Social  Media  Marketing  Tips  For  Your    Restaurant  or  Pub  

By  Matthew  Watts  www.therestaurantguy.co.uk  

 

Here  are  a  few  more  of  my  favourite  social  media  marketing  ideas  for  your  restaurant  or  pub.  

• Post  a  joke  relating  to  your  venue  or  local  area  –  there  are  many  chef,  Irish,  Welsh,  cooking  and  drinking  jokes  out  there;  search  in  Google  you  will  be  amazed  at  what  you  can  find  –  guaranteed  to  get  your  fans  liking  your  posts!    

• Link  your  Facebook  from  LinkedIn.  You  can  list  up  to  3  websites  on  your  LinkedIn  profile  –  ensure  that  one  of  them  leads  to  your  welcome  page  in  Facebook;  drive  potential  customers  from  your  LinkedIn  account  to  Facebook.  These  fans  will  become  very  valuable  to  you.    Have  a  look  at  my  LinkedIn  for  an  example:      uk.linkedin.com/in/matthewjwatts/    

• Why  not  devise  a  specific  business  card  to  drive  people  to  your  Facebook  business  page–  you  could  have  your  Facebook  address  on  one  side  and  then  a  QR  code  on  the  other.  So  much  easier  for  people  to  connect  to  you  rather  than  a  typical  business  card  which  ends  up  in  a  file  or  waste  paper  bin!    

• Use  the  events  tab  to  create  events  for  everything  that  is  happening  in  at  your  restaurant  or  pub.    Customers  can  interact  with  it,  post  on  the  event  wall,  invite  their  friends.    They  are  a  very  underused  feature  that  can  bring  some  great  rewards  when  done  well.  

 • You  can  share  the  same  post  several  times  over  a  day  or  two.    The  person  

that  saw  your  post  at  lunchtime  is  unlikely  to  see  it  when  you  post  it  after  dinner.    The  more  people  that  see  your  content  the  better  response  it  will  receive.      Tools  like  Facebook  insights  demonstrate  this  beautifully.  

 • Get  customers  to  upload  their  pictures  to  your  Facebook  page  and  

comment  on  them  –  for  example  if  you  are  a  restaurant  or  pub  get  them  to  upload  pictures  of  your  food  –  or  a  fun  evening  they  have  had.  

 

• Have  a  camera  ready  in  the  office  or  kitchen.  Post  pictures  of  staff  having  fun  at  doing  the  prep,  polishing  cutlery,  setting  tables,    –  make  your  Facebook  page  real!    

• Use  hash  tags.    Both  Twitter  and  Facebook  now  support  the  use  of  hash  tags  in  posts.    They  make  your  posts  easy  to  find  for  those  who  know  what  they  are  looking  for  and  those  that  don’t.    #StartToday  

 • Ask  questions  of  your  fans.    They  like  your  restaurant  or  pub  and  want  to  

feel  a  part  of  it  so  ask  them  for  feedback  on  events  you  have  held,  or  what  dishes  they  would  like  to  see  on  the  menu  in  the  future.    Include  your  customers  in  your  venue  online  and  they  will  be  there  offline  –  spending  money!  

 • Make  sure  that  your  online  activities  are  supported  offline.    Have  your  

social  media  links  on  your  receipts,  some  stickers  on  the  windows,  at  the  bottom  of  your  specials  board.    Keep  everything  connected.  

 • Your  audience  on  Twitter  is  different  to  your  audience  on  Facebook  and  so  

on.    Be  sure  to  tailor  your  message  content  for  the  people  that  will  be  reading  it!  

 • Link  back  to  your  website.    That  is  the  most  valuable  online  asset  of  your  

restaurant  or  pub  isn’t  it?  Be  sure  to  direct  your  fans  to  it,  show  them  the  menus,  your  wine  list,  etc.  

 • Reuse  your  posts.    What  you  said  last  month  can  still  have  relevance  to  the  

followers  that  you  have  gained  since  you  last  posted  it,  and  for  the  followers  next  month,  and  in  six  month.      

It doesn’t take much to come up with any number of ideas that will suit your restaurants’ or pubs’ image. Sit down with your staff after service one evening and brainstorm for half an hour, you will be surprised at the great ideas that you emerge.

And remember, I am always here when you decide to take your restaurant or pub to the next level.