5 Essential Social Media Sites For Restaurants
- Yelp
- YouTube
Given how integrated social media has become in everyday life and customer decisions, it is important to remember that there are some critical social media platforms for restaurants out there. All businesses, including restaurants, should look into the major social media platforms to see how they can help create a brand and spur growth. These five social media sites are of particular value to those in the restaurant industry.
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1. Facebook
Facebook is still the largest social media platform in the world, with well over a billion active users. This reason alone makes it an almost necessary platform for restaurants, as it’s where most customers are spending their time. A restaurant’s page on Facebook can include important information such as their hours, location and phone number as well as useful features like making a reservation, buying gift cards and listing menus. Restaurants can also use Facebook to run ad campaigns that are targeted by likes and location for maximum effectiveness.
2. Instagram
Instagram has grown in leaps and bounds over the last several years to make it a major powerhouse among the social networks. Instagram is primarily focused around the sharing of photos, although it also now has video and live streaming features as well. This makes it ideal for restaurants because photos of menu items can be shared to entice people to come in and try something that looks especially delicious. As Square points out, be sure to take good pictures of food by finding the right lighting and backgrounds to make it look amazing.
3. Yelp
It might be a stretch to call Yelp a social media site, but it has many of the same functions and its importance among critical social media platforms for restaurants cannot be overstated. Yelp serves as a business directory, review host and most recently a food ordering service. It is of particular importance to the restaurant industry because the site is heavily used to share experiences at restaurants and help visitors decide where they want to eat. Restaurants can set up their own profiles and encourage reviews to help draw in new business.
4. YouTube
YouTube, the primary social media platform revolving around videos, is another great site for restaurants to have a strong presence on. Restaurants can showcase their atmosphere in a video much better than through a photo, and they can provide useful information such as cooking tips, a behind the scenes tour and more. For restaurants that have special events or live performances, uploading videos of them to YouTube can be an excellent marketing tactic to bring others into future events.
5. Twitter
Another major player in the world of social media, Twitter functions around short posts, or “tweets,” to keep followers updated. This brief format is ideal for restaurants to make quick announcements and catch the attention of customers in as little time as possible. Twitter is one of the best social media sites for professionals in the restaurant industry to connect with one another, as most have a presence and the site makes it easy to directly interact with tweets or send messages. Like other platforms, restaurants can share photos and videos of their venue and the food they serve.
To get the most out of social media, businesses should aim to have a strong presence on just a few sites – the ones that are most relevant to promoting their business. Focusing on the most critical social media platforms for restaurants helps these businesses use their marketing resources most effectively.