What The Best Restaurants Are Doing On Facebook

Facebook is a tool for engaging and increasing your customer base.

Is your restaurant on Facebook?

With more than one billion active daily users, if your restaurant isn’t on Facebook, you can’t afford to sit on the sidelines any longer.

Facebook is one of the best ways to reach your dining audience, (tweet this) yet it can be intimidating to know how to “do Facebook right.”

In this article we look at what the best restaurants are doing on Facebook. Why? Because, by looking at examples of great Facebook pages, you’ll gain inspiration and insight into your own.

Highlighting the Restaurant Menu

The best restaurants list their menus on their Facebook business pages. While there are numerous ways to do this, we’re going to highlight two great ways.

The first way is very simple. If you’ve already created a business page for your restaurant, go to Settings and then click on Page Info. If you haven’t created your business page yet, you can set your category in the very beginning.

Let’s assume you’ve already got a page. Look at your Category under Page Info. It should say Local Businesses: Restaurant/Café. If it doesn’t, click the edit pencil and edit the category first for Local Business and then select Restaurant/Café.

Once you’ve done this, you’ll see a line for Menu that says, “Show Menu on Your Page.” You are then presented with the following choices:

• Upload pdf of your menu.
• Upload photos and provide descriptions for each menu item.
• Provide URL so it links to the menu on your website.
  

Choose one, and just like that your menu is highlighted on your Facebook page.

Another way to add your menu is to use MenuTab for Facebook. This app actually adds a tab to the top of your Facebook page with your menu. This menu app is interactive, and includes more options than simply including your menu in your about section.

With MenuTab, you can enter the following:

• A mobile menu
• A cover photo
• Multiple photos and categories
• A wide range of settings options including QR codes

You can also take orders through MenuTab. First, your customers choose their items, enter their personal info and submit the order. You receive and confirm the order. The customer then receives an update in real time.

Lastly, the app also provides impressions so you know how well it’s working.

Refining Posting Frequency

Next, let’s look at amassing and keeping followers and how that relates to your posting frequency.

First, check out these amazing stats from other restaurant Facebook pages. Joe’s Crab Shack, with nearly a half million followers, is a page to emulate.

How are they getting all those followers?

The best restaurants are posting daily, maintain a posting strategy and responding in real time to customers’ comments and questions.

Contrary to what you might think, the best restaurants are not posting deals and specials every day or even every week.

The best restaurants are working hard to build relationships with their followers. These restaurants are providing engaging content of value to their followers.

People aren’t on Facebook several hours a day looking for coupons. They are reading posts that interest them and sharing posts that engage and inspire them, make them laugh or teach them something.

If you post too many sales related posts, your customers will either unfollow you or check the box that says they don’t want to see your posts anymore.

The best restaurants post several times per day and at key times. They know what time to post because they’ve looked at their Facebook insights, and they know when their fans are online.

Mix up your post types. Use professional-looking, appetizing photos of your food, create short videos that highlight your staff and customers, highlight recipes, share anecdotes and curate good content from others.

You can also sprinkle in specials on occasion throughout the week, but they should be tempered with great photos and content.

The type of content you post and your level of engagement increases your Facebook traction which in turn increases the amount of times your posts show up in people’s Facebook Newsfeeds.

It can be a never-ending funnel of followers if you follow a consistent Facebook posting strategy.

The quality of your photos can increase the engagement of your followers.

Cover Pages

The best restaurants are using the real estate on their cover pages. They’ve not only completed all of the pertinent information, but they’ve optimized their cover images.

Create a profile that is the appropriate size: 168×168 pixels. When you create your cover image, it should be sized at 828×315 pixels.

When creating your Facebook cover image, you can include text on your cover image, but be sure to leave the space in the lower left corner empty because it will be covered by your profile picture/logo.

The best restaurants change the cover photo out on a regular basis to highlight new items or special events.

Facebook Tabs

We’ve already talked about the MenuTab, but there are other options for Facebook tabs. Some of the best restaurants are using tabs for the following:

• Contest Tab: Consider using an app like Offer Pop to run drawings, quizzes, photo contests and more.
• Happy Hour Tab: Take a look at this tab on the Joe’s Crab Shack This page takes the user to the restaurant’s website for specials.
• Joe’s also includes a tab for its loyalty club sign up. This is a great way to capture your customer’s emails.
• Email Sign Up Tab
• Photo and Video Tabs

When it comes to tabs, get creative, and if you need help, enlist the help of a Facebook developer.

At the very least, you want a menu tab and an email sign up tab. For example, if you use MailChimp for your email marketing, you can use their integrations to set this tab up on your Facebook page.

The Call to Action

Another area the best restaurants focus on is the call to action.

Relatively new, this allows restaurants to put a call to action right on top of their cover photo. It’s very simple. Just look at the lower right area of your cover photo and click on Create Call to Action.

You’ve got many options that include: Book Now, Contact Us, Shop Now, Sign Up, Send Message and Watch Video.

You can try the Book Now call to action with the Open Table app if you use it. There are other apps you can use with the Book Now function.

Or, you can direct people to your website if you have a reservation function there.

This is just another way the best restaurants are gaining traction on Facebook.

Final Thoughts

If you don’t currently have a Facebook page for your restaurant, it’s time to create a Facebook business page. If you do have a page, but you aren’t actively using it, take some of the examples mentioned here and tailor them for your restaurant.

When you use Facebook, you’ve got an immediate way to stay in touch with your restaurant customers. (tweet this) You can also easily find new ones.

The key to Facebook success lies in your timely, informative content and the value you provide to your followers.

It’s always a great idea to link your Facebook posts to landing pages on your website. This is just one reason your mobile-friendly, responsive, fresh website is so important.

Let us help jump start your digital marketing today. Take a tour of Restaurant Engine and launch your restaurant website this weekend!

We build responsive, mobile-friendly restaurant websites with dynamite online menus. Contact us today for your free website consultation. We are here to help you update your website and stand out in the crowd so you can stay ahead of your competition and grow your positive online presence with your restaurant website.

Images: Rob Bye and Toa Heftiba