10 Social Media Post Ideas for Restaurant Small Businesses
For most restaurants, social media is a necessary but time-consuming task. You want to post frequently and consistently to your various channels, but it can be easy for your workday to fill up with other things that need doing. If this sounds like you (and even if it doesn’t), consider outsourcing some or all of your social media management!
Behind-the-Scenes Posts
Behind-the-scenes posts are a great way to show off your restaurant’s personality. You could start with something simple like sharing a photo of your staff in action, or maybe even a photo of the kitchen or bar. If you have an indoor space that is particularly interesting, you can also share photos of the decor! Just make sure everything looks clean and neat before posting—you want people to be excited about seeing what's behind closed doors rather than worried about whether or not there are going to be rodents running around when they get there!
2. Recipe Reveals
Recipe reveals are a great opportunity to share one of your favorite recipes. You can give your fans a sneak peek at what's new, show them how to make something they love, or even update them on a seasonal item that isn't always on the menu.
3. Video Content
Adding video content to your social media strategy can help you create a more immersive environment for potential customers. Since video content is so popular on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, it's important to make sure that your video posts are at the top of their game. Video content should be high quality and engaging in order to drive traffic back to your restaurant website.
Video is also useful if you want to showcase some of the special features that make your restaurant unique. For example, if you have an open kitchen where customers can watch their food being prepared, this could be a great opportunity for making videos about it! Or maybe there's something else about your business or location that might fit well with a fun video?
Use our Restaurant Instagram Tempaltes from our shop
You can use our Restaurant Instagram Templates from our shop to get more followers and engagement.
To use the templates, simply open the image in Photoshop or another photo editing program. Then cut out the template with your logo and add it to your photo! Just make sure to keep the proportions right so that everything looks good when you post it on Instagram.
4. User-Generated Content
User-generated content is a great way to boost engagement on social media. Asking your customers to share their experience with you on social media is a great way to get the word out about your restaurant, and it will also help you learn what people like and don't like about your establishment.
When using user-generated content, it's important that the posts are tasteful and relevant—make sure that all photos are taken in good light, with a decent resolution (at least 1 megapixel), and aren't blurry or grainy. Even if you're not running an Instagram account for your restaurant, it's worth checking out some popular hashtags related to food photography so that you can see how other people are taking pictures of their food.
5. Menu Item-Specific Posts
You can also post pictures of specific menu items that you're offering, such as the following:
Food item photos
Pictures of the restaurant, including its staff and location
Pictures of a chef in the kitchen preparing food
These posts are great for promoting new menu items or specials at your restaurant. For example, if you have a limited-edition burger on offer, take a photo of it and post it along with a short caption describing what's so special about this particular dish.
The more creative you are when it comes to sharing information about your business, the more people will engage with your account and come back for more content in the future.
6. Holiday Posts
Holiday posts are a great way to bring attention to your restaurant. With so many places competing for customers, you can use holiday posts to promote sales or special offers, highlight a new menu item or promotion, and engage with your audience on social media.
Let’s take Christmas as an example: If you're running a promotion with $5 off any pizza on Christmas day, post it on Facebook! People love deals and they'll be excited to know they can get some good food at an even better price. If the deal is only available in-restaurant but not online or through delivery services (like Grubhub), then that should be noted in the post as well so people won't feel left out if they don't have time to drive over there themselves. You could even create a unique hashtag for each promotion so anyone who wants more information about it can easily search for it later down the road!
7. Staff Features
You can also showcase your staff's talents and personalities, as well as their work ethic, business acumen, ability to connect with customers and solve problems. This is an ideal way to get people talking about your business—and it’s also great for improving employee morale!
Here are some ideas:
Run a contest where you ask employees to submit photos of themselves working in the restaurant. The winner gets a prize (e.g., free lunch).
Ask each department head to select their top performer from within their department, who will then be featured on social media for one week (two weeks if they're super awesome).
8. Foodie Events Highlighted on Social Media
You can use social media to highlight foodie events of all kinds. These include:
Events for the restaurant
Events for the community
Events for the city, state, country, and world
Events for all eternity
9. Use Q&A
The easiest way to get your audience involved is by asking them questions and then answering them. That's why answering people's questions on social media is such a good idea.
10. Share a Sneak Peek
Sometimes, you might want to share a sneak peek of what's new or coming soon for your restaurant on social media.
For example, if you have a new menu item that will be available in two weeks, consider teasing this on social media. Make sure that it's something people can't wait to try!
Or maybe you're launching a new drink at the bar? Let everyone know by posting about it now so they'll remember when they come back next time. You could also post about any decor changes or new locations in the works that people might not know about yet (if there are any).
Just make sure whatever you post is fun, so that people will have something to look forward to!
Don’t have time for social media? It may be time to outsource
Social media can be a valuable asset to your business, but if you’re not good at it, outsourcing may be the answer. Outsourcing your social media efforts will allow you to focus on other aspects of your business and save time and money. If you don’t have the time or know-how to create engaging content for each of your platforms, consider hiring someone who does.
An outsourced social media manager will create posts that are relevant to your target audience and schedule them in advance so that there is always new content for followers on each platform. The manager will also filter through feedback from customers and respond appropriately based on the issue at hand or comments made by potential customers.
Learn more About Social Media Management
Hello! My name is Alyssa, and I am a social media manager to a number of my clients, learn more about my services and contact me for a free 30 minute discovery call!
Conclusion
The key takeaway here is that there are many different types of posts you can share on social media. You don’t have to stick with one type of post or follow any strict formula; instead, try switching things up and keeping your audience on their toes by doing something unexpected every once in a while (like sharing an AMA). We hope these ideas inspire you as you work towards establishing your brand presence!
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