Instagram, the photo-sharing app has over 800 million active monthly users, so it’s clear that its business strategy is successful. But making it work for you is the real issue.
Posting photos, sharing stories, and optimising your Instagram feed aren’t just fun ways to use Instagram these days; they also provide you access to a far larger audience than you could have in the past.
Here are some tips and tricks by the popular restaurant booking system – Favouritetable, that will help you create your IG page effortlessly:
- Behind the Scenes: Share photos and videos of your chefs and kitchen staff hard at work, preparing delicious meals and desserts.
- Menu Sneak Peek: Give your followers a glimpse of new or upcoming dishes on your menu to get them excited and interested in trying them out.
- Customer Reviews: Share positive reviews and feedback from your customers to show your followers that your restaurant is loved and appreciated.
- Ingredient Highlight: Highlight a key ingredient in a dish and share its health benefits, origins, or interesting facts.
- Food Pairing: Suggest food and drink pairings that work well together, and encourage your followers to try them out at your restaurant.
- Holiday Specials: Share any special holiday menus or promotions your restaurant may have planned for upcoming occasions like Christmas, Valentine’s Day, or Easter.
- Staff Recommendations: Feature your staff’s favourite dishes or drinks and explain why they love them, giving your followers an insider view of your restaurant.
- Food Photography Tips: Offer tips and tricks on taking great food photos for Instagram, making your followers more likely to share photos of your dishes.
- Cooking Tips: Share cooking tips and tricks with your followers, demonstrating how to prepare some of your restaurant’s signature dishes at home.
- Community Engagement: Get involved with your local community by sponsoring events, participating in charity events, or supporting local initiatives, and share your involvement with your followers.
- Flash Deals and Discounts: Use your Instagram Stories to share exclusive flash deals and discounts for your followers. This can encourage them to visit your restaurant and try out your food.
- Live Events: Use Instagram Live to share live events, such as cooking demonstrations, tastings, or interviews with chefs or food experts.
- Instagram Takeover: Invite a local food blogger or influencer to take over your Instagram Stories for a day, allowing them to share their favourite dishes and experiences at your restaurant.
- Trivia and Quizzes: Share fun trivia and quizzes related to your restaurant or the food you serve. This can be a great way to engage and keep your followers entertained.
- Food Challenges: Create food challenges for your followers, such as a spicy or food-eating competition. Share the results on your Instagram Stories to create excitement and engagement.
- Local Produce: Highlight the local produce and ingredients your restaurant uses in its dishes, and explain why using locally sourced ingredients is essential.
- Food History: Share interesting stories and facts about the history of the food you serve and how it has evolved.
- DIY Tutorials: Share DIY tutorials for creating fun and unique table settings or decorations, encouraging your followers to recreate them at home.
- Chef Q&A: Host a Q&A session with your chef, allowing your followers to ask questions about your restaurant, the food you serve, and the culinary industry in general.
- Instagram Stories Ads: Consider using Instagram Stories Ads to reach a wider audience and attract more followers to your restaurant. Use eye-catching visuals and compelling messaging to grab the attention of potential customers.
Given the variety of alternatives available, you may need help seeing how you’ll use the service to draw consumers to your restaurant. Unfortunately, there isn’t a magic recipe to use that will be beneficial. But several tried-and-true marketing strategies can help you keep the postings coming and boost interaction on your social media accounts.
