7 Reasons Why Social Media is Important for Your Food Business

Restaurants, cafés, takeaways and other food businesses can no longer afford to ignore social media as a marketing tool: it’s where your customers are. People spend about 144 minutes per day on social media. That’s over two and a half hours when they could be connecting with your brand.

It’s not just connection without context, either: this is prime decision-making real estate. According to Ryan Olahan, Google’s Managing Director of Food, Beverage & Restaurants, there are over one billion restaurant searches on Google every month. Here, we outline the seven most compelling reasons to create and maintain enticing and informative social media profiles for your business.

• 7 reasons why social media is important 
• How to choose the right social media platform for your food business

1. Efficient and affordable

Social media is a form of advertising that is both pervasive and affordable. Many potential customers will look for social media profiles when considering where to eat; ORACLE GloriaFood tells us that 72% of customers look at Facebook comments and images in order to make informed decisions about restaurants. The degree of transparency in social media allows you to illustrate consistency in the quality of your food, as well as sharing your menu. As a bonus, social media is free unless you choose to run paid ads — which are still comparatively cheaper than many other forms of advertising.

2. Instant updates

Social media is one of the fastest ways to keep guests informed about your restaurant, not just in terms of opening hours and contact information but also news you’d like to share: menu updates, daily specials, temporary holiday hours, one-off events, promotions, etc. 

3. Two-way communication

One of the most important reasons a restaurant should have social media accounts is that they offer easy two-way communication. In an age when many millennial and Gen Z consumers would rather send an instant message or email than pick up the phone, this is a cost-free way to meet them where they are, allowing them to ask any questions they have about your offering and letting you respond within a short timeframe. This interaction also allows you to strengthen your relationship with your customers, building brand loyalty. 

4. Visual marketing

The old adage is true: we eat with our eyes. Instagram, in particular, is ideal for visual marketing, and “foodstagramming” shows no signs of waning in popularity. Populate your social media with compelling images of mouthwatering food. Make it irresistible: capture the moment you break the yolk of a perfectly poached egg; show the glossy shine of a warm chocolate sauce; let melted cheese drip seductively down the sides of your burgers. The hashtag #foodporn has 282 million posts for a reason. 

5. Understand your customer experience

The food culture of social media encourages users to post pictures and reviews about their experiences in restaurants, giving you easy insights into how your customers are experiencing your offering and perhaps highlighting small changes you can make to improve that experience. 

6. User-generated content

Those photos and reviews we just mentioned? These are pure gold. Because they’re not created by your business, they carry a high degree of credibility. Sharing these positive posts to your own page can attract potential new customers and build brand advocacy. 

7. Improved searchability

Social media pages with reasonable amounts of content and traffic will see an improvement in SEO, or online searchability. Although social media is not a part of Google’s search algorithm, it does have an indirect effect on a business’s overall search ranking; the algorithm takes into account popularity, authority and website traffic, all three of which can be boosted by social media. 

If your restaurant is new to social media, start small. Choose one or two social media platforms — Instagram and Facebook are a good place to start — and focus on building those. Once you have those established, you can move on to creating other accounts if desired. 

What is the best social media platform for food?

Each platform has its own nuances and quirks which make them uniquely positioned for certain business types and content. We’ve compiled a list of the most popular platforms and why you could use it to promote your food business:

Facebook: Do people still use Facebook? Yes! It’s still the most popular social media platform globally, with a whopping 2.9 billion monthly users.

Great for regular updates, especially in relation to closures, changes to menus and new dish announcements, it’s a one stop shop for potential customers to check in on you and to read reviews too – customers are more likely to leave a positive review here than on any other review site, so it’s ideal for showing your food business off in its best light.

Instagram: With 2.4 billion users each month, Instagram also provides an active and engaged set of customers and shopfront for your food business. Ideal for pour overs, slow motion food porn content and behind the scenes of how your best-known dishes are made, the possibilities for food content are endless.

Engagement tools such as polls, Q&As and competitions also allow for two-way dialogue between you and your audience, helping to build a sense of community and even loyalty to brands.

TikTok: TikTok is the king of reach – its For You Page set up and algorithm which prioritised content which produces views and engagement means you can get your business in front of millions of pairs of eyes with relatively few followers.

With an average of 95 minutes spent per day on the app (compared to 62 for Instagram, 30 for Twitter/X and 19 for Snapchat), audiences just can’t get enough. Content here should include humour, food porn or behind the scenes of your business, with storytelling incorporating TikTok trending sounds, trends and tie-ins to popular culture forming the basis for successful food videos.

Pinterest: With over 15 billion pins focused on food(!), Pinterest provides a huge opportunity for food businesses, and is a channel which is regularly overlooked by others in their marketing mix. Search intent is important here and differs to the other platforms – users are likely looking for inspiration – content here could either hop on the recipe train, or look to show just how hard something is to make and that they should just visit you instead.

Twitter/X: Similar to Facebook, Twitter/X is a great platform to keep your followers up-to-date with the latest from your food business, whether it’s a new dish, product or special offer. This is also where you can really have your brand’s voice shine and get involved in trending topics

For more helpful advice for your hospitality business, visit www.tenkites.com or follow us on social media.