Who are these tips for?
Working with hundreds of bars and restaurants to improve their Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, and overall internet presence, we’ve learned a lot. We’ve learned that most of us have been burned. We’ve paid consultants thousands of dollars. We’ve spend dozens of hours each week racking our brains. We’ve seen very little ROI and sometimes, we’ve even just given up on the whole damn thing. Maybe social media marketing is for yuppie millennials and their soy lattes after all.
But then we stumble upon a popular competitor and they have 12,000 likes on Facebook, another 10,000 followers on Twitter. Really? Why are these guys so popular? Are they just lucky?
Well, sometimes, yes, people get lucky and stumble upon a viral goldmine. But thousands of studies and many of the world’s brightest minds have spent their lives studying the underlying psychology and mechanics of social media. We’ve taken these abstract principles and boiled them down to 5 crucial tips that matter to bars and restaurants. These tips are for all owners, managers and employees in the hospitality who want to stop wasting time, pounding their heads against the wall, and start crushing social media.
Tip 1 - Social Currency
Thanks to the brilliant work of Wharton Marketing Professor and Author Jonah Burger as well as many others, we actually have a really good idea of what engages people on social media. What causes them to share? To like? To retweet and forward? The answer is astonishingly simple:
People share things that make them look cool
Ok, so what kinds of things make people look cool. Thousands of case studies suggest that there are 3 things that stand above the rest:
1. Things that are remarkable
Pretty obvious right? People can’t resist talking about things that are interesting, unique and noteworthy. Why? Because it makes them seem interesting, unique and noteworthy. Ever wonder why the weird hipster bar with a piece of crap homemade mini golf course in the back yard is killing it? Because it’s interesting to talk about. Every single Irish bar in Midtown Manhattan that is exactly the same? Not so much.
Find your businesses inner remark-ability. Do you have rare beers? Killer cocktails? Vintage video games? Brag about it. Post about it. Find people who will love and it and won’t shut up about it. And if there’s really nothing interesting and unique about your spot, maybe it’s time to think about adding something new.
Example 1: A ridiculously oversized Bloody Mary may seem a little over the top and unnecessary but it is remarkable, and is an example of something that will get people talking. "Have you guys seen the Bloody Marys at The Village Pub? They're insane!"
2. Make People Feel Like Insiders People are more likely to share exclusive things.
They feel like insiders, and this elevated sense of status is very brag-worthy. They also want their friends to feel like insiders. This applies perfectly to social media. Your fans and followers are a group of insiders because you have a direct mode of communication to them. Leverage it! Give them things that your average Joe can’t get. Don’t just post your generic $4 Taps happy hour. Think about it: there are a million of those. It happens every day. Why would I share that?
But what if you posted:
“Facebook fan exclusive TONIGHT ONLY. $1 BEERS. Share with friends and we might just let them have one too ;)”
Now not only do I feel like an insider for having the access and knowledge about this exclusive deal, I also have strong motivations to share (looking cool and getting my friends to come with me for a free beer).
3. Appeal to Emotions People share and respond to things that they care about
The world's best marketers don't hire athletes and supermodels in order to appeal to our logic. They get us to buy their products by hitting our emotions. Even a simple and ordinary post can be made more effective this way:
Instead of simply posting "1/2 off apps" or "happy hour from 5 to 7" or "$5 craft beer, $3 rails, 1/2 off glasses of wine" try posting something like -
"Worked hard all week? Our happy hour is perfect for catching up with good friends" or "Worked long hours? Take your family out and enjoy 1/2 off apps on our beautiful patio".
Tip 2 - Post way more often than you think you should
First let's dispel the biggest social media misconception that was preventing 100s of owners and managers we met from being successful on social media.
You are NOT spamming your customers.
Facebook and Twitter algorithms make it almost impossible for you to do so, even if you tried. On average each post you make is only seen by 3% of your fans. This means that each of your fans will only see one out of 30 posts you make. Even if you post several times a day, your fans will only see 2 to 3 posts a month. That's it. So to have any chance to get through to them, you cannot afford to skip a day. This leads to the golden rule of posting frequency:
Post to Facebook AND Twitter at least 3-4x a day, each
How do you get noticed between 500 million tweets and over 5 billion FB posts each day? You need to post 2 to 4 times and tweet 15 times every day. The reason for so many tweets is because they "disappear" quickly. Almost nobody will see your tweet after an hour. Research actually shows that the most popular Twitter accounts tweet 20 times a day on average.
Now we know what you’re thinking.. who the heck has time to post 20 times a day? It’s a valid point, and 20 for a bar or restaurant is a little excessive. However, sorry to toot our own horns again, but this is exactly why we built SpotHopper Autoposting. The idea is simple: software should post for you 2-4x a day, highlighting your events, specials, food and drinks. Learn more about SpotHopper Autoposting here.
