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    • If you’re not on Instagram, you don’t exist. That’s the hard truth. The social media landscape has quickly become the dominant marketing tool for restaurants to connect globally and directly with existing and potential customers. No biggie, there are just around 1 billion of them.  

    The “gram” user, combined with Instagram algorithms, continues to challenge restaurants to push creative limits, in order to achieve Follows, Likes and Comments.

    What are some social media tactics your restaurant can employ to develop impactful social campaigns?

    Start with a monthly plan

    Take the time to plan out your key messages and posts for the upcoming month by developing a social media content calendar. Your goal should be to support and highlight initiatives within your restaurant operation that set your brand apart, while reinforcing key brand messages.

    Monthly plan - Instagram for restaurants
    Like speech bubble isolated on the yellow background.

    Put your best post forward

    Instagram can be a powerful tool to stay in touch with your loyal customers, to let them know what you’re doing:

    Times to post

    Social media reporting suggests that the social guest is most engaged in the early mornings, lunch and dinner hours, and later in the evening. These moments tend to be when we are taking a “break,” which results in spikes in social media activity. Instagram for businesses also provides effective reporting on your social guests’ most engaged days and times per day. Utilize this data to identify the optimal days and times of when to post.

    #Hashtag

    Hashtags can make or break the effectiveness of your content strategy by how relevant they are to the content you are posting. Digital users can follow hashtags to collect content on their feed that is of interest to them. The goal is to use hashtags that will place your content on the feeds of your target guests. Popular hashtags are identified in the “TAGS” search bar on Instagram by the number of times they have been used in a post.

    Follow these five top tips to develop a list of hashtags relevant to your brand content:

    1. Research what competitors and the foodie community are using as popular hashtags.
    2. Identify 30-50 hashtags that align with your menu offerings and location, and are popular, and reference them selectively within your content calendar.
    3. Post hashtags that match the photography or video content you are sharing.
    4. Post the hashtags as a “comment” to your post, versus within the post.
    5. Post between 15 and 30 hashtags from your list per post.

    As you monitor the effectiveness of your social campaign, be aware of spikes in your engagement when certain hashtags are used in your posted content, to identify your top-performing hashtags.

    Utilize apps

    Developers are launching innovative useful social media content editing, organizing and publishing apps on a monthly basis to support small businesses in managing digital campaigns. We recommend downloading a few different apps to test them out and understand which will be most effective in supporting your social media goals.

    Using Instagram and Facebook to build a community of engaged brand advocates can seem intimidating, until you realize what makes them work. Implement these tactics to see what a powerful tool social media campaigns can be for your restaurant business.

    To say that Instagram’s food community is an impactful marketing channel for your restaurant business is an understatement.  

    Restaurateurs need always to be thinking about how every element and square inch of their restaurant can be used to create their unique brand and be “Instagram worthy.” The more potential photo opportunities designed within your restaurant and menu, the more diners will want to snap and share, and the bigger your following will become. It’s that simple.

    So first off, who is your customer base?

    Of the current 800+ million Instagram users, the majority are Millennials with 90% of the Instagram user base 35 years and younger. That’s not to say Instagram can’t be effective connecting with a mature restaurant clientele, you just might experience slower growth through the platform.

    Cater your Instagram content to your demographic by sharing photos and messages that will matter to them.

    • Instagram 101 for restaurants

    What should restaurants posts?

    Before it was just about food, now it’s about sharing everything about your restaurant that is consistent with your brand.

    1. TEAM
    2. MENU ITEM
    3. DÉCOR
    4. DRINK ITEM
    5. SERVICE
    6. BRAND ELEMENT

    #Food #Drink

    When designing your food and drink menus, create three to five items that will become your “Instagram stars” in addition to your other items. The “Insta Stars” should be unique to your restaurant — for example, in their presentation, the ingredients, or the way they’re prepared or consumed. Snap these items with a consistent aesthetic to your brand and add a custom hashtag so you can track how many times they’re posted.

    Your Insta Stars will be the key elements that get you the most #instalove, and are likely to be snapped and shared the most, garnering your brand the most attention. Try to create new Insta Star dishes seasonally so Instagrammers and diners continue to come back to see what’s new.

