25 Eye-Catching Social Media Post Ideas for Restaurants

60% of the world's population uses social media with an average usage time of 2 hours and 24 minutes per day. Therefore, if you want to attract more customers, you must have a restaurant account on social media.

63% of consumers use social media to find new restaurants and explore new menu items. With the right social media post ideas for restaurants, you can become one of the most followed food business account online.

The key to social media success is to post often, ideally multiple times a day, and to add content that satisfies your audience’s needs.

It can be hard to know what to post but don't worry, we are here to help you with a variety of restaurant social media content ideas.

What are the best social media platforms for restaurants?

There are many social media platforms out there, but not all al relevant for your restaurant. Don’t waste time and money on keeping an active account on all, only choose the ones your target audience uses:

• Instagram: do you want to know what people want to see on your restaurant’s social media? Pictures of your food! That’s why Instagram is the perfect platform for the restaurant industry. It is very visual, and it allows you to promote your restaurant with mouth-watering pictures, while also building a community;
• Facebook: if your clients are from an older generation, consider marketing on the platform they use often: Facebook. You can post the similar content as you would on Instagram, you will just have a different audience;
• TikTok: if you want to attract younger clients, you must get on the newest platform, solely focused on videos: TikTok. Add interesting enough videos and you have a chance of going viral, skyrocketing your sales in the process;
• Twitter: this platform is mostly used for sharing thoughts, so if you want to share interesting facts from and about your restaurants, you can give a go. Most restaurants usually ignore it because it doesn’t have a high conversion rate;
• LinkedIn: you can create a professional profile here and maintain contact with other businesses in your area. Who know what great collaboration can come out of it?

How to increase restaurant sales through social media

Posting often and interacting with your followers will surely draw more attention to your restaurant and encourage people to visit your business. But if you want to make more profit, you need to add posts intended to increase conversion.

The easiest way to increase restaurants sales through social media is to allow people to order directly from Facebook or Instagram. You can do so by adding a link to your menu in your profile’s description and posts.

Our online ordering system creates the convenience people crave. Depending on the social media platform you use, you can add a direct link to your menu in the "About" section of your profile or the captions.

To get the aforementioned links, go to admin -> Setup -> Publishing -> Facebook for the first one and Facebook (sharing) for the second. While the link was designed for Facebook, it works on other social media platforms as well.

25 social media post ideas for restaurants you must try:

1. Show a glimpse of how the chef prepares a dish

People like behind-the-scenes glimpses that show them how the dishes they plan to order are made. Share a photo of an Instagrammable moment such as the chef cooking the meat on the grill, flambeeing a sauce, or decorating the final dish.

You can show more by filming a short food preparation video that involves something spectacular to watch, for example preparing the pizza dough and firing it in the wood oven.

2. Have one of your servers present their favorite dish

This type of post accomplishes two goals: it allows people to get to know your staff while also promoting one of your menu items. It can be a simple photo of the server with the dish with the reason why they chose the specific item in the caption or a short video.

3. Tell the story of your restaurant

Go beyond the classic social media post ideas for restaurants that focus solely on food and let people know what motivated you to start a business. Was it a family endeavor, do you have a passion for a specific type of cuisine or maybe you are using certain types of special ingredients?

4. Let people know they can order online from your restaurant

When you are creating social media content for a food business, you must find ways to persuade people to take the big step from followers to paying customers.

An easy way to do so is to show them how easy it is to order online. If you use the online ordering system from GloriaFood, people can order on your website, with just a few clicks.

The ordering process is as easy and fast as it is for you to install the online ordering system on your website. Check out this video for detailed instructions on how to start expanding your sales online:

If you don’t have a website or you are not happy with the one you have, you can generate a sales and SEO-optimized restaurant website from within our ordering system in just 10 minutes:

Check out this demo website to see how easy it is for clients to order online! Tempt them to place their first order by adding a post where you advertise a small 10% discount for any follower’s first order!

5. Show clients how easy it is to order your food directly on social media

You can go a step further with your search for social media post ideas for restaurants and let people know they can now order directly from social media.

6. Showcase positive reviews and testimonials

Increase your followers' trust in your restaurant by showcasing other clients' positive experiences at your restaurant. Before you publish the review, be it from Google or other review platforms, ensure you ask for the client’s permission to share their story on your business’s page.

7. Promote your menu items

The most popular answer when people search for social media post ideas for restaurants is pictures of food. And it makes sense because the main reason people follow you is to see what menu items you serve.

Add at least two posts per week where you promote one of your menu items and tell people why it is special and why they should order it. While you are at it, include a link to your menu in case someone is hungry.

