Your Restaurant Doesn't Have a Social Media Problem

There are restaurants with beautiful social media feeds that nobody seems to care about.

The photography is good. The videos are polished. They post regularly.

They might even have plenty of followers.

And yet, somehow, their social media isn't really doing very much.

I think that's because restaurants often ask the wrong question.

Instead of “What should we post next?” the better question they should be asking is: Why are we posting this?

I’ve seen countless restaurants spend a huge amount of time worrying about posting frequency, content, trending sounds, follower numbers and whether something they posted got 2,000 or 20,000 views.

Meanwhile, someone scrolling through the account is still thinking okay. But why should I visit?

And that’s the problem.

Not just a restaurant problem, but something that happens across hospitality. Hotels, cafés, bars, beach clubs, hospitality groups and F&B businesses can all fall into the same trap.

Here are some of the most common mistakes I’ve seen over the years, and that continue to baffle me:

1. You're posting because you think you have to

Three posts a week. Daily Stories. A Reel on Friday. Something for the weekend.

Before long, you're filling a content calendar rather than communicating anything useful.

Try this instead: Before creating a post, ask yourself what you want someone to know, feel or remember. If there's no good answer, you probably don't need the post.

2. You're making the restaurant look good, but not giving people a reason to care

Beautiful food photography is great. But if your feed could belong to five other restaurants, you've got a problem.

Try this instead: Show people what makes your business unique. The people, personality, food, experience and details that make someone think, I'd like to go there.

3. You're chasing attention instead of building recognition

A Reel gets 100,000 views and everyone gets excited. But views aren't necessarily the same thing as people remembering your restaurant.

Try this instead: Look beyond the views. Check who is watching, whether they're following, visiting your profile, clicking through, saving or sharing the content. A post can get huge reach and still be completely irrelevant to the business.

4. You're trying to talk to everyone

Residents. Tourists. Families. Couples. Foodies. Business diners. Everyone is welcome, but that doesn't mean every piece of content needs to speak to everyone.

Try this instead: Be clear about who matters to your business and what they care about. Your content will become much more relevant as a result.

5. You're treating every platform the same

Creating something for Instagram and then putting exactly the same thing everywhere else might save time, but it doesn't necessarily make good social media.

Try this instead: Decide what each platform is actually doing for your business. And if a platform isn't doing anything useful, ask yourself whether you need to be there at all.

6. You disappear when there's nothing to announce

Opening. New menu. Special event. Influencer visit. Then silence until the next big thing.

Try this instead: Give people reasons to stay interested between the announcements.

Your team, your kitchen, your suppliers, your guests and the everyday life of the business are all stories.

So, what should your social media actually do?

Before you plan another month's content, ask yourself five questions:

Who are we trying to reach?

What do we want them to understand about us?

Why should they care?

What do we want them to do?

What can we talk about consistently?

That's probably more useful than starting with a spreadsheet of 30 post ideas.

Because your restaurant probably doesn't have a social media problem.

You might have a purpose problem.

And that's a much easier thing to fix.