In this review, I will focus on the tasks of starting promotion of a bar / cafe / restaurant in social networks. This is an important channel for building communication with visitors, attracting and involving them in the life of the establishment. The article briefly lists 10 of those “needs” for the owner and art director.
1. You need to create communities in key social networks. The choice for this or that network should fall based on the portrait of your audience. Here are the simplest guidelines for making decisions and choosing in favor of one or the other networks:
2. You need to use a universal name for all communities and regardless of the network. One word name, compound name or even an abbreviation – this address must be available to you in each of the selected networks. This will provide a stable and secure information field for your establishment.
3. You need to start your establishment on Foursquare. Be sure to get the rights to manage it in this service. Now the confirmation of the application will cost you 20 USD, but believe me, it’s worth it. Foursquare is a recommendation service that allows users to explore new places or select an establishment for a specific purpose: dinner, lunch, meeting with friends, date; and Swarm, which is a geolocation service with game elements – where you indicate places you visit and reward your friends when they check in at places that appeal to you. These two services are integrated, so you just need to create a place on Foursquare for it to appear in Swarm.
4. You need to add information about your institution to all existing aggregators (information thematic portals – information collectors).
5. You need to order reviews (reviews, comments) for aggregators and foursquare. When users come across information about your establishment or make a decision to visit it, they will rely on what others say, what their predecessors say. But do not resort to false, do not ask to write flattering and fake reviews. There is a simpler and more practical way: choose the so-called opinion leaders on each resource (be it Foursquare – experts on your city or experts on the type of your institution – users with a large volume of reviews; users who left reviews on restaurants, the level and delivery of which you would like to be equal) – invite them to visit your institution in exchange for a review. You will meet new people and receive real, truthful reviews.
6. Need to design communities – use universal, branded graphics. It is important to pay serious attention to this point, as these images, which are only 100-200 pixels wide, will sell your establishment to your potential visitors. It is useful to combine an avatar with contact information so that users can always translate contact with advertising material into personal communication, without bothering to find the administrator’s phone number or site address. It is useful to use the descriptor or tagline of your institution – the main call supporting its concept.
7. It is necessary to place the restaurant’s menu. Even if you do not have delivery, know that a) it is practical and b) for most users it is extremely important to be able to get acquainted with the food and drinks available for ordering online c) it is important for almost every user to form an opinion about the price positioning of your establishment. Facebook- do it in albums. Instagram – post in the format of regular posts (if you do not have 300-500 positions, then this is absolutely acceptable). If this is vk.com, then try out the new functionality of the catalog of goods for communities.
8. It is necessary to connect the service of scheduling and deferred publications. This will allow you to observe the required frequency of posting, prepare content in advance and minimize possible errors (I mean spelling and punctuation) – due to the fact that you avoid an emergency mode of preparing materials. But be careful with scheduling services, social media. networks can block such posts and place restrictions on your accounts.
9. You need to connect the “activation” service, the service that sends thanks or greetings to the user who joined the community. It will allow you to establish communication with a community member from the moment you join it. Use the service – it opens in front of you the lists and accounts of those who have subscribed to your group. The service also allows you to automate the sending of invitations and thanks, but do not get carried away with this, because of all the effectiveness in personalizing communication – write sincerely and on your own behalf. Thank you for joining and offering a bonus, a gift – a privilege to the user who has become your subscriber.
10. You need to analyze the results. Use built-in systems for collecting statistics from social media services. Define for yourself the most important KPIs (KPIs – key performance parameters) and focus on them (the size of the community audience cannot be the only parameter – it rather gives an understanding of the effect, rather than the effectiveness). Pay special attention to the engagement rate – the ratio of likes / reposts / comments per post to the total number of subscribers. This is the most important parameter that will tell you which topics are successful and which fail.
These are 10 simple guidelines to get you off to a good start in promoting your establishment on social media. Do not forget that building communication in social networks is your investment; this tool will not provide a momentary result in the growth of visits to a newly opened establishment. Build it interactively and personalized.
