Top 10 tips for generating interest through social media


Hospitality businesses compete in one of the most competitive markets & when it comes to getting a potential customers attention it is more important than ever to have a strategy that involves more than word of mouth and opening the doors!

With this in mind, we have put together a list of the top 10 tips for generating interest through social media. Because we’re nice like that 🙂

 

  1. Get found where your customers spend their time – So we’re not saying your business MUST be found on all social media interfaces, quite the contrary in fact. It will be nearly impossible to manage a multitude of social media accounts so it will also be very difficult to keep them all up to date. If you can’t keep them up to date, they will stagnate! Customers might think that there is nothing happening at your business… or worse still they may think you have gone bust. We would recommend that using the top 3 social media applications.  This will give you exposure to over 90% of the market & ensure you don’t get overlooked.  Still think it will be difficult to manage these 3 social media apps? You can always install a social media manager such as Houtsuite that will post onto all 3 at the same time for you.
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  3. Join local groups on Facebook – Search Facebook for groups in your local area such as “Holloway Road Appreciation Society” and post in these groups when you have an interesting event / music night / special offer coming up. This is a great way of generating interest for your business but remember – do it too often & it will start to annoy people. This might get you removed from the group so beware!
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  5. Start your own group on Facebook – Are your posts not getting approved by the admin of other groups? Why not start your own! That’s right, there is no cost to set up a group & it takes just a few minutes to do. Have a think about who you want to target for this group & get it started by adding a few friends
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  7. Start a Facebook Page for your local area – Now this is slightly different from the above. Where a Facebook group is generally a private group, Facebook pages can be liked, viewed and shared by everyone. See an example here for a small town in South London.  Pro-Tip: Share posts on your page that are relevant to the local area & allow others to post on the page too. If it’s all you then people will eventually get fed up and stop listening!
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  9. Good use of #Hashtags – Twitter and Instagram rely on hashtags much more than Facebook does & this is a great opportunity for you to get your posts noticed. There is no point using #TheNameOfYourBusiness because no-one is likely to be searching for this unless they are already looking for you.  Try using localised tags such as the name of your town or tags that are relevant to your post such as #CAMRA #RealAle or #Brunch #Brighton.
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  11. Tag influencers – The success of this will depend on how well received the post is. Launching a new menu – why not try tagging a local celebrity or a food critic in your post? Having a Beer Festival – why not tag in the breweries from where you are getting the beer & also tag your local CAMRA branch! If the event is interesting to the people you tag they may turn up to give it a try as well as re-tweeting / sharing the post to generate further interest.
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  13. Are you portraying the right image? – No-one wants to see your poorly lit sausage and mash thats not in focus! Get yourself a good camera (Most modern camera phones work a treat) and set the stage. Experiment with different types of settings and lighting until the picture looks just right. You can use filters too – but ask yourself: Is the image a true reflection if the dish? If not, you are likely to disappoint your customers when they turn up for the beauty you shared on Instagram!
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  15. Boost your posts on Facebook – Due to Facebook changing their algorithm a few years ago, posts that are made by businesses are seen far less that posts made by people. This is to encourage businesses to pay to get their messages seen by customers. (Not cool – we know!) Sometimes you may wish to get a message shared quickly so it might be worth boosting a post.  There are several options for a boost which include boosting to followers, boosting to followers and their friends & selecting a geographic area to target.
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  17. Targeted advertising – Want to attract more birthday parties? Why not set an advert that is targeted towards people who have a birthday coming up!
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  19. Ask the experts – Although all of these things and more can be done by anyone with a computer and a credit card, we understand that it can be time consuming and costly if you don’t have the experience / time / desire to do it yourself. This is where we come in as we have many years of experience in the field & we have made enough mistakes in the past to know what works and what doesn’t.  Have a chat with one of our team and see just how we might be able to help you reach your goals.

 

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