The ultimate restaurant social media guide: telling a story that sells

Learning how to leverage social media marketing and the power of storytelling can not only increase brand awareness and drive new customer traffic but it can also effectively differentiate your restaurant from your competitors.

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Becoming a storyteller

As a restaurant owner, you know that social media is an important aspect of promoting and growing your business. However, it can be overwhelming to figure out how to optimize and increase engagement on your social media channels. That’s why I’m excited to share with you a strategy I created to increase brand awareness, maximize audience engagement, and create endless amounts of content designed to make viewers love you and your restaurant.

It’s called the soap opera strategy, which is a storytelling approach to social media that restaurateurs can use to get attention and increase engagement. There are 5 keys to getting this strategy right and I’ve detailed them below. Let’s dig in!

Key 1: Understand the true purpose of social media

The first key to getting the soap opera strategy right is to understand the true purpose of social media, which is to get attention, not to sell. When you sell on social media, you’re attempting to sell to people with no interest in buying. Instead, use social media the way it was intended: to spark interest and get attention.

Think about your own behavior. When you’re looking for a restaurant to go to, do you hop on Instagram to find it? Probably not. But when a restaurant catches your eye on Instagram, you may be interested enough to check out their website or Yelp page.

You are your customer. They behave the same way you do.

Key 2: The essential elements of the strategy

The second key is to understand the essential elements of the strategy. To implement the soap opera strategy, you’ll need three topics and six touchpoints. Topics are the big subjects you’re tackling, like you, your restaurant, and your people. Then there are touchpoints, which are the parts of the story you’re going to share.

Here are a few tips to help you nail it:

• When talking about yourself, share your background, why you built the restaurant, why you love your community.
• When talking about your restaurant, share the inspiration behind the menu, what goes into the individual dishes or drinks, and what goes into prepping for a busy service. This isn’t just glamor shots; it’s a behind-the-scenes look.
• Your third topic could be your people. That’s your team, who they are, what they’re best in the world at, and why they love working there. It’s also your patrons, why you love them and why they love you. And it could be your neighborhood, why you love the street you’re on, and why you chose to open in that community.

Key 3: Create a story arc

The third key is to transform those topics and touchpoints into a story arc. The topics and touchpoints should blend together into three different stories.

• For you, it could be the story of building your restaurant, from signing the lease through opening day.
• For your restaurant, it could be the creation of a seasonal menu or the creation of a menu item from concept through completion.
• For your people, it could be highlighting a day in the life of one of your team members. Just tell the stories that would interest you.

Key 4: Pacing

The fourth key is pacing. Week one, launch the first story; week two, launch the second; and week three, launch the third. By week three, you’re publishing three concurrent storylines that will inform, entertain, and inspire your audience.

Key 5: Creating more momentum

The final key is to understand that everything is content. Always keep your phone on you and try to capture everything. You never know when you’ll be able to use the footage.

This makes sense, right? It’s dynamic, authentic and you’d be putting content out there that you’d be interested in watching.

But don’t just stop at capturing everything. Encourage your team to get involved and create their own content. By doing this, you’ll have a variety of perspectives and content that will keep your social media presence fresh and interesting.

You can do it

Every moment is an opportunity to tell a story through media that highlights your greatest competitive advantage: you. By applying these tips and strategies, you can use social media to its fullest potential and turn more online attention into more butts in seats, making your restaurant more successful than ever before.

Be sure to click below to download the template that walks you step by step through creating your social media marketing masterplan.

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