Why Every Restaurant Should Have An Instagram Account

Millennials love to capture food in photos, and Instagram is their favourite place to post them. Instagrammers are always on the lookout for what their friends share during lunch and dinner. They are also quick to ask “where did you get that?” when they spot an attractive platter. With 500 million users, Instagram is not a bad place to expose your restaurant.

Exposure

As Restaurant Week approaches, it’s a fine time to get your menu and meals plastered on IG, and on social media in general. Restaurants participating in RW should be posting their mouth-watering meals during peak hours when millennials are more likely on Instagram. They should also be using Instagram to connect with customers by double tapping for a like, writing a comment or re-sharing customer posts. Remember to acquire permission when including user-generated content on your social media pages.

Brand Recognition

Capturing and posting appealing photos will spark the interest of your followers. So please get an account for customers to tag. Don’t be the restaurant that doesn’t get mentioned in an awesome photo because customers are unable to find you online.

A good social media marketing strategy is to brand items where possible to gain recognition in customer photos. You can boost business by strategically portraying your business as the restaurant for great food photos as you’ll attract millennials who see this as an important factor for dining.

Maintain Relationships

One helpful tip is to host photo challenges with rewards, influencing followers to post a picture of your delicious loaded fries for a chance to win a free milk shake. Once you can turn a picture of your meal into a trend you’ll bond with existing customers and attract new ones.

Create Loyalty

Another good reason to be all over Instagram is that millennials browse than drive to various locations when deciding where to dine. You want to be the restaurant with a contact number and directions.

If you already have an Instagram account and potential customers are able to find your business, that’s good, now you need action.

Use Instagram story to bring customers behind the scenes of food preparation to create trust and brand loyalty. This is also an awesome tool for restaurants to announce new additions to the menu; giving customers a visual of a meal is more effective than text. Instagram allows you to provide live updates to customers; a new discount may not be a bad idea.

Hashtags offer another benefit in reaching customers on IG. In particular the #Food which has been tagged in more than 240 million pictures. Potential customers browse hashtags for trending restaurants.

Similarly, it will boost business to have areas with sufficient lighting and backdrops for photographs as customers will revisit for the scenery and food.

Please note that posting with a social media strategy is more beneficial for your business than random posts. Your social media team should track and monitor your accounts to create relevant content to boost revenue. Instagram is a great place to start.

Read more: Creating #InstagramReady Catering