The sights and sounds of Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Tik-Tok have changed the way small hospitality businesses undertake their marketing. To some extent, social media has levelled the playing fields for them too. Having said that, it’s important to keep an eye on the ROI of social media marketing activities. Otherwise, it can easily blow the budget. Besides, social media marketing isn’t a magic pill for a business’ marketing woes. Here, we share goals that matter when you undertake social media marketing.

1. Grow your followers

One of the basic functions of social media is to grow followers and following. For a start, it’s important for you to know the social media channels they can be found or hang out. With this information, you can do several things to encourage a following. If you run a restaurant, you can offer check-ins to diners via their preferred platform. When they’re online on your premises, others in their network will be exposed to your restaurant too.

2. Showcase your products

A picture paints a thousand words. In the restaurant business, it’s a well-known fact people feast with their eyes. In the words of well-known chef Andrew Zimmern, “if it looks good, eat it!” Be generous in posting and sharing pictures and videos of your food. Capturing the consumption moment of your food will communicate its appetite appeal. Its the shortest route to creating the response “WOW! That looks good.”

3. Nurture engagement

Without engagement, your social media endeavour is one-way traffic. Garnering likes alone isn’t enough. It may or may not reach others. But when there’s engagement, sharing and re-posting will follow. Encouraging diners to post selfies or wefies when they are at your restaurant helps. Another activity you can consider is creating interesting polls, for example, “Is ice cream an Arabian, Chinese or American invention?”

Investing in social media marketing is inevitable in today’s environment. Keeping a close watch on the related expenses is important too. Your profit and loss statement is a good point of reference for this purpose. Connect here to learn how to use your P&L statement effectively.