![\"Restaurants](\"https:\/\/brizodata.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/brizo-restaurants-and-social-media-2021-chart.png\")
Image: The top social media platforms North American restaurants utilize, according to Brizo Data<\/a>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\nFacebook Is King<\/b><\/h3>\n
Facebook remains the largest social networking platform in the world with 2.89 billion monthly active users, according to Statista.com. Brizo data reveals that of the 892,811 restaurants in North America, nearly 650,000 have a presence on Facebook.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Maria Benvenuti, CEO of <\/span>Benvenuti Public Relations<\/span><\/a> in Manhattan, says, \u201cFacebook has become a business\u2019s calling card, its business card. And it acts as a home base for all your information. Plus, you can advertise there without disrupting your aesthetic, unlike Instagram.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Greer Goldstein, Social Media Manager at <\/span>GailPR<\/span><\/a>, which services clients in the New York City metropolitan area feels similarly. \u201cI think it\u2019s super important for restaurants to have a Facebook presence. While the algorithm has changed over the last few years, limiting who sees your posts, Facebook can be frustrating, but a lot of customers go to Facebook before they even go to your website,\u201d Goldstein says. And it offers ease of use. \u201cIt\u2019s a little more interactive than a site, although you should still have a proper website for your business, and Facebook can be easier to update to showcase specials, adjusted hours, and so on. It is also an important SEO tool for Google searches,\u201d she states.<\/span><\/p>\n Additionally, it is an important tool for discovery. Ashley Richards, Founder and CEO of <\/span>E Squared Marketing<\/span><\/a> in Arizona, notes, \u201cSay I\u2019m flying to Chicago. I\u2019m going to post on Facebook asking for restaurant recommendations. Friends and family will chime in with suggestions and tag the restaurants. As a result, I\u2019ll be clicking through to a restaurant\u2019s Facebook profile page, looking at what they\u2019re offering, photos, and reviews. So it\u2019s vital to have a presence there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Per Statista.com, Instagram has roughly one billion monthly active users. Brizo data clocks more than 335,000 food-service establishments on Instagram. It makes sense that Instagram is gaining on Facebook among restaurants because, as Hannah Fair, Associate Publicist at Benvenuti Public Relations, puts it, \u201cYou eat with your eyes first.\u201d For Goldstein, \u201cInstagram is my favorite platform for restaurants because it is visually oriented and that it lends itself so nicely to an establishment\u2019s food and space and even sharing behind-the-scenes imagery. And it doesn\u2019t have to be professional photography! Instagram is about being authentic.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Goldstein recommends using Instagram Stories to post about urgent news, such as closures. \u201cBy using Stories, a restaurant can maintain the aesthetic of their feed — plus they\u2019re fleeting, only lasting 24 hours,\u201d she says. Richards states, \u201cEngaging in Instagram Stories and Reels are huge components for restaurant marketing.\u201d Benvenuti concurs. \u201cIt\u2019s a big driver for reservations, so we encourage our clients to have fresh content, beautiful imagery on hand so we can strategically share it out for them,\u201d she says. \u201cReels are also a very influential tool to help restaurants identify new audiences and aid with discovery,\u201d she notes.<\/span><\/p>\n The best-run Instagram accounts focus heavily on engagement in addition to content. \u201cIt has to be a two-way street,\u201d says Goldstein. \u201cIf a diner comes into your restaurant and feels strongly enough that they posted a Story or an image, you need to comment and thank them for coming in and reshare it when possible. The customer will feel really good about it, like, this restaurant noticed me!\u201d She has even seen instances in which she will re-post a guest\u2019s Instagram only for that same guest to repost the restaurant\u2019s repost. \u201cIt\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, here\u2019s my 15 minutes of fame!\u2019\u201d Benvenuti and her team don\u2019t just spend time on diner engagement. \u201cWhen we see a client post something, we repost it and it not only helps us gain insights around what is happening in the restaurant in real-time; it lets us interact with them, and that helps drive client relations,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n Statista.com reports 206 million monetizable daily active users worldwide as of the second quarter of 2021, down from an all-time high of 336 million active users in early 2018. More than 260,000 restaurants have a presence on Twitter, according to Brizo data, although it\u2019s unclear how active the majority are.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI work with 40 plus clients and none of them are relevant on Twitter. I think that if you\u2019re famous or you\u2019re a politician, it\u2019s a great platform. Otherwise, restaurants should stay away,\u201d says Richards. Goldstein points out, \u201cTwitter has become more of a place for people to get news and catch up on something that might be trending.\u201d Goldstein doesn\u2019t have a lot of clients with a Twitter presence, but, she says, \u201cThe ones that do are there because they like it. Certainly, you could use it to inform diners about specials, but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the way people are using Twitter. You have to go where your audience is, and I think Twitter users are on the platform for reasons other than restaurants.