21 Social Media Content Ideas For Restaurants & Cafes

Having a solid social media strategy is an essential part of running a successful F&B business. Why? Simple. Your customers are on social media!

Did you know that 78% of people said that social media posts from companies influence their buying decisions?

This is due to the rise of online shopping and the amount of time people spend on social media.

According to Deloitte, consumers who are influenced by social media are4 times more likely to spend more on purchases!

By using social media to your advantage, your restaurant or cafe can look forward to:

• increased sales

• increased customer loyalty

• better brand reputation.

Currently, most F&B businesses in Malaysia use social media to engage their customers. If you arent amongst them, its time to join in!

However, coming up with a social media content strategy can be challenging. Fortunately, as an F&B business owner, youre in a great position as you have lots of content to work with!

Here are 21 social media content ideas for your F&B business!

1. Lifestyle posts

Lifestyle pictures are great for showcasing whats great about your business. For your F&B business, this will normally be an aesthetically pleasing photo of your store or a tempting food photo.

Customers tend to judge food by its picture. As the saying goes, we eat with our eyes first!

So show them what they want to see, something that will get their appetite worked up. For example, a close-up picture of cheese or an egg yolk oozing out of your dish.

Learn how to take delicious food photos here

2. Showcase your signature dishes

Share recommendations for your top menu items. You can post individual photos, a collage or even a short video showcasing each popular dish.

Add a mini description of whats included in these dishes to encourage customers to try something new!

3. Food preparation demo

Believe it or not, customers love seeing how their food is made.

This means a type of content to create can be a demo showing the preparation that goes into a popular dish.

This could be a photo showing each individual ingredient or a video of the dish being put together.

4. Behind-the-scenes

Give your customers a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes action that goes on in your restaurant or cafe.

This is particularly important during COVID-19 as people have concerns about the measures restaurants are taking to ensure health and safety when it comes to takeout and delivery orders.

An easy way to do this is by sharing a video of your sanitising methods or posting a photo of your staff in their gloves and masks.

5. Meet the team

Dedicate a few posts to introduce the people who work for you!

Leverage their individual talents, personalities and passions! Adding this human element to your social media postings helps to build customer relationships by allowing them to understand the culture of your store and getting to know the employees beforehand.

Additionally, publicly acknowledging the people behind your brand is a great way to bring them well-deserved recognition. It also helps to boost brand like-ability and engagement!

This encourages your employees to re-share the post on their social media platforms, which then boosts the reach of your post.

6. Cross-promote your social media accounts

Its not uncommon to find one social media account doing better than the others.

For example, do you have a ton of Facebook likes but just a few followers on Instagram?

Use your most popular social media channels to promote the other platforms. This helps to build more touchpoints with your customers.

7. Reshare user-generated content (UGC)

Did you know that 50% of consumers say that seeing user-generated content would increase their chances of buying products through a brands social media?

Look for beautiful photos taken by your customers through:

• The location tag on Instagram to find photos taken at your restaurant

• Hashtag search with your restaurant name

• Facebook or Twitter search with the name of your restaurant

• Checking out the photos and posts your account has been tagged in

With the original owners permission, you can share or repost their beautiful photos onto your page!

8. Announcements

No matter how big or small, its important to share information with your followers!

This could be a news announcement related to your operations (e.g. a change in operating times) or even sharing a recent accomplishment (e.g. selling out for the day).

Here are some ideas:

• Relevant news and updates

• New store location

• Receiving an award

• New menu item

• New employees

9. Promote seasonal menu items

As you may well know, each season brings in new waves of ingredients and customers.

Whether its your latest CNY bundle or Valentines set, highlight these new menu additions with delicious-looking photos thatll leave customers hungry for more.

Make sure to create a sense of urgency by mentioning that these items are seasonal and are only available for a limited time.

10. Customer reviews

Dont underestimate the power of customer reviews!

Reviews dont only have the power to influence a consumers decision to purchase from you, but it can also strengthen your brands credibility by gaining consumer trust.

Customers also love reading about other people's experience.

So show off your best customer reviews! Try to aim for at least one flattering review each week.

11. Greeting post

When a big celebration or holiday nears, take the time to prepare a simple greeting post.

For example, wishing your customers a Happy Chinese New Year shows them that you care!

12. Current or upcoming promotions

Are you currently running any special promotions or deals for Chinese New Year or other big occasions?

Or do you have any upcoming promotions? Create a post and let your customers know!

You can even create hype around it by announcing a countdown for something special.

13. Relevant memes and quotes

Post a few light-hearted quotes that fit your restaurants theme and dishes. For example, if youre running a Japanese restaurant, post Japanese quotes or puns.

People also love to be entertained. Keep up with relevant trends by putting your own spin to the trending memes!

14. Questions, polls and surveys

Interacting with your audience is a crucial part of social media marketing!

An easy way to encourage follower engagement is by asking people questions through polls or surveys. Luckily for you, Instagram and Facebook have a question and poll feature that is super easy to use!

You can also use this opportunity to conduct market research at the same time by asking your customers what their favourite menu item is or even get them to vote on a new menu addition.

15. Support local causes and promote community activities

Share local events that you think your customers would care about.

If you partnered with a local charity, publish a post that encourages your customers to donate to their latest campaign.

If you participated in or sponsored a charitable campaign, post photos of you and your staff in attendance.

16. The story behind your restaurant

Customers love reading about a brands origin story. Share a brief history of your restaurant to give customers a better insight into your F&B business.

Dedicate a post that talks about who founded the restaurant and how it got started.

What is your restaurant best known for? Where did the name come from? As simple or elaborate as the story may be, it humanises the business which helps to connect with customers.

17. Share a recipe

Got an easy recipe for a menu item that your customers love? Why not share the recipe so theyll be able to recreate their own version at home?

You could make this a fun activity by encouraging your customers to tag you in their creations!

18. Social media takeover

Have someone new takeover your restaurants social media account!

Give access to one of your employees or even an extremely loyal customer to do an account takeover.

This allows your customers to see your restaurant and your food through the eyes of someone new!

However, do make sure you outline specific rules and instructions when allowing someone to take over. They should know the basic dos and donts whilst still having enough creative freedom to showcase their perspective.

19. Livestream

There has been a recent increase in live videos as it has been proven to increase your accounts organic reach and engagement.

Try live streaming a restaurant tour or a dish preparation from start to finish.

You can even go one step further and live stream a Mukbang!

20. Share food tips and tricks

A great way to engage with your customers is by sharing relevant tips and tricks!

This could as simple as sharing the best food combo pairings from your menu items.

Alternatively, since food delivery is at an all time high, you could also share tips on how to best enjoy or reheat packaged food.

21. Delivery/pick-up options

This content idea directly applies to the current COVID-19 situation.

Post on social media and inform your customers about your delivery or pick-up options on a regular basis.

During these uncertain times, things are constantly changing and some businesses have unfortunately closed their doors for good.

This is why its super important to let your customers know that you are still open to business and are capable of delivering to them.

Looking for a delivery platform thats quick and easy to set up?

Why not sign up with Beep Delivery?

With Beep Delivery, youll:

• Pay lower commission fees so you can keep most of your margins

• Sell on a platform with over 300,000 users (that is still continuing to grow rapidly)

• Expand your delivery range to 20km compared to other food delivery platforms that cover only 3-5km

• Be able to let your customers pre-order and pick up at their preferred time

• Upload, update and manage your online menu in just a few clicks

• And much more!