50+ Restaurant Social Media Post Ideas to Boost Your Business

When properly executed, restaurant social media post ideas can drive sales and growth to your business.

People once relied on word-of-mouth or the phone book to find a local restaurant. Now, they turn to the internet – primarily social media and Google. With over 3 billion people using social media nowadays, you can be sure your current (and potential) customers are there.

Google reviews are important for the hospitality business. So is staying up-to-date on social media posts for restaurants. Having a social media presence and posting pictures consistently is key but not always intuitive. Most need more creative ideas when deciding what to post on their restaurant’s social media pages.

If you want to solve these problems, read on. This article collects the best restaurant social media marketing ideas that you can always use to create engaging content and improve your presence online. Additionally, we’ve got the best tips to enhance the effectiveness of your business pages, regardless of your platform of choice.

How Many Social Media Platforms Does Your Restaurant Need to Use?

There is no standard regarding how many social media platforms your business should use. In fact, one crucial point to remember is that you don’t need to be present on every social media platform.

Pick only those where you can be consistent and endure the content creation effort. An abandoned social media page is worse than a non-existing social media page.

The upcoming restaurant content ideas let you optimize your time creating engaging posts for your social media pages. They are also time-tested, and you can adjust them to follow your instincts. These examples are also classified by specific platform — the one that suits the concept best. However, you can adapt and use that same idea in your app of choice.

But before jumping into these restaurant marketing tips, let’s look at how to optimize your business pages.

How to Promote Your Restaurant on Social Media: 4 Tips To Optimize Your Pages

Winning on social media starts with optimizing your business pages for conversion and engagement.

Pay attention to your restaurant theme and target audience to share relevant content. By using a consistent voice on multiple platforms, you’ll generate brand awareness and boost your reputation as a small business.

These are the four most critical elements to always keep in mind:

1. Profile Picture

On social media platforms, your profile picture is your business card. Choose a high-quality picture representing your brand and your restaurant’s vibes. This is usually your logo, your restaurant name, your most famous dish, or a picture of your venue.

2. Bio (Profile Description)

In the bio of your restaurant, point out what makes your restaurant unique and why people should visit you. Add the contact information for your business. If you have a website (and you should), link it.

3. Feed

Your business page feed is the entirety of your profile. If you successfully use these tips, users will look at your profile page. This is when new users will see all the pieces together and get a first impression of your business.

Therefore, try to design a professional look for your restaurant brand. Take care of your profile feed to create a recognizable theme and identity.

4. Highlights

Most social networks today provide content creators with highlights. These are typically stories you have published in the past that you can save to highlight and tell more about your restaurant. Use them strategically to point out useful information and unique features of your business. For example, you can highlight your location, a signature dish, or your best reviews.

Stay up-to-date and current with everything visible on your social media accounts. Doing this will help you to get the most out of your marketing campaigns with social media post ideas for restaurants.

How to Increase Restaurant Sales Through Social Media

If you’re wondering how to increase your restaurant sales, social media posting helps.

For example, you should post on Instagram. It’s by far one of the essential social media platforms for restaurants, especially if you are targeting millennials. The platform is popular because it is a fun and easy way to share your life with friends. The app has been downloaded over 1 billion times and used by millions daily.

The bigger your audience, the more likely they will want to visit your establishment. That’s a good thing. Especially if they have a great experience to share with their social media followers.

As people capture their experiences and share them through social media, ensure that your dishes and location “encourage” such actions. Ask yourself: “Would my customers take a picture of this to share it on their social media feeds?”

If you get good with this, users will create photos and videos for you, and your restaurant will get the best PR. The more user-generated content, the more significant the impact on your overall restaurant social media strategy.

30 Restaurant Social Media Post Ideas for Instagram

Here are 30 restaurant social media post ideas to refresh your IG feed.

1. Record your bartender creating unique cocktails.
2. Highlight the way you source and pick ingredients.
3. Repost positive online commentary about your restaurant.
4. Reveal a historical or fascinating fact about the building.
5. Create a story or reel asking staff what their favorite drink is.
6. Pet-friendly? Share photos of customers’ dogs (and have a ‘dog of the month’ post).
7. Advertise all upcoming events.
8. Republish any foodie reviews about your restaurant.
9. Publicize limited-time or seasonal menu options.
10. Grab a bunch of your best reviews and share snippets of them across the month.
11. Create a contest asking customers to share a ten-second video testimonial with a prize for the winning submission.
12. Stage an employee of the month competition. Ask followers to vote.
13. Create restaurant hashtags to promote your offers.
14. Promote your email mailing list with stories — explaining what subscribers get in return.
15. Support the community and post pictures of other local businesses.
16. Create pools to choose new menu options or drinks.
17. Stage a business owner AMA (ask me anything).
18. Repost stories where your restaurant is tagged.
19. Create stories where you ask followers to guess data (number of ovens, square footage, etc…). Consider giving out a free drink as a prize.
20. Post facts about the area in which your restaurant resides.
21. Perform charity work and chart the progress via stories.
22. Post your signature dishes.
23. Take pictures of your venue when it is super busy.
24. Take early morning photos when it is super-quiet.
25. Hold a poll asking for your customers’ favorite dishes.
26. Promote things to do that are close to your venue.
27. Shine the spotlight on one of your favorite producers or suppliers.
28. Introduce brand-new menu items.
29. Get involved in a social media challenge.
30. Share meaningful quotes about food, wine, and dining together.

