Make Instagram, your best gastronomic ally

The first thing you should do if you have a restaurant is ask yourself, why should I be on Instagram? Since the answer is very clear, not only because of the current impact of this social network, but also because of the functionalities that are very close to your type of business, do you want to know what they are? Keep reading and we’ll tell you.

Food enters through the eyes

The basic principle of Instagram was, is and will continue to be, to share content from a visual perspective.

So this is a great advantage for all of us who have a restaurant, since we can showcase our culinary creations with quality photos or videos and have a very positive impact, both in terms of scope and engagement with the dishes and the environment We offer in our restaurant.

You can do the photos yourself or hire someone to do them, the intention is that they must meet the following aspects to bring true value to your business:

• Habe good quality (focus, resolution, light, colors, etc.)
• Represent your business clearly (dishes, environment and work team)
• Opting for original content (it’s always good to see what the competition does, but avoid copying the same ideas at all costs)
• Discover a new facet of yours as a photographer or creative director of your business

The best publicity is the recommendation

While it is true that the best publicity is the recommendation, since it is based on trust and does not seek (directly) incentives in return, more than the satisfaction of receiving a “thank you” for having made an honest recommendation.

Why not take advantage of this principle, mix it with the range that Instagram can give you and look for people willing to recommend you?

81% of people are influenced by those messages from their friends on social networks.

Surely you will be thinking about Influencers and if you are absolutely right, the influencers in the gastronomic sector have a lot of acceptance and impact on Instagram, since being very visual it is quite easy to transmit coherent messages and very enriching attractive.

Now, where do I start if I want to be recommended? Again I could tell you, it is something that you could execute yourself or request the services of a professional, what if you should take into account is the following:

• Identify people willing to recommend you in an honest way and do not just look for “eat from a free”.
• They are profiles close to the area where your business is located, since its followers can become your customers.
• That the quality of your content is in line with what you want to convey, since it depends on generating a good impression.
• Treat your influencers as one more client, since the experience he or she has will be faithfully transmitted in their publications.

Showcase for reservations

If you use El Tenedor or OpenTable to manage your reservations, did you know that Instagram can also help you with that?

A few months ago Instagram has launched the function of adding in the profile of professional accounts, the option to include a call to action linked to that can be booked from your Instagram profile. If you still do not have it active, you can contact your El Tenedor or OpenTable agent to help them activate it.

Once this is done, how about we go a little further and do an advertising campaign to promote your profile and increase the reserves? The key is to define the following aspects very well:

• The quality of the publication that you are going to promote. Focus both the image (I recommend using videos for promoted publications) and the text to encourage your potential customers to make a reservation. Use resources such as: a promotion, the launch of a new dish, take advantage of a special date …
• The target of your sponsored publication should be the ideal. This point although in many cases is the most “tedious”, do not be fooled by the function of Instagram to create an automated audience, because here you do not control anything and you really do not know to whom your ad will appear. Spend a little more time and think about your target, because the effectiveness of it will depend on it.
• If you have doubts about how to make an effective advertising campaign on Instagram, it is better to seek guidance from an expert to say: “I give automatic” or “my nephew does it to me since he / she spends all day in Instagram “… DO NOT throw your money away.

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