How Restaurants Can Use Storytelling for Social Media

In order to turn your followers into actual customers, you have to get them to know and trust your brand. As a restaurant business owner, you know that selling the benefits and value of what you do is how you attract customers. Since the beginning of time, storytelling has been a way that humans have communicated with each other. How can you use storytelling for your social media posts for your restaurant?

Storytelling through social media allows your customers to form that all-important digital connection with your brand. Instead of simply posting bland marketing material, storytelling interacts with your customers on a much more personal level. In turn, this helps create familiarity and loyalty with your brand. This will make your customers a lot more likely to do business with you in the long run.

So, if you are new to the concept of storytelling or want the best ways to implement it within your social strategy. Here are our top tips.

Storytelling doesn’t have to be personal

We’re not all natural storytellers, and for some people, they can struggle to share personal stories through lack of experience or wanting to keep things private. When it comes to connecting with your customers, it’s not necessarily about sharing personal stories. Rather sharing stories that mean something to us personally.

Stories can come from customer interactions, casual conversations or experiences. For example, if your produce is grown locally and you’re proud of it. Why not take pictures of the farm and talk about the growers? Or, perhaps you have a dish that your restaurant is most famous for. Why not share the secret of how it’s made? In many cases, storytelling simply conveys the culture of the brand, in an easy to digest format.

There’s no set formula when it comes to your storytelling. The key is keeping in mind the details that are likely to strike a chord with the person reading it. Social media is a sociable place after all, so imagine it almost like a real conversation.

Share behind the scenes action

We’ve established that storytelling is about building a connection with your audience. One of the easiest ways to do this as a company is to share some behind-the-scenes info. Perhaps you have a new chef starting at your restaurant. Why not upload a picture and a few lines about them, and what they are looking forward to in their new role?

Or, say Valentine’s day is coming up. Why not share a sneak preview of the dishes or special event you will be putting on, to perk interest among your followers? You could even share news about an expansion or other news related to your company. If your followers are likely to be interested, then it helps build a more personal relationship with your restaurant, that goes far beyond them just coming in to eat.

User-generated content

As a social media account owner for your business, you likely see countless positive reviews, pictures and videos left across your feeds. User-generated content is a powerful marketing tool. It is perceived as being more genuine than if a brand toots its own horn instead. If someone is tweeting you to say they had the best meal out they’ve ever had, why not share this with your audience too?

You can use user-generated content in your social media storytelling too. For example, say a customer has their engagement party in your restaurant, and tags you in the photos saying what a wonderful event you created. With their permission, you can then use this across your feed. Maybe add a comment saying how it was your pleasure etc, as well as leaving contact information about how other people can book the same. It’s quite a simple strategy, but one which connects with people on a really effective level.

Save the waffles for your dessert menu

When writing a caption for your social media, it’s easy to go off on a tangent. While there’s no real crime against lengthy posts, it’s important that each sentence moves the story forward. Wordy or unnecessary sentences are unlikely to be read by your followers. And for some, it could even appear as spam.

In some cases, storytelling can literally be done in just a couple of sentences. Wherever possible, allow the image or video to do most of the storytelling for you. As this is much easier to react with versus reams of text. The key is always to engage the viewer and provoke an emotive response, that allows them to get to know your brand in a way they haven’t before.

If you’re stuck for ideas, there are a lot of resources you can access for free. Showing some of the most successful examples of brands using storytelling within their social media. The more you educate yourself on this, the easier it will be to pick up and implement within your restaurant campaigns.

Further read: https://stampede.ai/blog/how-to-effectively-design-social-media-posts/

Conclusion

Storytelling is a method of communicating with your customers. When done effectively will strengthen the bond between them and your brand. It goes far beyond general marketing and instead paints a picture of the kind of experience they are likely to have when dining in your restaurant, and the unique story behind it.

However, to be able to story-tell with your customers effectively, you need the story of who your customers actually are. Here at Stampede, our software allows you to capture your customer data in a way that’s GDPR compliant. As a result, you can create tailored and highly personalised marketing campaigns that speak to your customer directly.

By combining storytelling within your social media alongside intuitive marketing campaigns, you can communicate with your customers on a truly insightful level.

Restaurant, Pub, Bar