The top 10 tips to market your restaurant through Instagram

1. Recognise the potential

According to data from statistics website Statista¹ , Instagram attracted 700 million monthly users in April 2017, and that number continues to grow. That’s 700 million people who are waiting to find out about your foodservice business.

2. Understand the importance

Research conducted by assurance and advisory practice Deloitte shows that 75 per cent of millennial social media users prefer recommendations from those within their social media circles, and a further 66 per cent trust advertising on social platforms and online reviews more than television ads². More than half of the survey respondents said that social networking sites have improved their perceptions of a business or brand.

3. Show who you are

Through sharing photographs and videos of your menu, staff, decor and restaurant,

you can build your brand and establish your foodservice business as the newest go-to spot within the food and beverage industry.

4. Create a credible profile

Instagram has introduced a “business profile” functionality. This allows you to include a phone number and address within your biography. Business profiles are also a great place to include links to your business’ website where customers can access more detailed information.

5. Keep it fresh

Keep your audience interested by regularly updating your page. Posts about the release of a new product, promotion or launch of a new menu are engaging and informative. Update the biography function with links to let customers know about upcoming events.

6. Give exclusive insights

Instagram is a more relaxed and personal approach to interacting with your customers. Give them exclusive access to information that is unavailable anywhere else. For example, post a video of your chef preparing a meal to give that “behind the scenes” feel.

7. Easily expand your reach

Expand your audience reach beyond existing followers by using hashtags relevant to your business or the food and beverage industry. Instagram users can search a hashtag and view all related content.

8. Use collaboration to gain recognition

Collaborating with a prominent blogger or social media user within the food and

beverage industry can be an excellent marketing tool for your foodservice business. Invite a blogger to dine at your restaurant in exchange for a post to their page. This is another easy and cost-effective way to expand your audience reach.

9. Engage your audiences

Instagram is great for running competitions and creating user-generated content. For example, running a competition where a follower can win a free meal just by tagging three friends will get you three times the exposure with the effort of just one post. Encouraging followers to use a hashtag relevant to your business is also an effective way of gaining user generated content.

10. Measure your success

Instagram is effortless when measuring the success of your social media approach. The more followers, likes and positive comments you have, the more successful your foodservice businesspage is. Apps like Iconosquare compile this information into easily digested statistics.

_{¹https://www.statista.com/statistics/253577/number-of-monthly-active-instagram-users/
²http://landing.deloitte.com.au/rs/761-IBL-328/images/Media_Consumer_Survey_Report.pdf}