Leslie Park Lynn is a 15 year restaurant industry veteran.
Smart marketers know that Facebook is a tremendous tool available to restaurants to promote their restaurant. Moreover, it is available to everyone and is easy to use. With a little time and attention Facebook can win more customers and grow your revenue. If you are creative you can use Facebook in a number of highly effective ways. Let’s have a look a 6 ideas that you can start working on today.
Improve Your Profile
Having a great Facebook profile is not hard, it just takes a little effort. First of all, make sure it is complete. Including all of your important information will create a better experience for your viewers. Include your location, hours of operation and phone number and a link to your website. Use high quality photos for your profile picture and your cover photo. These photos should make viewers want to visit you so think about how you can best represent your restaurant.
Create an Event
Whether it’s raising money for a charity or special entertainment, creating events is a great Facebook marketing tactic. Facebook has a powerful platform for creating and promoting events that will help spread the word among followers and their friends. When someone decides to attend your event others connected to them on Facebook will see it. Additionally, it will give notification the day of the event to the person attending and their friends. Facebook also allows you to promote your event to a targeted audience. Use this tool to bring awareness to special events built around holidays such as Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day.
Hold a Promotion
Offering your customers something special is a great way to create traffic and sales. Every restaurant should utilize promotions to create buzz and engage their customers. A promotion gives a restaurant the opportunity to offer something different and, generally, make a nice margin. Also, it provides a competitive edge for the restaurant in the marketplace. Facebook is a great place to market promotions because of the wide reach and the viral component. Customers that are excited about your promotion will likely share details and allow you to reach potential customers you are not connected to.
Showcase your food
Food porn is a big deal right now and Facebook allows you to participate in this growing trend. Posting photos of your best dishes allows you to show customers and potential customers what you have to offer. Just make sure that the photographs are high-quality and high resolution. You want to make sure that your food looks appetizing and delicious. Using videos to promote your menus also a great way to showcase your food. Videos get more looks than static photos 2-1.
Incentivize Check Ins
When your customers check in on Facebook all of their friends and connections will be notified. This creates powerful marketing for your restaurant as it gives a kind of personal recommendation. There is no more effective marketing than word-of-mouth. There are several ways to get your customers to check in when they are visiting your restaurant such as:
Offering a free item or discount
Donating to a charity in their name
Adding points to their loyalty balance
Entering them into a contest
You only need to get creative to come up with some new and exciting ideas to promote check ins. Utilize this great Facebook tool to attract more customers to your restaurant and get them engaged online.
Use Facebook Live
Restaurants have a unique opportunity to use Facebook Live to capture action in their restaurant. Whether it’s a charity event, a party or action videos from the kitchen, these live broadcasts are exciting and compelling. Broadcasting live from an event in your restaurant allows customers the chance to come and participate. Action videos from the kitchen showcases your culinary skills and your staff. These videos make your customers feel to you connected in a personal way and creates buzz and excitement.
As you can see Facebook offers great marketing tools for restaurants to connect with their customers. Best of all, these tactics only require your time and creativity. Social media has much to offer restaurants as dining out is a highly social event. Make sure you are utilizing Facebook well as part of your social media strategy. It will pay off in building traffic and growing your sales.
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