FOODPORN GOOD FOR RESTAURANT SALES

When I first heard about Instagram, I wasn’t so quick to jump on it. To me it was another app that took up space on my phone. I still gave it a shot and surely enough I was hooked! You can say I’m your typical social creature that takes a photo or video of everything that interests me. When I walk into a restaurant whether it’s breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner or happy hour, you’re going to see food post on my page. They call people like myself “foodie,” a person that enjoys and care about food very much. I like to showcase my #foodporn activity on Instagram. Now you’re probably wondering what foodporn is? According to the Urban Dictionary, it is close-up images of juicy, delicious food in advertisements. Also “#foodporn” is one of the most frequently used hashtags on Instagram, the photo platform everyone uses to show off what they’re just about to eat. (bon appetit)

Instagram is a popular and fun online mobile social networking app used to share images and videos. It lets you share across social networking platform such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, and more. Best of all, it’s a free app that is very simple to sign up using an email or existing Facebook account. The app allows you to add users connected thru Facebook, phonebook contacts, Instagram suggestion (based on your activity) and searching users and hashtags. It also gives you the option to keep your account private or public, but as a business I recommend keeping your account public. This will allow IG users to find your page. Using hashtags will also populate on searches connecting you with new followers to build your fanbase. The social app is for many types of users from personal and businesses such as travel, retail, fitness, restaurants, automotive and so much more.

So why should you use Instagram for your restaurant? It is a great social tool to brand your business. The best way to share your experience is to capture images or videos and Instagram allows a way to do so with the ability to use filters in a creative way. Having presence on Instagram builds social traffic without costing your business advertising dollars, but paying a social media expert to maintain it may be a separate budget. Businesses can discover whom their frequent customers are by searching hashtags or if users are tagging your business. It also has a check-in feature that maps your location.

Here’s a couple ways to promote your restaurant using Instagram:

• Repost photos of customers who’s dined at your restaurant and tag them
• Put out a photo contest with a reward such as a free entrée or gift certificate
• Engage your audience by commenting, following them back, and liking their posts (do not become a robot)
• Embed your Instagram feed on your website
• Post behind the scenes of the kitchen, employees, special events, menu, daily specials, food, etc

Always keep your content fresh as your posts could be buried especially with how popular Instagram has been. There are definitely pros and cons using any social media tool and I suggest consulting with a social media expert. If you aren’t already using Instagram for your business, give it a try! Soon enough, you’ll be hooked!

MORE IMAGES BELOW

Over 50 million posts on #foodporn! 

An example of food-related user reposting my photo.

An example of food-related user reposting my photo.

Mel Jones is one of the premier restaurant brokers in the nation having published hundreds of articles on buying and selling a restaurant and bar business, selling thousands of restaurants in CA., WA and AZ and building one of the most copied business models in the brokerage industry. Mel started SellingRestaurants in 2004 with the one simple concept, give the buyers the information they need to make intelligent buying decisions without being pestered by a broker or hiding information, prepare the business for market by researching key details that make or break deals and educate the buyer on the buying process to create an intelligent buyer. Prior to SellingRestaurants, Mel was a Chief Financial Officer for Universal Music Group, the largest music company in the world. There he participated in more than $11.5 billion of merger and acquisition transactions. He also work for top companies such as Nestle Foods, USA. He hold a Bachelors in Business Administration Finance as well as attended Law School at Gonzaga University. Give Mel a call at 480.274.7000 or e-mail him at [email protected] if you have any questions.