How to broaden your customer base with: Instagram Stories & Sponsored Facebook Posts

KEY INSIGHTS

• Instagram Stories can be used to personalise your brand and showcase your food in an engaging and interactive way
• Short videos with your chef speaking about menu items or showing back of house staff at work are among the most popular with consumers
• User generated content from satisfied customers is also a major component
• Facebook sponsored posts allow you to tailor your posts to match target demographics

Instagram Stories and Facebook sponsored posts and are powerful tools to reach your target audience and expand your customer base.

Instagram Stories, which can be rapidly scrolled through by users, provide a powerful means to showcase your food in an engaging and interactive way. You can use Instagram Stories to personalise your brand, not only by sharing images of your most popular menu items but by taking your audience on a ‘behind the scenes’ look into the kitchen.

Short videos with your chef speaking to camera about his latest menu creation or special dish, or showing your back of house staff working as a team with dedication and commitment to their task, are among the most popular Instagram Stories to resonate with consumers when looking at foodservice accounts, says Jacob Ritchie of social media company Two Birds Social.

“Just be sure to shoot your video in the correct aspect ratio for the application,” he adds. “Many times we’ve had restaurant managers come out while we’re doing a shoot and they’re shooting additional footage to put up as a ‘behind the scenes’ Instagram story, but they’re shooting in landscape when Instagram Stories are always presented in portrait format.”

User generated content (UGC) from satisfied customers is also a major component of successful foodservice Instagram accounts. Influencers are also a major part of the social media landscape and can be utilised to boost your business’ profile. Jacob advises, “Make sure that whoever you approach as an influencer has followers in the target demographic you’re going for. They need to be the right fit for your business.”

Instagram Stories also has interactive features including quizzes, questions and stickers and these are useful for driving customer engagement and feedback, which is valuable for helping you identify customer preferences and tastes.

A Facebook sponsored post is another helpful social media tool as it enables you to target your audience based on demographics including age, gender, location and interests. This means you can tailor your posts to match this demographic, then target it to those potential customers most likely to be interested in what your menu or venue has to offer – increasing the likelihood of turning clicks into food sales.

Whichever social media tools you’re using, it’s a good idea to track the performance of any promotional campaigns or initiatives through the available metrics generated by the platform. In the case of both Facebook and Instagram this includes clicks, likes and shares. This can help you identify which posts are resonating with potential customers and which aren’t – you can then refine your approach as needed to optimise future communication for the best results.

It’s also imperative to ensure that all your social media posts align with your brand values, ie create an impression which is in keeping with the image, style and presentation that you want your business to evoke. Jacob says, “Authenticity is part of the key to building trust and establishing a loyal customer base. You need to have an authentic voice which is engaging, communicative and social – it’s called social media for a reason! And remember people love food, but they love people more – that’s what generates the most engagement and response.”

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