1 billion monthly users, with food and beverage among the top categories. Yes, we’re talking about Instagram. There’s no better social media platform for building your brand identity.
Why? Visual engagement.
According to one study, 72% of people use social media platforms to find dining options. Nearly 50% report visiting a restaurant after it popped up on their social media feeds.
So, how do you get your restaurant to stand out? And how do you make sure it entices customers to give your restaurant a try?
Your Target Audience
It’s a big world out there. While it’s great to get a lot of followers, if they’re halfway around the world, it will do little for your bottom line. Fortunately, there are ways to optimize your account so that it will be discovered locally.
A few of the steps to take include:
- Add relevant keywords, such as your location and the type of cuisine. This ensures a much better chance of ranking on Instagram in your area.
- Include relevant hashtags. Commonly used hashtags in the restaurant industry include #food, #restaurant, #diningout, city and state abbreviation, or the city you’re in, followed by “foodie.” You can put these in your caption or comments section.
- Utilize all content strategies, including videos, Reels, live, stories, and photos. Reels are particularly effective in increasing engagement, demonstrating a 35% higher engagement rate than any other type of content.
- Today, almost every new customer considering your restaurant wants to view the menu online before arriving. You can post the menu in the highlights section.
- Encourage your customers to share content and leave reviews, and then repost them on your social media channels.
- Provide easy access to QR codes that link to your restaurant’s Instagram profile, whether on your menu or table cards.
The Top Food Trends on Instagram
While you can’t change your menu based on Instagram food trends (although some restaurants do), featuring trending items can enhance engagement and start some conversations. Some of the trending foods that are also highly Instagrammable include:
- Butter and Charcuterie Boards: With the right colors, textures, and ingredients, these boards can be vibrant, unique, and powerful.
- Cross-Hatching: This cooking technique refers to the diagonal cuts made on the surface of vegetables or meats when grilling. It makes food particularly visually appealing. One example is a private chef who uses the technique on zucchini, seasoning it with chili, lime, and olive oil.
- Butter Chicken: This popular Indian dish is known for its velvety smooth texture and vibrant colors, making it an Instagrammable-worthy meal.
Restaurants that Know the Power of Instagram
One of the most important strategies is ensuring your social media platforms align with your voice. Urban Tandoor, a fine-dining Indian food restaurant, decided to make comedy videos, and those videos went viral. What originally started as a way to bring laughter to others during the pandemic has now become an essential aspect of the brand’s identity. Some followers are so enamored by the videos that they’ll drive two hours to see the people behind the characters.
Sweetgreen, a brand founded by three college friends who believed there should be healthier dining options, sought a way to attract new customers and drive additional online sales. They turned to Instagram Reels. They discovered that they needed to be entertaining, combining storytelling, music, and visual effects to engage their audience. They also needed to be easy to understand and relatable. The result was a big bottom-line win with a 7X incremental lift in sales.
So, if you haven’t tapped into this remarkable marketing technology, there’s no better time than when the sun is out and the patio is full.
