It’s a no-brainer that social media is a powerful tool that helps any business maintain its image and, by extension, boost sales. Even the restaurant industry has come around to break the shackles of traditional marketing techniques and embrace today’s ways of making their brand appealing to their customers. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Zomato are great tools to connect with your customers and your activities on them will almost immediately reflect the results in your footfall. Having said that, things on social media can easily take a turn for the worse when it’s not done right. You may have a social media agency taking care of all your profiles, but in case you want to be more hands on, this is for you.

Inconsistency in frequency of posting

Facebook and Instagram users are highly active. And for a restaurant brand, it should be a priority to be noticed. It isn’t about just bringing in new customers anymore. It’s about brand recall and staying on top of your game. Brands like Doolally, for instance, are doing a great job on Twitter. With their quizzes and genuine interactions with people, they’ve cracked the code of ideal online engagement. What does all this have to do with the frequency posting content? Well, everything. Frequency will determine how often (or not) a user will see your brand online. Too much content without context, like quotes or jokes, is irrelevant to the user. Go back to understanding why they follow you and stick to those reasons – fun, engagement, food pictures, announcements, and the likes. On the other hand with too little posting of content, whatever it may be, will only reduce the recall of your brand significantly or will simply make users unfollow you. Pace yourself right and you have a winner.

Posting at the wrong time

You know what you have to post, but do you know when not to post? If you don’t want to get into the analytics of it, simply track your posts on your page if it’s Facebook. Instagram will show how your posts performed with impressions, top posts and even when your followers are most active during the day and the week. With such insights, you cannot be going wrong with your timing. The general rule is to post just before mealtime because that’s when most users are online browsing and posting food pictures. Track your posts’ performance and make the right changes if you need to. You don’t want to post a campaign or even a picture of an upcoming dish on your social only to lost out on any traction it may get because enough users weren’t online. It becomes a pointless activity which will only burn resources.

Posting poor images

If you look at some of the pictures on Zomato that restaurants post themselves, you’d be aware of the high-quality of food shots out there. Restaurants take pride in their food and invest in good photos of the dishes they serve. These images can be used to draw eyes of users and get them to walk into your restaurant. Seasonal dishes in particular is best photographed and posted on social media to let people know there’s something new and give them a glimpse of how beautiful the dishes are. Nothing beats a good picture to get the appetite going.

Zero engagement with users

Is isn’t enough to just post a bunch of things without engaging with users online. Of course, you may choose not to. But engaging the right way means you’re involving the user with your brand. More recall and higher chances of them dropping by. From a quiz to responding to reviews, and everything in between is engagement. You are basically trying to convert users to loyal customers when you interact with them. With an online contest, you can involve users in an activity and then giving them a prize, let’s say a voucher, you’re literally bringing them into your restaurant. Proactive engagement is clearly one of the most effective ways of marketing your restaurant without spending money.

Not leveraging it for marketing

As an extension of the previous point, social media as a whole is probably the fastest way to reach out to users. Zomato plays a key role in helping narrow down your target audience online – people who have food on their mind. With ads, you help register your brand in their minds. By responding to reviews you build a relationship with them. On your Facebook page, you get to share events and other happenings at your restaurant. On Instagram, you can share stunning food shots and of ambiance from your restaurant’s kitchen and more. Gone are the days of newspaper ads and outdoor advertising. Get online and make the most of what social media has to offer.