Is Your Restaurant Ready for Google Plus?

We’ve talked at length about social media, including Facebook, Twitter and indeed Google Plus. The latter, however, is the new kid in the social media market, and is one every business should be taking advantage of. Google Plus for restaurants has the potential to offer you, the restaurant owner, a whole new market to tap in to at no cost other than time and effort. Whether you’re looking to connect with frequent customers, find new customers, or interact with fellow restaurant owners in your area, Google Plus is an ideal base to interact with those that matter to your business in your local area. Today, we offer you our tips to ensure you’re effectively marketing your Google Plus restaurant profile.

Why Should Restaurants Pay Attention to Google Plus?

With hundreds of millions of Google Plus users, there will undoubtedly be a healthy group of potential hungry diners in your local area who you can connect with, share your news with, and entice in to your restaurant.

With all that said, isn’t Google Plus just another Facebook or Twitter? While the concept of bringing millions of people together in one online space may be the same through all social media websites, Google Plus differentiates itself with features such as ‘circles’, ‘hangouts’ and Google Plus Local, which we talk more about below.

Use ‘Circles’ to Target the Correct Market

One of the biggest complaints about social media websites from business owners is the lack of ability to actively target specific parts of their audience. For example, imagine being able to share one message with people you know have already dined in your restaurant, another with those who haven’t dined with you, and another with those special regular customers whose favorite dish you know. With Google Plus Circles, this is exactly what you can do. Google Plus allows you to separate your audience in to meaningful circles, allowing you to get the correct marketing message to the correct people, ensuring your audience always find your messages relevant to increase the likelihood of them dining at your restaurant.

Taking your social media marketing beyond a content message and in to photos and video is a sure fire way to stand out above the crowd.

Use ‘Hangouts’ to Engage With Your Audience

While promoting your restaurant via status updates on Facebook and Twitter is very good, Google Plus makes it very easy to take your efforts one stop further by using a ‘Hangout’ to display live video content to your Google Plus audience. Take advantage of Google’s hangouts to offer living cooking classes from your chef, or show the live scene in your front-of-house or kitchen. Taking your social media marketing beyond content messages and in to photos and video is a sure fire way to stand out above the growing crowd of tech and social media savvy restaurants.

Use Google Plus Local to Display Your Customer Reviews

Google Plus has joined forces with Zagat, a restaurant ratings and review website, to bring Google Plus users reviews of restaurants from people they know. While Zagat offers reviews from anybody, including people you don’t know, Google Plus Local narrows down search results so customers can see what their friends thought about a restaurant.

For you, the restaurant owner, this means it’s now easier than ever for your customers to share reviews, ratings and photos related to their dining experience in your restaurant. And best of all, when they do this, all their Google Plus friends can see what they had to say, so a review of your restaurant could be shared with hundreds of other people.

However you use Google Plus, remember that all social media websites, be it Facebook, Twitter or Google Plus, require dedication, openness, and people skills to effectively build relationships with the right people. You get out of social media what you put in, so those who embrace it by actively engaging in conversation with others will see far better conversation rates than those that constantly promote their restaurant with no persona or finesse.

Do you use Google Plus for your restaurant? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.