Restaurant Promotion Ideas That Get People to Tweet About You

Twitter and restaurant promotion ideas go together like salt and pepper – as long as you season correctly

You want social media buzz for your restaurant. There are right ways and wrong ways to build that buzz. The especially egregious ones pop up now and then; you’ve undoubtedly seen them on Twitter, or maybe even your favorite news channel. Following in the paths of the condescending waitstaff or the rude business manager are *not* ideal ways to create PR for your restaurant.

Other restaurant promotion ideas fall flat. They don’t connect with people. By definition, they’re utterly forgettable. Then there are those gems that go down in history, like Wendy’s Twitter account. Their Tweets are lighthearted, witty, and very much in touch with culture. They respond to fans, take competitors to task, and buddy up with superstars like Diddy.

Most of us don’t have the staff and budget that Wendy’s has, nor do we want to meet the fate of our promotions going nowhere. There’s plenty of middle ground, though. There’s room for ideas that get people talking and Tweeting about you. Whether you have a fine-dining establishment or a small comfort food place on the corner, the right restaurant promotion ideas can spice up your Twitter presence and get people in your door.

Want to spread the word of your restaurant without lifting a finger? Use Everwall to create monthly contests that incentivize customers to snap photos of your food and share them on social media! Start building your social wall today!

These restaurant promotion ideas and tips are guaranteed to work

1. Take yourself out of the picture

Social proof is a big deal. When you Tweet over and over about how great your food is, people won’t care. When you retweet mentions from your guests, though, you’re sharing that social proof that people love what you do. Not to mention that people love to be retweeted, which builds more goodwill between you and your guests.

2. Promote your vendors

As a restaurant, you have any number of vendors that support you, from the laundry service to the equipment repair tech to the farmer who brings in your fresh salad greens. Promote them on your Twitter page to show that you support your community, and they may, in turn, promote you as well. Plus your Tweet can show up when people search for those vendors.

3. Give your food away

Not all your food, of course. Not even very much of your food. But a contest where the winner gets a free meal is one of the surest ways to get some attention on your Twitter account. Ask people to reply with their favorite meal at your restaurant, and to tag the person they’d want to eat there with. The reply with the most likes wins. This gets your current followers active on your page, plus the person they tag, and if they’re competitive, they may ask all their friends to go “like” their reply, leading to any number of new eyes on your account.

4. Use your hashtags

We can’t say this enough. Twitter communities are built around hashtags. Mix a general hashtag or two (like #eats or #foodie) with some more specific ones (like #rvaeats if you’re in Richmond, VA or #nashvillefoodie if you’re in Nashville, for instance). And encourage your audience to use them, too. Using local hashtags helps both narrow your audience to those who can get to your restaurant, and it introduces more people to your place as a destination for a dinner out.

5. Keep up with your Twitter account

There are no restaurant promotion ideas that will work if you neglect your followers. You don’t have to be on Twitter 24/7, but you do need to monitor and interact with your audience. Make it a habit, just like checking the temperature on your walk-in. Reply to comments, thank people for recommending you, and respond to negative comments, too. (A calm, thoughtful reply to a negative comment can win you customers, but a reactive and defensive response could send you viral for all the wrong reasons).

6. Get out of the restaurant

Unless you’re open 24 hours, you and your team probably have a life outside of the restaurant. (Well, your team does, anyway.) Take Twitter with you. Field trip to the beach? Let your Twitter followers enjoy the waves with you. Tour of your local chocolatier? You definitely want your followers to get in on that action. It’s engaging content, and it also promotes other businesses and your community. And it makes you human.

7. Update your profile

Have you updated your profile since you started your Twitter account back when dinosaurs roamed the earth? In all seriousness, go take a look at your profile page. Is your website correct? Your address? Would someone know it’s your restaurant just from the profile picture?

It only takes a few good ideas to get people Tweeting about your restaurant. Try one or two at a time, see what works, and before you know it, you’ll be going viral for all the right reasons.

There’s more where that came from!

This was part one of a two part series on restaurant promotion ideas. To read 7 more restaurant promotion ideas, click here.