How to Create a Restaurant Facebook Profile
Facebook has 1.62 billion daily active users and 2.45 billion monthly active users as of October 2019 and those numbers continue to increase. With a potential customer pool of billions of people, Facebook can be an integral piece of a restaurant’s marketing strategy. Can your restaurant benefit from Facebook? Most likely, yes. We’ve written before about social media best practices, but is there a value to focusing on how to create a restaurant Facebook profile? Let’s look at how can Facebook be used efficiently and in the best way for your restaurant.
All About Facebook for Business
Business pages and ads saturate the platform and individual timelines. There are 60 million active business pages on Facebook. When it comes to Facebook marketing efforts, the goals of those strategies vary: 34% of marketers’ goal was to increase brand awareness, 21% hope to increase community engagement, and 11% expect to increase sales and lead generation. Brands and marketers are turning towards Facebook to reach their target audience and get as much information about their customers as possible. According to OmniKick, companies get more information from Facebook about web users than Google.
When it comes to Facebook, the question becomes, should you or shouldn’t you create a page for your restaurant. We think it’s in your best interest. Why? There are many reasons, most importantly, over 20% of the world’s population is on Facebook. Next, let’s get into social media’s influence on brand exposure; 70% of consumer purchases made at local businesses originate on social media. If a customer finds your business page on Facebook, then likes and follows that page, they are looking for content and updates on your page. They are also considering the community’s opinion as 88% of people trust the opinions of friends and strangers about businesses on Facebook. Consider this: if you have a Facebook page full of positive restaurant reviews accompanied by well-lit photos taken by customers, these items can draw new potential customers. Facebook, like any other tool, is best when used efficiently.What’s the Point?
Usually, when Facebook users “like” a brand’s page, they take action because they have purchased from the brand or used that brand’s product or service. People also like and follow Facebook business pages for inside information when it comes to deals and promotions. By following that business’s Facebook page, the incentive is assumed to be either 1) contributing to the page’s content or 2) being the first person to know something about any deals, promotions, or initiatives. Keep in mind that people are using Facebook in these ways:
- Groups
- Events
- Business Pages
- Messenger
Best Practices for Facebook
Once your restaurant has decided to create and maintain a Facebook business page, take these best practices and tips into consideration:
- Create a business page. A business page doesn’t involve your customers having to request the access a personal page would require. These pages allow for more information about your brand that your customers can access in one place. A business page also allows businesses to add a call-to-action button.
- Add a call-to-action button to your page. This will drive customers directly to your website.
- Use visual content. Customers are 40x more likely to share visual content on social media than other types of media.
- Use milestones. This is an exciting strategy that would mark and track your company’s events, awards, and new location openings.
- Have a posting strategy. As with other marketing initiatives, it’s always good to have a plan.
- Be engaging. Your posts should introduce your audience to your brand’s identity. Your content should encourage people to share that information and want to continue that conversation.
- Complete your about section. Your business page is an all-in-one stop for users to gather information about your business.
- Be human and have fun. You don’t want your brand to seem robotic. Using a fun, unique voice can encourage engagement and using a variety of content can help to make sure your audience will continue to interact with your company on social media.
- Post consistently. You want your content to be seen and to rank on Facebook’s algorithm. This isn’t to say post every hour, but posting regularly throughout the week can help to build trust with your audience and keep you at the top of your audience’s mind.
Of course, these are the best practices in creating and maintaining your Facebook business page. Bonfire Marketing has more stylistic tips and strategies, especially when creating posts and pieces of content.
Some Tools to Help You
If you’re concerned that you won’t have the capacity to hire someone to manage your Facebook page full-time, don’t worry! Scheduling tools, like Sprout Social and Hootsuite, can help with planning content in advance. These tools allow you to schedule content by offering peak post times to ensure the most engagement and also provide metrics to track the performance of your social media efforts. Another huge plus – a lot of these tools are free and there are many types.
Ready to Jump In?
Facebook, like all social media efforts, is unpredictable. Every business has different needs and goals when it comes to social media or marketing in general. Your Facebook page serves as a place for users to find useful information, find out about promotions and deals, engage with other customers, post their content, and provide insights like reviews, likes and comments. Knowing how to create a restaurant Facebook profile will put a restaurant in front of a huge audience and also generate sales and leads. Face it, if your restaurant isn’t on various social media platforms you’re leaving money on the table!
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