabs on your competition – all in one.

That’s a lot, so it is vital that a restaurant take the time to thoroughly plan out what they want to achieve, to whom they want to communicate and where their messages should be posted. Like with any plan, a social media marketing plan must have a strategy, and it must be able to quantify the return on the investment.

One way to organize your approach when starting a social marketing plan may be to go back to what is taught in journalism school and every police academy: Who, What, When, Where and Why.

Let’s Start With Why: Why do you want to be on social media? Determine if your objectives are to create awareness, generate traffic, build sales, introduce new menu items or a new chef, recruit team members and/or attract investors. Establish clear objectives and strategize from there.

On to the Who: Identify your customers. There are a lot of demographics from which to choose. You can go with age (Baby boomers, Millennials, Gen Z) or by geography (an entire country or a small neighborhood). Customers can be segregated by income or interests.

Look at who your competitors target and how they communicate with them. “Analyzing who is viewing, sharing and engaging with your brand can help you create content that is meaningful to them and improve your overall marketing strategy,” says Carpenter.

Say What: Essentially, what do you want to say? Think of it as an elevator speech. What are the three to five topics you want your customers to know about your business. Called “content pillars,” these are the topics to focus on repeatedly.

Ideas for topics include:

Show off your best customer reviews
Give followers a behind-the-scenes look at your kitchen
Show off your restaurant’s best features, such as you patio or private rooms
Share your menu for the season
Give notice of any current or upcoming promotions
Post staff profiles
Promote your vegan, vegetarian or allergy-friendly options
Show the origins of your ingredients
Show your support for local causes
Let your viewers know you are looking for great team members
Start a poll asking people to vote for the best permanent menu item
Ask followers to sign up for your loyalty program and provide their emails
Share a recipe and the history behind it

Another great feature of social media marketing and strategy is that you can learn what topics are trending in your industry and among your audience and adapt to meet the demand as needed.

“Consumer tastes follow trends and so should your posts,” says Dion. “You may be essentially a burger joint, but if salads are trending among your audience, start posting about salad options. It’s all about creating relevant content and driving sales.”

A word of caution: please create relevant posts! Curate content specific to each platform to get the desired results. Go for engagement rather than promotional posts that annoy your customers and viewers. To gain engagement ask a question, or solicit customers opinions on a certain menu item.

Where do I engage: You need to pick the best social media platform for your business. Where are your target audiences and customers spending the most time: Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, or LinkedIn? Create a business profile for each site.

Learn about each site and how to best use them to achieve your objectives. Each platform has attributes that will facilitate your message reaching your audience in special ways. Facebook, for instance, has a “Book Now” button if you accept reservations. You could also upload your menu, add a cuisine type, add services such as “Good for Kids” and “Take Out” and allows reviews. (Be sure to respond to both the good and bad.)

If you are just starting out, and for the best targeting tools, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram would be the winners.

Learn which audiences are on which social platforms. Most likely, your target audiences aren’t actively using and engaging with every social platform, and neither should you. Instead, go where YOUR audiences already are and participate in the ongoing conversations to offer the most value, especially when it comes to using paid social advertising.

On some of the sites, customers can post reviews. Always respond to them. For the positive ones, thank them and say you hope to see them again. For the negative ones, listen to what they say and respond in a positive, respectful way. If it truly was the restaurant’s fault – for whatever reason – apologize and ask them to come back so you can make it right for them. You also can use Instant Messenger to contact them to offer a complimentary meal.

The apology is the most effective tool in your crisis toolbox. And ask them for another chance. The engagement is what counts.

When: Determining when to post and frequency is a bit of science and art combined. There are social sites that will give you the best times to post for specific target audiences. If Gen Z, who are mainly college kids, are your core market, then post on social media when most of them are active, which is probably different than it is for Boomers.

Hootsuite is a service that helps manage the distribution and postings and measures ROI. With Hootsuite, you can use an app to connect all your social sites so you never miss a beat. There are “optimal timing options” – you’ll need to find out what works for your audience and business by testing different times and tracking audience engagement.

One warning from the social experts: There are so many things to consider. From a brand perspective, it’s also important to understand HOW users utilize each platform. (For example, some platforms have a reputation for more positive reviews, while others may be the place customers go to air grievances and demand solutions.) Both types of platforms are beneficial.

From content creation and engagement on the front end to monitoring and competition analysis on the back end, just remember that social media is a tremendous asset to build your business and transform it into a powerful brand.

Ellen Weaver Hartman, APR, Fellow PRSA, is the CEO of Hartman Public Relations, a full-service public relations and crisis management agency specializing in the foodservice industry and crisis management. She is active in the Women’s Foodservice Forum, Les Dames d’Escoffier International and serves on the board of the Georgia State University School of Hospitality. She earned her APR accreditation from the Public Relations Society of America and is a member of PRSA’s Fellow program for senior accomplished professionals.

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