Prepressology

4 Ways Restaurants Can Use Social Media

With the social media explosion many businesses are looking for ways they can utilize the tools available to market their business. Restaurants are no exception and in todays post I thought I would share with you 4 ways restaurants can use social media to help get customers at their tables.

1. Daily Specials

It used to be that a customer would have to walk by the restaurant or even be siting at a table before they would find out what the daily specials are. Why make them wait until then? With social media avenues such as Facebook and Twitter, you can now let your followers know those specials ahead of time. This is a great way to attractive them to the restaurant. Let that new chef creation give them the incentive to make it a night out! You already have to plan the specials, maybe write up a menu insert and chalk up the daily special board. Take another quick step and put it out there for your social network to see. Post a Facebook status update with the whole list or entice your customers with a single special item in a Tweet. Does your restaurant website have a blog? Go ahead and post it there… tweeting a link to the post. The more people know about your daily specials the more opportunities you will have to see those people sitting at your tables.

2. Live Music

Music seems to go nicely with a beautiful meal. Whether it’s the soft sounds of a piano or the local acoustic duo strumming away, restaurants feature live music all the time. Many restaurants use live music as a big selling point to attract customers. If you are featuring a local artist, connect with their social network pages. Post updates to the restaurants pages with links to the artist, music samples and schedules… even if it shows other dates not at your restaurant. This can help in a few different ways. It shows the artist that you care enough to promote them, making them more likely to give a stellar show and it shows your customers that your restaurant is supportive. Take a few minutes during the day and evening to snap a few photos of the artist to share with your network. Makes those who didn’t make it want to participate the next time and it gives your customers a way to share their own comments of the experience. Just like the daily specials, remember to post your upcoming schedule so people can plan an evening out with great food and great music.

3. Events

Restaurants are no stranger to Beer Weeks, Food Festivals, Wine Tastings, Charity Events and other such gatherings. Some of these events can draw huge crowds and the way they are doing it is through advertising. More and more events are turning to social media to spread the word and restaurants need to take advantage of connecting with these events if they are participating. If your restaurant is part of an event, you need to follow the events Facebook page and Twitter account but more importantly you need to talk about the event on your own status updates. Tell your network that you are involved and that you would love for them to come out to enjoy the event. By being connected to the events social media outlets, it is another way for you to increase your restaurants online marketing by increasing the number of people you are connected to. Don’t just share before the event. Post updates during the event and share your thoughts after the event. It’s another way to be social and to get a message out to your network.

4. Coupons and Giveaways

For those who are already following your restaurants social media outlets, coupons and giveaways are a great way to thank those people. Placing a 10% off coupon on Facebook that your fans can print out or even just mention is a great way to make them feel appreciated. The best part is when your current fans see these exclusive updates they will tell their friends and family about them, so they too can take advantage. This increases your network and your ability to get your message about your restaurant out to a larger number of people. To tie this in with two of the other points from earlier, you could work out something with the live music of the evening to do a CD give away or a code giveaway to download their music and you could promote an event coming up by giving away tickets to attend. Just one more reason to get customers in your door and sitting at your tables.

So I hope this gives you a few ideas about how your restaurant can benefit from the use of social media. Whether it is on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or many of the others that are out there. Connecting with your customers is a great way to make them remember your name the next time they are looking for a place to enjoy a date night.

Photo by Rick from Flickr