You can also promote entire categories. If you don't feel like paying a designer, you can just screenshot the specific category of your online menu. If you use the menu creator incorporated into our online ordering system, any part of your menu will impress clients.

8. Demo placing an order on your website to increase traffic

Words are sometimes not enough to persuade people, so your best bet is to concentrate on video content, especially on platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

Therefore, shoot a video where you show a client's steps from opening the website and browsing the menu to paying for the order and enjoying the food. Don’t forget to add a link to your website in the description.

9. Post job openings and link to your website

While most social media post ideas for restaurants focus on attracting more customers, you can also use social platforms to attract new productive employees.

Post your job openings and also provide a link where people can apply to make the entire process easier for potential employees.

10. Highlight your attractive promotions

A great way to persuade your social media followers to order or visit your restaurant is to post about your promotions. Be it free delivery, 10% off the whole cart, or a 2+1 deal, make it time-limited so clients feel compelled to take advantage of the offer before it runs out.

With our online ordering system, setting up restaurant promotions is a breeze. You just need a few free seconds to add an attractive deal at the top of your menu where it will be instantly spotted.

11. Host a giveaway

One of the greatest social media post ideas for restaurants that stimulate interaction is to host a giveaway. For example, you can have people like your post and leave a comment to win a meal for two or you can ask them to share your post on their stories for a chance to win an all-expenses meal for a group of four.

12. Put the spotlight on your ingredients’ origin

Let people know what special ingredients go into your final dishes by taking a photo of the main dish and the ingredients that went into it. You can advertise if they are locally grown, imported from a certain country, organic, vegan, etc.

13. Teach followers to cook a simple recipe

Grow your community by sharing a simple recipe that you use at your restaurant and encouraging followers to try it for themselves. It could be a sauce, a way to cook the perfect steak, a salad, or any simple recipe that could be replicated in a home kitchen.

14. Share user-generated content of your restaurant

Some followers may tag your restaurant in pictures when they visit or order from your place. Show them that you care about their involvement by sharing their posts in your stories and thanking them for visiting your restaurant.

15. Ask people what their favorite menu item is

You can never have enough social media post ideas for restaurants that encourage people to interact with your page. Therefore, ask people to tell you in the comments what their favorite menu item is and why.

16. Show the atmosphere at your restaurant with ambient videos

Encourage followers to visit your restaurant by showing how great the atmosphere is at your place. Film the interior, the tables, the menu, and even the kitchen to create a documentary-like video.

17. Create a day-in-the-life video for a restaurant worker

Day-in-the-life-of videos are all the rage now on social media because it allows people to get a glimpse of another's person daily activities in just a few seconds. Create a montage with the most interesting moments in a restaurant worker’s day from start to finish, be it the chef, the server, or the owner.

18. Ask people to guess the ingredients in your new menu item

If you are searching for social media post ideas for restaurants that involve launching a new menu item, how about a guessing game? You can share a photo of the new dish and have people guess what ingredients were used.

19. Celebrate every holiday with a small promotion

It is international cake day? Or maybe international chocolate day? No matter how big or small a holiday is, it can be a great occasion for you to profit from it by offering a small promotion. For example, everybody gets 1 dessert + 1 free all desserts for sisters day!

20. Ask your followers how you could make your restaurant better

Take advantage of social media to find ways to make your restaurant better! Ask people in your stories to let you know what you can do differently to get them to order more often. Be open to suggestions and thank them for their input.

21. Stage an AMA (Ask me anything) on your stories

The AMA started on Reddit but it has now become a standard practice for influencers that want to interact more with their followers.

If you are looking for Instagram content ideas for restaurants and have a few free hours one day, allow people to ask you anything about the restaurant life and answer them privately or publicly.

22. Show a video of a menu item from concept to final presentation

Do you want to add a new menu item to your menu and want social media post ideas for restaurants to get the word out about it? Create a video where you show how you sketched the dish out, how you got the ingredients, and how you prepared them to get the final menu item.

23. Have your bartender recommend his favorite drinks

While you mostly promote your food, don’t forget to also let people know you serve tasty drinks. You can do so by filming your bartender when he prepares his favorite drinks and highlights what makes them special.

24. Introduce team members

Once a week, you can reserve a spot in your restaurant's social media content calendar for staff member introductions. Take a great photo of them and in the caption let them tell followers a few words about them and their interests.

25. Show your restaurant staff having fun

The key to success on social media is to post very often, so you can never have enough social media post ideas for restaurants. Make your social media channels an amalgam of entertainment, food photos, interaction, and posts that encourage followers to become clients if you want to increase your sales.

Final Words

Make your restaurant more personable by showing the human side of it with funny restaurant posts. Add pictures of your staff having fun when preparing food and serving clients to show people your business is a fun place to work at.