Many restaurants are beginning to recognize the importance of using social media to build brand awareness. A good social media marketing campaign should give a restaurant the ability to sell their food in a forum where people can express how much they appreciate it. Popular social media sites like Facebook, Flickr, Pinterest, Stumbleupon, Foursquare, and Instagram will help a restaurant start dialogue and promote business growth while creating a brand. Here is what you need to know if you’re interested in remaining competitive when starting a restaurant.
When you want to measure business growth, you should turn to social media for a baseline or benchmark. Analytics will help you determine what is good about your social media presence and what needs improvement. Social media growth is easily assessed when you use tools to create reports that analyze success.
3. Know the Four Parts of a Successful Social Media Marketing Campaign
If you know the four parts of a successful social media marketing campaign, you’re likely to have a more successful outcome. The four parts of a successful social media marketing campaign consist of: audience, message, concept, and competition.
Audience: When you know your audience, you’ll know how to tailor your campaign to reach the most people. Companies save money in the restaurant business when they know what type of patrons love their food and enjoy dining in the atmosphere they provide. You have to know what they want first to attract customers who will buy.
Message:
Once you know your audience, you must decide what you want to say. For instance, if you want to advertise to the lunch crowd, you should post daily lunch specials. Delivery schedules should also be distributed to give more options. You can do something similar to increase weekend business. Offering recipes for guests’ favorite drinks or dishes are also popular ways to draw more interest.
Concept:
What’s your tone when you’re marketing to your targeted audience? For instance, hip and trendy bars typically attract a crowd of twenty and thirty year-olds who appreciate light, fun, and friendly posts and casual dining. Modify your posts based upon your concept.
Competition:
If you don’t know what your competition is doing, you won’t know how to meet your customers’ preferences. It’s better to be prepared and know how to improve rather than being complacent. Always customize your campaign to improve your product or service.
Creating Your Marketing Strategy With Social Media
If you want to create a marketing strategy that utilizes social media, you must incorporate common techniques. A restaurant owner must consider how they would shop themselves and present their company in way that they might find appealing. For instance, if you want to purchase a piece of used restaurant equipment, you would search several competitors social media pages and select the one that best met your needs (this is one example). Design your social media marketing strategy to meet all of your customers needs.
Restaurants also need to utilize best practices in responding to negative reviews online. Learn how not to respond to negative reviews here.
