Successful restaurants have all understood this: social networks are the ideal place to strengthen your brand identity and attract new customers. But which ones should you prioritize when you're a restaurateur in a hurry and don't have time to spread yourself too thin? We'll put them to the test and tell you where to focus your energies, depending on your target audience. And at the end of the article, you'll find THE restaurant social network to choose if you only have to activate one!
At first glance, Twitter isn't the best choice of social network for a restaurant. The first limitation is that its area of influence diminishes significantly outside major cities. If you're in Paris, Lyon or Marseille, where the density of Twitter users is greatest, it can be very useful. Twitter is recommended for its audience (2.7 million unique visitors per day in France, according to Médiamétrie, September 2019 figures) and its interactivity. It's an interesting social network for disseminating special offers, news, events... It's also very practical for restaurant chains, for whom it plays the role of customer service. Otherwise, use it as a complement to other social networks, why not by activating the automated relay of your Instagram or Facebook posts.
Facebook's strike force is unrivalled (28.1 million unique visitors per day in France), making it a must for restaurants. Even if you're not there yet, chances are your customers have already been looking for you on Facebook. In fact, its completeness (and visibility on Google) means it can act as a showcase for restaurants that don't have a website.
Even if you don't have the time to update it daily, we recommend that you at least create a Facebook page for your restaurant and feed it with basic information, your graphic identity and professional photos of your dishes and dining room. Finally, the platform offers a major advantage for restaurants: it features a "Book" button that you can activate and connect with your own reservation platform. Once your page is up and running, don't hesitate to post content regularly and boost it with Facebook ads.
That's where millenials and Generation Z are! With 13 million unique visitors a day, Snapchat attracts a large majority of young people (85% under 35). Do you make fast'n'good for 16-25 year-olds ? Snapchat is particularly popular with this age group (and younger ones too). Snap lends itself to all forms of playful, offbeat content, in photo format, live or even by creating a personalized filter for your restaurant.
It's not necessarily the first social network that comes to mind, and yet! Pinterest is thought to be the second most useful social network for a restaurant, behind Instagram. The reason: centered on images, it's the ideal place to spread food porn photos, whether they come from you or your customers! What's more, there's less competition than on Instagram. Pinterest attracts a healthy average of 1.9 million unique visitors a day. What's special is that women make up the majority, with 70% of subscribers, making it a must-have social network if you want to attract a female audience to your restaurant.
Of course, Instagram is the ideal social network for building awareness of your online restaurant based on your brand identity. If you don't have a lot of time, we advise you to focus your energy on Instagram. There are two main reasons for this: engagement and the power of images.
A food porn paradise, Instagram is the must-have social network for restaurants. We therefore advise you to post regular updates with good content, at least 4 or 5 times a week. The social network has an incomparable strike force: with 28 million unique visitors per month (in France alone!), it's the second-largest social network after Facebook. What's more, it's as engaging as ever: the average Instagrammer spent 53 minutes on it every day in 2018.
Instagram is perfect for restaurants that want to develop a brand identity by showcasing an offbeat style. When posting, hashtags are essential to make your content go viral. For all these reasons, it's the best online sounding board for your restaurant, especially if you're targeting a young, urban audience (71% of active users are under 35).
Ultimately, each social network can be useful for your restaurant. The key is to develop a strategy that's adapted to each platform, while maintaining a consistent graphic charter and tone to spread your brand identity across all channels.
