Getting traction for your restaurant’s social media posts can be challenging with so much competition online.
In this article, I’m going to share 20 of the best social media post ideas that you can use to boost your restaurant’s presence.
I’m going to go over ideas platform-by-platform but keep in mind that there are no strict rules; if you feel like you can use Instagram ideas on TikTok, you probably can. It’s up to you and how you want your social media channels to look.
Consider using this restaurant social media marketing guide to get the best out of these restaurant ideas.
Key Takeaways
- User-Generated Content & Testimonials: Encourage staff and customers to share content, and highlight customer testimonials to build authenticity and trust.
- Engage with Polls, Contests, and CTAs: Boost interaction with polls, challenges, and contests, while ensuring each post includes a clear call to action like “Order now” or “Join the fun.”
- Platform Flexibility: Adapt content across Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, tailoring it to each platform’s unique style while maintaining cohesive restaurant branding.
- Behind-the-Scenes Content: Share glimpses of your restaurant’s daily operations, staff stories, and special moments to humanize your brand and connect with followers.
- Videos, Especially on TikTok: Leverage restaurant video marketing content, particularly on TikTok, where engaging, short-form videos can help boost visibility and reach.
- Create a Content Calendar: Organize and schedule posts with a content calendar to maintain consistency and optimize your social media strategy.
Get the Instagram Game Going
Instagram – what can we say? This is where you post pictures of your food, maximize your hashtag prowess, and flaunt your sustainable business practices.
Some restaurants do it better than others. Let’s make sure you’re doing it best with these couple of ideas.
Remember to measure your progress with dedicated restaurant marketing software.
Record a Video of Chef’s Special Creation
For showcasing your chef preparing a signature dish, it’s crucial to engage with followers across social media platforms and highlight the chef’s skill and personality with high-quality video and audio.
Poor lighting, shaky camera work, and overly long videos should be avoided, as they detract from engagement and clarity. Adding a narrative or captions can greatly enhance viewer understanding and keep them engaged.
Share Behind-the-Scenes Moments
Sharing a day in the life of a kitchen staff member offers a glimpse into the teamwork and culture of your kitchen, and including user-generated content from staff stories enhances relatability.
Encourage your team to contribute. For instance, you could ask staff to share behind-the-scenes stories or photos of their work.
These contributions help create a sense of community and personal connection with your restaurant target audience.
Go beyond just daily routines by incorporating staff shout-outs, where you feature different team members, highlighting their roles and contributions. Doing a “day-in-the-life” feature with chefs, servers, or bartenders can also offer insight into the hard work and dedication behind every dish or service.
Additionally, sharing glimpses of special moments like kitchen tours, staff celebrations, or team-building activities will make your followers feel more connected to your restaurant.
Collaborations with local businesses can be highlighted to show community involvement. Avoid displaying disorganized or unclean areas, and refrain from sharing sensitive or private information without consent.
Post Customer Favorites and Reviews
Posting photos of popular dishes as voted by customers should involve regular updates based on customer feedback, high-quality and accurate images, and encouragement for customers to share their experiences as user-generated content.
Create branded restaurant hashtags to encourage customers to tag their photos, or run photo contests with incentives for the best shots.
Featuring their content on your feed not only shows appreciation but also fosters engagement and authenticity.
Over-editing photos, ignoring negative feedback, or infrequent posting can lead to losing credibility and audience engagement. Ensure your posts are true to the experience your customers will have when they visit your restaurant.
Avoid overly technical language or focusing only on exotic ingredients, as this may not resonate with a broader audience. Ultimately, the goal is to show your audience that you know what you’re cooking with.
Engage Followers with Interactive Polls
Use Instagram Stories to run polls on new menu items, showing responsiveness to customer preferences and sharing poll outcomes to demonstrate community involvement. Balance the content between fun topics and business decisions.
Don’t ignore poll results or controversial topics. Remember that, in the end, you are dealing with real people. Ignore an unsatisfied customer, and it’ll probably come back to bite you.
Make sure to respond to criticism in a manner that shows respect. Otherwise, you might alienate followers and reduce engagement.
Battle-tested and Creative Facebook Posts for Restaurants
Facebook for restaurants is a perfect place to create and promote upcoming events, like Restaurant Week or a special local festival. A strong social media presence on this platform shows your social media followers that your palace is full of life.
