Social Media Tactics For Restaurants & Food Brands
Engage prospective customers with tried-and-true social media tactics.
One in three restaurants won’t survive the first year of operations*. Many factors can cause a restaurant or food brand’s downfall; economic issues, poor management, not enough funding, high competition and failure to adapt are common reasons for closure.
We’d like to add another to this list: low investment in marketing. High competition in a crowded industry means you need to differentiate your restaurant from others. That can be difficult with a small team and tight budget, but our recommended social tactics make the most out of the resources you have.
Social media platforms can be budget-friendly marketing avenues with high rewards. Here are our top recommendations to excel on social media as a restaurant or food brand.
Communicate With Clarity: Social Media
Our greatest piece of social media advice to food marketing and food branding clients is to be authentic. It’s crucial to understand what your brand stands for.
Here’s how it comes into play – you can’t create and share genuine social media content if you don’t know your brand positioning and messaging strategy. Reach out to our team – we can help you find your voice.
To connect with your audience and generate a robust following, consider our top social media tactics:
- Influencer marketing: Even in a digital space, word of mouth still reigns supreme. Influencers in your audience’s niche help generate confidence and trust in your brand. Consider both free and paid influencer engagements depending on your budget.
- User-generated content: Recycle your customers’ social media posts to share on your own accounts. We recommend that you ask permission first!
- Video > visual > text graphics: With food marketing, visuals are everything. It’s easier for consumers to imagine your brand’s products in their lives when they can see them in use. Use text graphics sparingly in favor of beautiful photography and videos of food prep, ingredients or customers enjoying their meals.
- Paid ads: Bolster your content strategy! Attract customers in your food brand’s audience and educate them about you.
- Value-added content: From curated music playlists to Pinterest boards and recipe videos, there are many options to share unique, value-added content with followers. The more creative, the better!
Best Practices in Action
Pittsburgh-based food marketing and food branding client Wild Child has a charismatic, authentic energy that didn’t shine through on social media. We helped elevate their followers’ experience with a strategic social media blueprint and branded Canva templates. Now, their content creation process is hassle-free and always on-brand! See our social media blueprint how-to guide to create your own.
Important decisions like brand positioning, strategy and content are made easier with a seasoned food industry marketing agency partner by your side! Are you ready to enhance your brand with marketing support? Reach out for a free consult to see how we can make your brand shine.
About the Author
Kristen Pokorny is a Creative Director at Muse and leads our visual communications department. She possesses a range of creative design skills including creating within existing brand guidelines to building ideas from the ground up. With over 15 years of agency experience, she's worked with both large, global brands and small businesses. She’s well versed in the entire creative process, from sketch phase and lettering to final production.
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