The modern Chinese or Cantonese restaurant is making the most of social media. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are the perfect medium to put your restaurant prominently in front of existing and potential customers and start influencing their decisions. And let’s face it; in today’s society, there are loads of restaurants to choose from and they’re all vying for our attention over the internet.
Here’s the thing:
Most Chinese restaurants are not making the most of social media to actually get customers through the door. This means that if you’re proactive about it, you have a massive edge over your competition when it comes to making someone choose your restaurant.
Social media for Chinese restaurants
What makes social media for Chinese restaurants different from other restaurants? It comes down to two main things. Firstly, the content that your social media accounts share must be relevant to oriental cuisine and culture. There are some great content opportunities for Chinese or Cantonese restaurants based on Chinese New Year and the Chinese Zodiac as well as the ancient culture, great leaders, and their famous cuisine. Aside from all the interesting things happening in the restaurant itself, all this makes for shareable content for your audience.
The second important nuance is in the interaction side of the social media strategy. This involves being far more proactive about going out and finding potential members of your target audience. This predominantly uses Twitter, which we’ll look at later.
Facebook for Chinese restaurants
Facebook remains the most important platform for most Chinese restaurants. A well set up and managed Facebook page keeps existing customers engaged with the restaurant whilst great content, clever paid-for advertising and competitions will help you reach new local audiences.
Your Facebook page should represent your brand well using professional, correctly formatted images and a well-written ‘about’ section including links to the website, a phone number and opening hours. Having some reviews on your Facebook page is also very useful since it gives people an instant indication of the quality of your restaurant.
Twitter for Chinese restaurants
Twitter is another useful platform upon which to share great content. It’s a fast-paced platform and the shelf-life of most tweets is only a few minutes so it can be difficult to be seen through all the other updates. But here’s the good news:
Twitter is not just a content platform; it is most powerful as an interaction tool. This means we can find individuals who have signalled they are in your target audience based on what they’re posting on Twitter. If you’re thinking “this is really powerful stuff” – you’re absolutely right.
Check out our page on conversation drivers to gain a better understanding of how we might use Twitter to find your audience.
TripAdvisor and community management
As the owner or manager of a Chinese restaurant, you’ll know exactly how important your TripAdvisor rating is. There are a number of tactics you can use to improve your ranking and effective community management can make thousands of pounds worth of difference in your sales. With so many consumers turning to TripAdvisor to make their judgment on which restaurant to visit that night, that weekend or on their visit to your city, it is imperative you accrue good reviews.
Being able to respond appropriately to comments, queries, and complaints over social media is also very important for restaurants. It is this community management that often requires specialist social media management experience.
Our experience
We’ve been lucky enough to look after a whole host of restaurants including a group of Cantonese restaurants whose social media we continue to manage. If you’re looking for a team to look after your Chinese restaurant’s social media then get in touch. If you’d like to manage it yourself but would like some training, we can help you get the most out of your time. Use the contact page here and we look forward to hearing from you.