Promote Events with Engaging Posts
For event promotions, it’s crucial to effectively incorporate them into your restaurant social media strategy, ensuring each post is engaging and visually appealing across various social media platforms.
Best practices include providing complete event details and leveraging stories for reminders. However, avoid overwhelming your audience with repetitive posts or providing inaccurate information, as this can lead to confusion and disengagement.
Measuring the impact of your promotion efforts on event attendance is also vital for understanding the effectiveness of your restaurant social media marketing strategy.
Share Customer Testimonials
In your restaurant’s social media strategy, sharing customer testimonials helps build trust and credibility. Best practices involve responding to each testimonial and using a mix of text and visual content to showcase authenticity.
Be cautious of sharing fake or exaggerated testimonials, as this can damage your reputation.
Additionally, posting too frequently can lead to testimonial fatigue, and neglecting bad restaurant reviews can harm customer relationships.
Host a Live Q&A with the Chef
Hosting a live Q&A with the chef can be a great interactive element of your restaurant social media strategy.
Ensure you announce these sessions in advance, maintain high audio and video quality, and be prepared with topics while being open to audience questions.
Avoid poor planning and technical issues that can detract from professionalism, and ensure the event is adequately promoted across social media platforms to ensure a good turnout.
Engaging with the audience’s questions is crucial to connect and build rapport.
Run a Throwback Thursday Series
Throwback Thursday posts are an excellent way to share your restaurant’s history and evolution, adding a nostalgic element to your restaurant’s social media strategy.
Mixing old photos with interesting trivia or stories engages your audience.
However, avoid sharing irrelevant or personal content that doesn’t align with your brand image, and always ensure the quality of images is high.
Interaction with followers who share their memories or experiences is key to boosting engagement.
Highlight Employee Profiles
Featuring employee profiles is an effective way to humanize your brand within your restaurant’s social media strategy.
Best practices include regularly featuring different staff members across your social media platforms, and sharing their roles and personal stories with high-quality images or videos.
Avoid posting without employee consent and focus on showcasing the contributions of all team members, not just higher-level staff.
Consistent posting and compelling storytelling are essential to maintain follower interest and engagement.
Fun and Hip TikTok Restaurant Post Ideas
TikTok is THE social media platform to go with all of your video materials. This is where you can get a little creative and post content that is a little less ‘professional’. Let’s get you some social media ideas for TikTok.
Create a Trending Recipe Tutorial
Create a fast-paced, engaging video showing a recipe process. Use a mix of top-down and side angles for clarity. Sync your video with trending music or sounds for better reach. Keep it under 60 seconds for optimal engagement.
@craigsla You asked. We delivered. THE Honey Truffle Chicken. 🍗🍯🤌 #craigsla #craigs #restaurant #larestaurants #honeytrufflechicken #honeytruffle #recipe #howto #tutorial #foryou #fyp ♬ original sound - Craig’s Restaurant
Engaging with viewers by inviting them to share their own recipe variations or to suggest new ideas for future videos is a great way to boost interaction. Avoiding overly complex instructions and poor video quality is crucial.
Additionally, it’s a missed opportunity not to host social media contests, perhaps inviting viewers to recreate the recipe for a chance to win a dining experience.
Start a Fun Food Challenge
Identify current food challenges or create your own. Make sure the video is fun and visually appealing. Use relevant food hashtags to increase visibility. Encourage your followers to participate and tag your restaurant.
Collaborating with local influencers in your food challenge can significantly expand your reach, bringing their followers into the fun and creating a buzz around your brand.
Influencers can showcase their own attempts at the challenge, which promotes your restaurant and enhances credibility and excitement.
@randysantel Tasmania’s Toughest Burger Menu Challenge at The Standard in Hobart weighs over 8lbs and Costs $120 if you lose!! #randysantel #foodchallenge #burgers #cheeseburgers #chickenburger #menuchallenge #tassie #loadedfries #applepie #hobart #tasmania ♬ original sound - Randy Santel
Transforming the challenge into a contest with a host social media contests can increase engagement and excitement.
However, avoid creating challenges that are off-brand, potentially hazardous, or lacking in post-challenge engagement, as these could negatively impact the restaurant’s image.
