Q&A

Nearly every restaurant has a social media presence these days, but some do it much better than others. el Restaurante Publisher Ed Avis quizzed Mark Sorenson, president of Social High Rise, a restaurant social media management company, about what makes the best restaurant social media stand out.

Ed Avis: Many restaurants use social media to talk about promotions and specials. Is that the best content to deliver? Mark Sorenson: They should talk about much more than just specials — it should be a storytelling endeavor. Consumers want to hear about who they are, what they are, and what they stand for more than they want to be sold to. The story is everything from the history of the restaurant — where it’s come from, throwback stories from the past, everything about the concept. It’s about the owners and their inspiration. And the concept itself is about the things that they care about, the ways they get involved in the community, the ways that they give back or donate or sponsor. Of course, they also want to talk about their food. It’s not that you can’t talk about specials and events, but if that’s all you say, it cheapens the relationship.

EA: Can you give us some examples?

MS: It could be showcasing one of their food suppliers, or where they source their ingredients. Or the Little League team they sponsor. It could be the picture of the guy delivering kegs of beer in the back, or a new employee. Restaurant owners are almost too close to the restaurant to recognize interesting opportunities to tell a good story. They think their story is mundane. But to their guests, that story is new and interesting. It helps them feel more emotionally bonded…like they have insight that makes them feel closer to that restaurant. Those feelings are exactly what gets guests to come more often, spend more money, spread more word of mouth. All of the things that you want them to do, they’ll do if they feel closer to you.

EA: But at some point, you need to post about your Taco Tuesday promotion or your Happy Hour, right?

MS: I’ll put it this way, the more we do this kind of work, the more I realize that the value of posting on social media is the long-term goal of keeping your audience engaged and active and caring about what you have to say. The more you can delay the ask, the more you can put off asking your audience to buy from you, to spend money with you, the better. They know you sell food and they already like it, otherwise they wouldn’t follow your page. But in the back of people’s minds, they’re always expecting the sell. The longer you can delay that, it takes the pressure off, and they want to share you with everyone they know. That’s how you get them to spread better word of mouth. That’s how you get them to pay attention to your deals when you do end up posting them. So, try to delay the ask for as long as you can.

EA: Many restaurant owners find it hard to make the time to create posts, or to write something interesting. How long should these posts be?

MS: For the most part less is more. Simple is better. If you’re telling a story, people will be more likely to read it if it’s a simple snippet. If it’s the keg guy, it’s just a simple shot. I mean, it’s not so much his life story, but you might snap a picture of that guy with a crate full of kegs wheeling in the back, smiling and giving his salute, and you shout out, say, “Hey, we love Jeremy, we see him every Thursday, and he’s the best.” Or if Jeremy did have something special that you knew about him, you could definitely share that: “And by the way, Jeremy’s also the coach for the Little League team, and they’re going to the playoffs this year.” The primary element to have in your social media is authenticity — even if you are not super good at technology, being authentic with that, but still doing it. When you see some of the best content out there, it’s not polished. It looks amateur. It feels amateur. But you can tell it’s real and it’s authentic. You can feel the sincerity, you can feel the emotions, and that’s what we’re after. That’s what we connect to as humans.

EA: Should the restaurant get staff involved, or designate one person to handle social media?

MS: If you have staff with a little bit of creative chops to write and compose, to be creative, I think you should include multiple people. The challenge is, and what we often see, is that there’s nobody really leading or directing the effort. You have four or five or six people helping out with social media, but it’s just hit-and-miss. Everyone’s assuming somebody else is doing it because that’s not their primary job. On the other hand, having different people’s perspective is a good idea. At the end of the day the story that you tell [should] include many voices.

EA: How do you encourage customers to post about your restaurant?

MS: By paying attention to them. On social media, what people want is attention. You can feature their photo, like the content they created, maybe comment on it — that’s going to signal to them that you’re paying attention, that you see them. You’re helping them feel validated, cared about, valued, all the feelings we want our guests to feel. You can give them those feelings when they’re not inside the restaurant by paying attention to them on the internet, on social media. That naturally will get them to want to do more of that activity, because they get the dopamine hit, they get the adrenaline rush of seeing that somebody liked them or tagged them or paid attention to them, featured them even. So, the next time they come in, which they will, they’ll take another photo and tag the restaurant again and try to be seen.

EA: We hear a lot about TikTok these days. Is that as important as FaceBook and Instagram?

MS: Instagram and Facebook are the most important platforms. They have the most users, the most diverse users. Those two plat- forms are absolutely a must. But TikTok is also important. There’s a whole young generation of people who [use TikTok as] their primary social media source. With TikTok we say, “Look, give it to somebody. Give it to one of your employees who knows the platform and who is interested in managing it. Let them goof off, let them do the trends, the dance trends, let them be creative and let that be an outlet for them and get them involved.” I think that you can have a great, engaging TikTok presence by just letting one of your employees take the reins.

EA: How does a restaurant know if its social media is working?

MS: You have to ask yourself: “What do you want out of social media?” I think the best goals are better connection with your customers, better interactions with your guests…making sure they are there and that what you’re saying is something that they care about. Probably the best way to measure that is engagement — are people liking what you’re saying, commenting, sharing it? Those numbers will be a reflection of whether or not your guests cared about that message. That’s not to say they should only post things that you’re going to get likes, commenting, shares about. There’s lots of content out there that isn’t really designed to get engagement, but it’s still important. Like, “Hey, we’re updating our hours of operation.” But as far as the storytelling content, if you’re not getting likes or comments or shares and you’ve got enough of a following to get that, then your guests don’t really care about what you have to say. That’s a good chance to figure out, “Well, what am I posting about? Am I posting about the same thing over and over?” Another way to think about creating content is, make it selfless first. Don’t make it about your restaurant. Make it about your partner. Make it about the cause. Make it about your inspiration that benefits the guest. That’s good content, that’s engaging.

EA: Are there any ideas we haven’t touched on?

MS: I can geek out all day long thinking about and talking about the best ways to do social media. What’s fun about it is that there is no cookie cutter approach to good social media other than staying true to your brand, staying true to your values, and letting your social media be a full reflection of everything that you are as a brand, as a restaurant, as individuals, as part of the team. If your social media can reflect that wholeheartedly, the good and the bad and the ugly, then you’re setting yourself up for success.