Tip 3 - How to format your posts
This tip is pretty straightforward because millions of dollars have gone into how to perfectly format all of your posts, and there are a few key things:
1. Always Use Images
Countless research shows that you are wasting your time if you don't use images. Just look at what the world's best social media marketers like Starbucks or Buffalo Wild Wings are doing. You can scroll through thousands of posts and never find one without an image or a video. Still don't believe us? We talk to Facebook and Twitter regularity about how to be more effective and this is the thing they keep telling us over and over. People stop and look at images, and they just skip over everything else.
2. Always Include a Link
You want to hook your customers before they scroll down to some other post or tweet. One of the best ways to hook them is to have a link they can click to get to your menu or your calendar of specials, happy hours, and events.
3. Be specific
If you ran across these two posts one after another, which one would grab your attention?
Happy hour 5 to 7
or... Let Kate make you one of her amazing cocktails 1/2 off 5 to 7!
This is common sense, but there is actual science behind it. It's called the Ambiguity Effect and it simply means - To be effective you must be Very Specific. You need to tell your customers or potential customers exactly what they are getting and why they should get it. The more specific you are, the greater the chance you'll hook'em.
SpotHopper posts include photos, links and always highlight a specific reason customers should come in. Schedule a 15 minute meeting to learn more.
Tip 4 - Social Proof
After you post something, Facebook shows it to a handful of people. If nobody likes it, shares it, comments, or clicks on it, your post is "dead".
However, if the initial people who saw it do any of those things, Facebook's algorithm "concludes" that this post is worth showing to more people.
It's that simple.
So, unless your posts have links that can be clicked and pictures that will be liked, your chance of reaching a lot of your fans is slim to none.
How do we solve this problem?
First, your posts have to be click and like worthy (see tip 3). Second, make sure you get your employees, friends, regulars to like all of your things ASAP. This is why we built our Free Boost feature for SpotHopper customers. It automatically texts your employees a link to each new post, instructing them to like and share to hack the algorithm and get more views. Learn more about Free Boost here
*If any of your employees prefer not to receive these text, they can opt out by simply texting the word "stop". The opt-out instructions are also automatically sent to them via text.
Tip 5 - Targeting and Scheduling
The picture below was from a real, boosted Facebook post. Anything wrong with it?
If you like scallops, nothing is wrong. But 41% of the general population does not like scallops.
The second problem with this post, though you can’t tell from the image, is timing. This post was made at 11 AM. Scallops are rarely eaten for lunch, so presumably the post was made early in the day in hopes that it would be seen by people before dinner. However, only 10% of Facebook usage happens between the hours 5 and 6pm. Furthermore views trail off over time. How do we solve this problem?
First, schedule your posts. Tools like SpotHopper autoposting actually automatically schedule posts about food items for 5pm and happy hours an hour before they begin.
If you want to really target however, consider taking advantage of Facebook’s Boosting feature, where you can chose to only show your posts during certain times, and target to a ridiculous degree of accuracy, including, coming full circle, only people who like scallops.
Facebook and Twitter have spent 100s of millions of dollars so that you can perfectly target your audience. They have done it because large savvy marketers from fortune 500 companies have demanded it. They have demanded it because they don't want to waste money advertising to people who don't care about their products. You shouldn't either.
So, for example, if you want to boost your wine special to female customers in their 20s who like wine, you can easily do that.
If you want to advertise your new seasonal cocktail menu to people who love craft cocktails, promote your rare wine collection to wine lovers whose household income is over $150k a year, or promote $1 beer night to college students, you can easily do all of those things as well. You can pretty much find the ideal audience for anything that you are trying to promote.
Not sure how to set up boosting or targeting? Don’t worry here’s the step by step:
Step 1: Go to Ads Manager.
Step 2: Click on Audience Insights.
Step 3: Create and Save Several Audiences (like the beer and wine examples above).
Step 4: Then, depending on what you are promoting, choose from the list of saved "audiences" when boosting your posts or creating your ads.
If you still have questions on how to do this, let us know, we can walk you through it. If you are subscribed to SpotHopper Premium Service, we'll do it for you.
What's Next?
How do you take all this knowledge and turn it into action? We recommend starting by creating a totally free account on www.spothopperapp.com. You can start using the tools that we built specifically for these 5 tips right away with no commitment.
Add your happy hours and drinks (remember to make them unique and remarkable!), then add some events and maybe even exclusive specials for your fans. SpotHopper will automatically schedule, post and format them perfectly for you.
You can get started with up to 1 post a day for free, and if you ever want to post more you can upgrade to Premium for a fraction of the cost of a consulting firm.
If you want to talk to us about how to improve your social media and marketing just fill out the form below and we will be happy to give you a call!