    #InstaDesign

    Your restaurant’s design and décor provide endless opportunities to incorporate Instagram-worthy elements that are consistent with your brand.

    Exterior to interior design, nothing should be over looked as Instagrammers flock to restaurants for the trendy design photo opp, but then stay for the food.

    #GoTeam

    Action shots of your chefs cooking or plating, servers sharing their favourite dishes, bartenders shaking up fancy cocktails are all great photo opportunities. It is an Instagram fact that photos featuring faces get 38% more likes than those without, according to Sproutsocial.com.

    #PicturePerfect

    A professional photographer will always take the better shot and edit it to perfection, hands down. But for restaurateurs who are managing Instagram in-house it is most effective to have one team member manage the process for consistency.

    #Hashtags

    1. Hashtags allow users who are searching that hashtag to connect with your post.
    2. Hashtags allow your posts to be part of a trending topic.
    3. Hashtags allow you to track the number of posts associated with the hashtag, for effectiveness.

    Instagram is a restaurant’s gateway to the influential food photo frenzy community…

    When you peel back the layers of the term “cause marketing,” the core of the message stands for “to do good, by doing good,” for partnering organizations that share in a mutually beneficial goal.

    Tim Hortons annual $1 Smile Cookie Campaign in one week raised more than $9.2 million for over 550 charities, hospitals, and community programs across Canada in 2019 alone. THAT’S AMAZING! Through cause marketing partnerships, Tim Hortons has benefited from national media coverage, increased brand buzz, a unique competitive advantage, and the valuable brand loyalty of consumers and even more so, communities.

    If the cause marketing partnership makes sense, is communicated effectively, and aligns with guests’ values, the benefits for a restaurant brand — whether big or small — can be enormous.

    There are currently more than 170,000 charitable and nonprofit organizations in Canada. So how do you choose the right cause for your brand?

    Identify the “why” — your purpose and goal for cause marketing

    Are you looking for effective environmentally friendly ways to reduce food waste? Is there a spike in child hunger in your community? Has there been a natural disaster that has damaged a school you want to help rebuild? Your “why” will begin narrowing your search.

    Cause marketing for restaurant brands

    Start local

    A report from the US shared that 43 per cent of consumers want to see a company’s charitable efforts influence their local community, a fact that is not surprising and is ideal for independent restaurant operators who want to raise their profile at home. Larger franchised operations have the resources to focus more of their energies on national and local causes for a more dramatic impact.

    Go for guest support

    In an era where social responsibility is top of mind, especially with the Millennial generation, which is likely to choose one brand over another based upon their efforts, understanding what your guests care about is critical to your cause marketing effectiveness. A restaurant customers survey from Statistica revealed the top five types of charities guests would like to see restaurants support:

    Gain guests’ feedback before making your final decision. Get going on the GOOD!

    “buy one, give one”

    Here are a few impactful ways restaurant brands can get involved:

    Food and meal donations

    Mealshare partners with restaurants, using the “buy one, give one” model. Partnering restaurants place a Mealshare logo on specific menu items, and when those items are ordered, Mealshare will provide one meal to a youth in need in the local community through their charity partners. As of August 2020, Mealshare had served 3,711,158 meals.

    In January 2019, “The Avoidable Crisis of Food Waste” report shared shocking Canadian food stats. Unbelievably, 58 per cent of all food produced in Canada — 35.5 million tonnes — is lost or wasted, and a third of that wasted food could be “rescued” and sent to communities in need across the country.

    Make cause marketing work for your brand, by following these quick tips:

    Focus on one partnership at a time. Benefits:

    Select a less busy time of the year to launch the partnership program. Benefits:

    Utilize every communication channel you’ve got from social media, brand website, billfolds, washroom signage, receipt printing, community groups, and local newspapers to share the goal, and spread the good.

    Be sincere and transparent about the “WHY,” find the right partner for your cause, leverage your communication channels, and by doing good, the positive benefits can support building a winning, more socially-conscious restaurant brand.

    To learn more, read these related articles: