Facebook is by far one of the most popular social media platforms for restaurants to use. It offers you the opportunity to attract new customers and delight existing ones. With almost 1.7 billion users, you can rest assured a large percentage of your customers are on Facebook.
Facebook gives you the chance to leverage social proof.
According to Wikipedia social proof is a, “term coined by Robert Cialdini in his 1984 book, Influence, is also known as informational social influence. It describes a psychological and social phenomenon wherein people copy the actions of others in an attempt to undertake behavior in a given situation.”
Think about it. When you see that a friend likes a certain page on Facebook or has interacted with a post on Facebook, you’re more likely to give that post attention. You’ll consider what it is saying and then, if it’s selling something, think about how that might apply to you.
Facebook is full of features designed to help businesses make money, and restaurants aren’t excluded. But when you’re one in nearly 2 billion, how do you stand out? Here are some ideas.
Leverage Facebook Image Editor
Facebook’s native photo edit allows you to easily upload photos from your phone and edit them in facebook. One of the most fun things about this photo editor is that you can add text, emojis, and gifs to your post.
High quality, engaging photos are an absolute must when it comes to marketing your restaurant on Facebook. Take the time to learn how to take a decent picture and make sure your food is plated is an attractive way.
Make sure you:
- Clean any sauces off plates
- Ensure the background is clean
- Focus on the food
- Use natural lighting
- After taking a picture, ask yourself if it would make you want to dine at your restaurant. If the answer is no, start over.
Pro tip: ask team members to take pictures of food and upload them to a shared drive for easy access to post online.
Offer Incentive
Facebook allows you to create offers that people can claim. While this is a great way to incentivize people coming to your restaurant, there’s another way to drive foot or online traffic to your restaurant.
There’s a call-to-action button Facebook allows you to add to your page. You can choose from things like “learn more” or “shop now”.
“Sign Up” is another option.
Create a landing page that offers a discount code in exchange for a person’s email address. Link to it from the sign up button on Facebook as a way to engage page visitors and have the option to stay in contact with them over time.
Pro tip: there are numerous free email marketing services that you can take advantage of, including MailChimp.
Ask For Reviews
Customers talk. Do you know what they’re saying about you? How your customers talk about you has the potential to drive people toward your business or away from it. Reviews are a huge part of influencing others. And you know what they say, you don’t get what you don’t ask for. Ask for customers to review your restaurant on Facebook and Google My Business.
If you ask customers to review your restaurant, it’s equally important that you also respond to their feedback. Whether feedback is positive or negative, it’s critical that you reach out to customers and show them that you’re listening.
Responding to negative reviews:
- Listen
- Empathize
- Offer a solution
Pro tip: you might not be able to make everyone happy. The best thing about social media is that your entire exchange with someone is visible to everyone. Most reasonable people can see if a person complaining is just being a troll or if they’re truly seeking a solution.
Drive Traffic to Your Online Ordering Site
Linking to your online ordering site from not just Facebook, but any social platform you’re on, is an absolute must. It’s one of the easiest ways to show customers just how simple it is to order from you.
Customers don’t know what they don’t know. If they have no idea how to find your online ordering site, then they’ll resort to either a competitor or trying a third party ordering tool like UberEats, which just like its name implies, will eat up all of your profits.
We suggest linking to your online ordering site in the “website” portion of your page. You can also share the link to menu items that you highlight on your page, encourage people to visit it by posting on your story, and of course regularly posting any specials or menu highlights.
Facebook doesn’t have to be a big, scary task on your to-do list. It can work for you and, over time, become a nearly automated process where you respond to what your customers want and share your restaurant’s unique personality, all while nurturing relationships and ultimately increasing sales.