How to Manage the Customer Experience on Social Media

Social media is a major tool for people to discover restaurants and engage with businesses like never before. To keep up with this momentum, it’s important to make sure your restaurant is represented well across each platform and that you’re using your website as the central location that connects all of your social channels. Your website is the only place that stores all of your customer experience online in one cohesive package. Read on to learn more about our social media best practices that will help you manage the way guests experience your restaurant online.

Set Up Your Profiles for Success

The first step in optimizing your social media profiles is to have your restaurant’s pertinent information, like your address, hours and website URL, clearly displayed. Making this available in your profile leaves visitors only one click away from other online tools like your website or map directions to your restaurant. It’s essential that the profile links go to a mobile-friendly website since 80% of time on social media is spent on mobile devices.

Many visitors will make decisions off of their first impressions. It is key to keep the overall look of your profiles in mind when you’re setting them up. It’s best to use your restaurant’s logo as your profile photo and make sure your cover photo relates to your restaurant’s brand. You want the feel of your restaurant’s profile to match the overall look and feel of your brick-and-mortar, while still appearing as a reliable source for information.

Create a Content Strategy

Each social media platform generally attracts a different group of users with varying ages, interests and needs. You can use each social media platform’s analytics to discover more about the types of people looking at your profiles. You should also think about your typical customer and what they would like to see on your profile. Are they interested in new menu items? Do they want to know more about your staff? Once you discover these insights on your audience, you can tailor both your content and the way you engage with guests.

Cross-Promote Online

You’re working so hard on your social media and you should promote it as much as you can. Your website is the only place that can host all parts of your online presence in one central place. You can add social media icons to your restaurant’s website and link to each platform in one click. This will drive traffic to your profiles and encourage website visitors to follow you on multiple channels.

You can also incorporate your live Instagram feed to your website’s homepage like Cork and Cleaver. This adds great visuals to your website and sends visitors to your Instagram for more inspiration and information. BentoBox makes it easy to add social icons to the footer of your website and have them link out to different profiles. It allows for complete control over your website, which allows you to promote different channels the way that you want.

Having a BentoBox website also makes it easy to push website updates directly to integrated social media channels. For example, if a restaurant added a new pasta dish to an online menu on their BentoBox website then it can be shared via social channels in one click.

Engage with Guests

It’s called social media for a reason! Engagement is a key factor in building a strong presence on social media platforms. Respond to reviews and comments as much as possible. Another great way to engage with guests is to share any of the content that they’ve tagged your restaurant in. Instagram Stories is a great platform you can use to engage with followers. You are able to reshare Stories that guests have tagged your restaurant in, you can use polls on your own Stories to learn more about your audience – there are countless possibilities.

At the end of the day, although it will take time to build the ideal message and content, you should have fun with your social presence. It’s best to think of your social media channels as tools you can use to build a community around your restaurant online and to get more guests through the door.

About BentoBox: BentoBox powers website design as part of CHECK^® Business Tools. BentoBox offers a restaurant website builder and develops websites exclusively for the restaurant industry. Creating a strong website for your restaurant can help convert visitors into paying customers, while saving your business time and money. Learn more about BentoBox by visiting website design in CHECK Business Tools.

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