Social media has completely changed the landscape of how customers consume and shop. People today will research, plan, and make purchasing decisions based on the posts they see from content creators they follow.

This form of previewing and recommending products has also become a key part of how customers choose which restaurants and bars to try—making a strong social media strategy an important part of promoting your business.

Restaurants and bars have menu changes and events regularly, making more traditional forms of media too slow to help a business keep its current and potential new customers up-to-date. Social media posts open the door to more speed, efficiency, and flexibility to market menu items or promote upcoming events.

“We feel like when marketing without social media you aren’t able to show the inside and out of your establishment. You can show how your establishment works and the faces of your business before customers even arrive. Also with social media, you can view engagement, versus before, you didn’t really have an idea of who your information was getting out to,” states Mike Powell and Stefano Alessio of Mario’s Pizza and Tony’s Pizza, respectively.

Whether you own a food truck, restaurant, or bar a good social media strategy could be the difference maker that helps push your business to the next level.

Remember that it is called a “strategy” for a reason. While a viral moment on social media, when an Instagram post reaches a million people, looks like a quick fix because of how explosive and immediate those moments are, they generally have many hours of unseen work done beforehand. Kelly Pasour, with 7th Peak Marketing, says, “With our customers who we’ve seen the most success, it has taken months of consistent posting, using current trends and looking at what is working and what isn’t, in order to get that viral moment.” 

Nick Kalogeromitros has seen the importance of social media marketing with APS. “For us, social media is all about being on the offensive for sales. We’ve been putting money, effort, and time into social media for about nine years and we’ve really seen it pay off. It has helped establish APS as a brand and a contender against the huge companies we compete with for business. People recognize us because of our strong social media presence, which makes sales easier.” 

Preparation, execution and a willingness to try again when the first attempt was unsuccessful are all important parts of any marketing strategy. That has remained the same in the digital marketing landscape. A strong social media strategy can be a game-changer for small businesses and restaurants.