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Having said that, however, Twitter has been a place for big restaurant brands, such as <\/span>Taco Bell<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Wendy\u2019s<\/span><\/a>, to shine. The strategy goes beyond sharing menu updates. Fair agrees. \u201cIf your restaurant has a funny personality, and Twitter is all about personality and quips, and when you\u2019re representing food, you can do that,\u201d she says. However, Goldstein cautions, \u201cIt needs to be done well — on-brand and reflective of your brand voice. It is a place for nationwide chains to be humorous or even eco-conscious. For these companies, it\u2019s possible to get lots of attention on Twitter, but for a small local restaurant, it\u2019s probably a different story.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Hootsuite notes that TikTok has 689 million global active users as of January 2021 and the platform is minting new influencers every day. But are restaurants embracing it — and should they be? It depends on whom you ask, really. Richards says, \u201cTikTok is new and a lot of restaurants have not yet captured and utilized that yet. I would recommend that even if they\u2019re not ready to jump in fully, they should at least sign up and save the handle for the restaurant.\u201d Goldstein doesn\u2019t think it is for every operator. \u201cIt\u2019s about giving people what they want to see. They don\u2019t want to be sold to or promoted to. It has to be clever, funny, and entertaining, and it\u2019s hard to do that well. So I don\u2019t tell everyone they need to be on TikTok. It\u2019s a case-by-case basis,\u201d she states.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Benvenuti recommends TikTok influencer partnerships as an easy way in to gaining TikTok fame on the platform. She says, \u201cWe had a client go viral recently with a TikTok that was viewed one million times in a day and 26 million times in two days. It is a Wagyu steakhouse, and once the TikTok hit, they were getting calls from concierges at luxe brands Rolls-Royce and Cartier making reservations, and, as a result, they were booked solid for the next six weeks!\u201d Another Benvenuti <\/span>influencer collaboration on TikTok<\/span><\/a> yielded north of 250,000 engagements and a significant Instagram follower growth for <\/span>Ichiran<\/span><\/a>, a ramen house.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Fair also favors using influencers on TikTok. \u201cIt\u2019s effective because you\u2019re getting someone else\u2019s perspective and you\u2019re getting to feel like you\u2019re in the restaurant so you get a clear idea of what your experience will be like,\u201d she says. And it drives business. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like a mini-review and a mini-experience that you can have before you walk in the door. When you see an influencer posting about a positive experience and it looks beautiful and the food looks delicious, you\u2019re going to make a reservation,\u201d she adds.<\/span><\/p>\n About Brizo Data, Inc.:<\/b>\u00a0Brizo Data helps the foodservice industry by providing the strategic data you need to win in your market. We empower restaurant vendors and restauranteurs with better data for Business Intelligence, Market Research, and Competitive Analysis. Brizo monitors the online footprint of every food serving establishment in the US and Canada \u2013 from social media presence, online reviews, menu items, market composition, and even technological choices.<\/p>\n More than ever, social media has become a de rigueur marketing strategy for restaurants across North America during these unpredictable times (Pandemic! Hurricanes! Heat waves! Labor shortages!). But as new platforms emerge (TikTok, anyone?) at breakneck speeds, are the big three outlets — Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram — still relevant? And, what\u2019s new next? We talked to three experts about their views on restaurants and social media in 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[10,9],"class_list":["post-695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bfm","tag-marketing","tag-social-media"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"restaurants](\"https:\/\/brizodata.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Brizo-restaurants-and-social-media-2021-ashley-richards.jpg\")
Image: Ashley Richards and the E Squared team<\/span><\/i><\/p>\nInstagram Remains Ideal<\/b><\/h3>\n
![\"restaurants](\"https:\/\/brizodata.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/brizo-restaurants-and-social-media-2021-Greer-Goldstein.jpg\")
Image: courtesy of Greer Goldstein of GailPR.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\nTwitter Comes in for a Landing<\/b><\/h3>\n
![\"restaurants](\"https:\/\/brizodata.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Brizo-restaurants-and-social-media-2012-wendys-twitter.png\")
TikTok, You Don\u2019t Stop!<\/b><\/h3>\n![\"restaurants](\"https:\/\/brizodata.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/brizo-restaurants-and-social-media-2021-benvenuto-pr.png\")
Image: Results from influencer partnerships for Benvenuti clients.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n
\nFor more information, questions or to set up a free trial contact\u00a0cheers@brizodata.com<\/a>\u00a0or click here \u2018Get Started for FREE<\/a>\u2019 .<\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"