Creative Facebook Content for Restaurants

Can an article about restaurant social media post ideas ignore the OG of social media? Absolutely not.

For restaurant owners, having a solid presence on Facebook is vital, especially for older customers. This social media platform has over 2 billion active users and is a great way to connect with potential customers.

Fill your restaurant’s Facebook page with mouth-watering photos of your food and captions highlighting your unique selling points. Your FB page can also receive reviews, and users use it often to book or ask questions without calling. Therefore, it is important to regularly post updates about your menu, special offers, and events.

17 Restaurant Social Media Post Ideas for Facebook

By creating a strong Facebook page for your restaurant, you will be able to reach a wider audience, grow your popularity, and boost your business.

Here are 17 creative Facebook posts for restaurants:

1. When there are particular events close to your venue, offer specific promotions to those who visit your restaurant.
2. Create social media posts about your employees. Add a quick caption with their story, hobbies, and dreams.
3. Ask the chef to stage an AMA (Ask Me Anything) live video.
4. Embed discount code in your captions: “Visit our venue and provide [FB10] to get a 10% discount at the checkout.”
5. Say “Happy Birthday” to regulars who have given you that information.
6. Latch onto any big sporting event and post your score predictions or related food offerings.
7. Use social media channels to promote your online booking page and encourage more direct bookings.
8. Reveal how sustainable your operation is with a short video tour.
9. Create a storytelling post whenever you treat the staff to a day or night out.
10. Repost content created by your restaurant customers.
11. Encourage people to leave TripAdvisor reviews by linking directly to your page.
12. Task employees with serving the community for one day a month and posting photos from their activities.
13. Celebrate the restaurant’s birthday.
14. Show your team in action and how busy your venue is.
15. If your restaurant is mentioned in a popular magazine or on traditional media, share it on your page.
16. Repost any memes (within reason) that make you laugh or smile. Even better if they’re hospitality or restaurant-related.
17. Highlight the way you cater to allergies and intolerances (often, just a photo of the gluten-free menu with the right hashtags, for instance, will do).

Top 10 Restaurant Social Media Post Ideas for TikTok

TikTok is quickly becoming the most popular social media because of its unique features. TikTok’s customer base is relatively young (mostly 13 to 24). Consider investing your time in this platform if your ideal customers are the same age.

As TikTok is all about video, these restaurant social media post ideas work if you edit with this in mind. TikTok makes editing extremely simple and provides tons of effects to make your content super engaging.

As TikTok is based on short videos, you can reuse most ideas mentioned for Facebook and Instagram.

For more inspiration, check these 10 restaurant post ideas for TikTok:

1. Create a video tour of the building.
2. Film the chef preparing a trending recipe.
3. Ask staff to reveal their favorite thing about hospitality and montage it as a short video.
4. Undertake a weekly ‘did you know’ series where you reveal something unusual about the restaurant or its operation.
5. Create a montage with ALL your menu items one by one.
6. Make time-lapses and evocative videos of your best drinks and signature dishes in the making.
7. Create informative videos that tell the nutritional values of your salads.
8. Film a behind-the-scene tour before an event.
9. Collaborate with influencers and let them run your Tik Tok account for a day.
10. Conduct games and pools. For example, spicy vs. sweet food, beer vs. wine, and pizza with or without pineapple.

Social Media Post Ideas For Restaurants on Pinterest

Although it is not the most popular platform today, Pinterest can still offer significant returns if you invest time in engaging content. Most social media post ideas for restaurants shared above might also work fine on Pinterest.

As Pinterest is mostly about pictures, you can create app-specific restaurant content or use the same Insta content and share it on Pinterest. The best recommendation is to create great, high-quality photos, infographics with interesting facts, and recommendations.

Coffee Shop Social Media Ideas

Coffee shop social media ideas are similar to restaurant content ideas. However, you have slightly more flexibility. You should always highlight the best sides of your business. For example, you should systematically create content for your café’s target audience.

Here are ten examples of social media ideas for cafés and coffee houses:

1. Share time-lapse and slow-motion videos making your creations.
2. Post content created by your customers and (possibly) tag them.
3. Share the selection of cakes that go with your coffee.
4. Promote special events and limited-time offers.
5. Share funny memes with Instagram hashtags about coffee.
6. Take part in social media challenges.
7. Run pools about coffee preferences.
8. Take pictures and videos that capture the vibes of your venue.
9. Ask for reviews on your favorite local review sites.
10. Take photos of your creations from different evocative angles.

Are you looking for more? No worries. There are infinite possibilities for social media post ideas specifically designed for coffee shops.

Restaurant Social Media Post Ideas: Getting to the Next Level

The restaurant social media post ideas provided so far can help you create content and engage followers. However, to bring your content creation to the next level, you need to get precise data about your customers. This helps to automize the growth of your social media pages. How? Look into a social WiFi marketing strategy.

If you already provide free guest WiFi, you’ve done the hardest part. You can now take advantage of WiFi marketing software. Beambox is an all-in-one solution for WiFi marketing. It helps you connect with your customers, grow your social media pages, and capture valuable data about your users while respecting their privacy.

Over 12,000 businesses have already chosen Beambox for their WiFi Marketing. Look at our solutions for small business owners and start your 30-day free trial!

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