The Social Media Tools for Restaurants booklet is an overview of the top ten social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Yelp, Google+, YouTube and Foursquare) and their uses in the restaurant industry. This booklet can be used by any restaurant owner who wants to embrace these applications as part of their overall marketing strategy.
Are you a restaurant owner? We may have what you are looking for! Take your restaurant to the next level right now. Social Media Tools for Restaurants includes more than 20 social media tools to boost your business using the power of social media. Here are some of the tools included in this bundle:
Facebook – biggest restaurant social media potential
The top position undoubtedly belongs to the largest social networking site in the world. Facebook has rapidly conquered the virtual space, pretty much defining what a social networking site should look like.
Facebook has evolved from being a space for exchanging messages and photos into a vast portal equipped with marketing tools, and in the process, has proved that social media can effectively help build strong brands.
What functionalities does Facebook offer?
- Running advertising campaigns and a business account.
- Statistical analysis tools – allowing you to track the results of advertising campaigns.
- Creation and management of advertisements precisely tailored to a chosen target group (defined by age, location, gender, interests, etc.).
- Keeping personal contact with customer base thanks to engaging Facebook posts.
By using the UpMenu system you can also start selling online food on Facebook. In this way, you will increase the amount of food delivery in your restaurant. Read more on this topic in the article Facebook food ordering system.
Sprout Social
Between its advanced publishing tools, accurate engagement tracker, in-depth analytics and the ability to identify influencers that fit your brand, the easier question might be: What doesn’t Sprout do? On top of which, it’s extremely user-friendly. Unlike the often convoluted Facebook and Instagram “Insights”, Sprout provides detailed, easy-to-follow reports. Plus, unlike essentially every other scheduler, you can create a single post and have it published to multiple platforms as well as multiple times, which vastly decreased the amount of copy/pasting on the user’s end. Sprout will also closely monitor your audience in order to alert you to the best times to post on each platform. In other words, this is the cream of the crop and is used by many major restaurant players. But quality in this case isn’t free: Sprout comes at a price tag starting at $99 per user, per month.
Canva
Let’s be honest, Photoshop is for the pros. And thanks to Canva, you can be a Photoshop pro one without actually being one. From resizing images to the correct specs for each platform to easily loverlaying text, it can essentially do anything you will ever need to do to a photo for social media, and then some. The best part? It even has a large variety of social media templates customized for various platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest) that include interchangeable images, GIFs and fonts.
Bonus: you can even create menus and newsletter in this baby. And it’s totally free, as long as you stay within specific parameters. Otherwise, there’s Canva Pro ($9.99/month) or Canva Enterprise ($30/month) where the options—and storage!—are literally endless.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is one of the original contenders for social media scheduling, campaign creation, and analytics. As a one-stop-shop for pretty much all your social media needs, it should come to no surprise that it has held its popularity over the years. Useful no matter what the industry, restaurant owners will appreciate being able to see how social media marketing is increasing sales at their establishments. And since ROI can sometimes be one of the harder aspects to prove in restaurant marketing, social media managers may appreciate it even more.
YouTube – video guides
YouTube was founded in 2005, originally as a place for sharing films, music videos, and private videos. With time, the site grew so popular that the management decided to launch a system of paid advertising. Soon, private users began to use this system, earning money on videos they recorded on various subjects. Today, we can talk about a new job – a YouTuber.
How does YouTube help increase the effectiveness of restaurant online marketing? YouTube plays a part in the process of building the brand and the expert image. You can use the medium of short videos to show your guests interesting food ideas.
Share a simple recipe for tasty homemade ketchup, or show how to make a delicious dinner with just three ingredients. Remember that Youtube videos are susceptible to SEO practices.
Twitter – share information about industry events
Twitter is similar to Facebook but, unlike the American giant, it is focused on sharing brief, information-focused messages. It allows you to share short, 280-character-long posts online. You can also add interesting graphics or photos to your “tweets.”
How to make use of these functions? Tweet about events in your restaurant. Let your customers know about new promotions or menu items. Use hashtags to identify photos.
Hashtags are very useful in restaurant online marketing. Users can tag restaurants online and create a link. Anyone who clicks on the hashtag will be automatically redirected to your restaurant’s Twitter account.
Adobe Spark
Pricing: Starting at $9.99/month
Adobe Spark makes it easy to create social graphics, web pages and short videos. For restaurants, it’s a great way to create engaging videos by overlaying text and adding voice and background music. It turns any video into something worth sharing.
Its web and mobile-based platform means you can work on social media posts on the go – even during an event at your restaurant. And it’ll export the final creative in the right shape and size for each social media platform.
Iconosquare
As a restaurant owner, food is your top-most priority, including how it’s presented. Social media sites like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter come in handy when you want to draw attention to your restaurant menu and the best way to do that is via pictures.
If you want Instagram to be a significant source of foot traffic (and social media traffic) for your restaurant, start using Iconosquare. Restaurant operators use Iconosquare to “monitor, analyze, and optimize every key part of your Instagram activity,” including follower growth and location.
Conclusion
Let our expert consultant help you improve your use of social media. The perfect solution for restaurants, coffee shops, bars and other service-oriented businesses.