Your restaurant is making one of these social media mistakes? Oh no...

As a restaurant, having a successful social media strategy can be the differentiator between you and your competitors, and if not executed correctly, it can actually turn customers away.

Here are 5 mistakes that I see restaurants making on social media:

1. Not investing in content production
This is crucial. Social media platforms are incredibly visual and not investing in photo & video content means that you are not giving yourself a chance to stand out. Beautiful content on your food and venue is what will provide reasons for your followers to come and visit you and if they don't look appealing, chances are they will move on to the next venue.

2. Not providing value
Photos and videos are nothing without context. Restaurants often think that posting good content would be enough, but that would not turn viewers into customers. People nowadays are more and more conscious about where to invest their money so you need to give the reasons why they should prefer you over other businesses. Any special dishes? Offers? Sustainability initiatives? Make sure you promote all of those on your platform to tell your story!

3. No branding
Your restaurant page shouldn't be treated as a personal one. Often I see restaurant owners posting unrelated content to their businesses social media pages or generally contrasting branding being posted across social media platforms. They are an extension of your brand and a pretty powerful one so they should match your other marketing assets (website, email, offline adverts) in their look and feel - including colour palette and fonts.

4. No community management
People on social media are either potential customers or current customers, and it would be a huge mistake to think they would be staying on your platform if you don't engage with them. Make sure you spend time daily to reply to comments, interact with your followers and influencers and reply to reviews, reshare stories you are tagged in and be a conversation starter. People will notice and will want to interact with you more!

5. You can't do it all
Generally, the big mistake is assuming that anyone can do social media. Nowadays, there is so much noise around Hospitality businesses that either you do it right or you'd stand out for all the wrong reasons. If you don't have a budget for a dedicated social media person, invest in a one-off social media coaching session or in a social media training for one of your team members. You will get a better grasp of what this complicated world is all about, and you will be more strategic about how you invest your time on it!