Post a Dance Video with Staff
Participate in popular dance trends. Film in a well-lit, spacious area of your restaurant. Practice the choreography to ensure synchronization. Keep the atmosphere fun and light-hearted.
These videos can also serve to cross-promote local events or special nights at the restaurant.
Engaging with the audience by creating dance challenges or inviting them to participate in host social media contests can further enhance interaction.
However, it’s important to ensure staff are comfortable and willing to participate, and the content should be appropriate for all audiences.
Show a Time-Lapse of Meal Preparation
Shoot a time-lapse video from a steady angle, preferably from above. Ensure consistent lighting throughout. Time-lapses are great for showing a dish’s transformation in a short, engaging format.
Consider using these videos to host social media contests, like guessing the right ingredients for a chance to win a prize. Avoid overly rapid time-lapses that are hard to follow, and ensure the final product is visually appealing.
Encourage User Interaction
Encourage guests to post their experiences and tag your restaurant. Share the best ones on your profile. This builds community and shows customer appreciation. Always credit the original poster.
@404restaurantbar Come visit your favorite restaurant & bar. Hula hoop & Limbo contest every Thursday. #thingstodoinatlanta #404restaurantbar #vibesinatl #foryou #feelingpeachy #Ladiesnight ♬ The Nasty Song - Edited - Lil Ru
Hosting a social media contest where customers share their best moments for a chance to win something can significantly boost user interaction.
Avoid reposting without permission, and be sure to address both positive and negative feedback to show that all customer experiences are valued.
X (Previously Twitter) Post Ideas for Restaurants
X, previously known as Twitter, is the place you share your announcements and daily updates. To be fair, it can be treated somewhat like Instagram and Facebook stories. This is where you connect with your followers.
Announce Specials and Offers
Tweet concise, enticing descriptions of your specials. Attach a high-quality image of the dish. Use relevant hashtags to increase discoverability. Pin the tweet for more visibility.
Collaborating with other local businesses for joint specials can expand your reach and foster community connections.
Overposting or lack of content variation can lead to follower fatigue, and it’s crucial to remember that while making posts is important, engaging with the audience’s reactions is only half the battle.
Share Fun Food Facts
Share interesting culinary facts or trivia. Keep it short and sweet. Use a related image or graphic to catch the eye. This positions your restaurant as both informative and entertaining.
Sharing fun and interesting facts about food and dining can be both educational and entertaining for your followers, helping to position your restaurant as a knowledgeable hub.
Tying these facts to your menu or ingredients can subtly promote your offerings.
However, sharing incorrect or unverified facts can harm your credibility, and failing to make the content relevant to your restaurant customers can result in disengagement, undermining the effectiveness of your social media strategy.
Create Hashtag Campaigns
Create a unique hashtag for specific campaigns or contests. Promote it consistently across posts. Monitor the hashtag and engage with users who use it. This helps in building a community around your brand.
Not actively engaging with posts that use your hashtag represents a missed opportunity for interaction and can diminish the impact of your campaign.
Run Polls on Dining Preferences
Run polls asking about dining habits, menu preferences, or food choices. Keep the options limited for clear results.
Analyze and share the results in a follow-up tweet, potentially influencing your future menu decisions.
Using the results to adapt your offerings or restaurant marketing strategies demonstrates that you value and act upon restaurant customers’ feedback.
However, neglecting the poll results or posting irrelevant or too frequent polls can lead to engagement fatigue, making it less likely that followers will participate in future interactions and share valuable insights.
Share Industry News and Insights
Share relevant news or articles. Add your insight or opinion to make it more personal. Use images or videos to enhance engagement. This positions your restaurant as a thought leader in the industry.
Sharing relevant industry news or articles keeps your audience informed and positions your restaurant as a thought leader in the field. Be mindful, though, as sharing outdated or irrelevant news can lead to misinformation and disinterest among your followers.
Need help running your social media account? Check out these restaurant marketing agencies.
Analytics and Monitoring of Social Media Posts
A restaurant owner should measure the effects of their restaurant’s social media posts to understand what drives engagement and improves visibility.
There is social media management software that helps track performance, schedule posts, and analyze key metrics like engagement and reach; examples include tools like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Buffer.
You can read more about it in our article on restaurant management software.
