According to Facebook, more than 80 million businesses use the platform to connect with customers and maintain an online presence. If your restaurant is one of them, you may have noticed some recent changes to your Facebook Business Page.
In August, the social media site automatically updated Page templates for certain types of businesses, including restaurants. The new Restaurants & Cafes template is designed to showcase assets that are most important to potential diners, such as your menu, hours of operation, location and photos.
Following are some tips restaurants and bars can use to get the most out of Facebook’s new Page template.
1. Add and update your menu. Your menu is perhaps the most important thing to highlight for your customers, especially when it comes to attracting new diners. Use the menu tab featured on the Restaurants & Cafes template to display your offerings, and update this section as your selections change. Your patrons will expect the menu they see to be accurate.
2. Post photos. Include quality images of your food, cocktails or specials, your staff or your establishment in posts to help entice diners to visit. Visual posts not only receive more engagement than text-only posts on Facebook, the new format positions photos toward the top of the Page where they are viewed more easily.
3. Highlight Recommendations. Facebook recently changed “Reviews” to “Recommendations” for all businesses across its platform. While still found under the Reviews tab, the new format allows people to post a recommendation for your restaurant using text, photos and tags vs. simply leaving a star rating and a comment.
Encourage your customers, especially your regulars, to leave recommendations, since those recommendations can influence your customers’ networks to try your restaurant. In fact, a local consumer survey conducted by Bright Local reveals consumers read restaurant reviews more than reviews from any other industry.
4. Check your hours and location. Make sure these elements are up to date in your Page’s About section, especially if you have recently moved or if you have seasonal hours.
5. Optimize your call-to-action buttons. Review the call-to-action (CTA) buttons on your Facebook page and choose the one that makes the most sense for your restaurant. For instance, include a “Call Now” CTA button if you want to encourage customers to call your restaurant to make reservations or ask questions, or a “Learn More” button if your goal is to drive people to your website. If your Facebook template recently switched over, check to see if your Page’s CTA button is still active, as it may have been reset in the transition.
6. Adjust your tabs. While the Restaurants & Cafes template is designed with a restaurateur’s goals in mind, you know what is most valuable to your customers. Use only the tabs that apply to your business and remove the ones that don’t. For instance, if your restaurant doesn’t typically offer deals or discounts, you should switch off the Offers tab in the admin settings to eliminate it from your Page.
7. Post job openings. As part of the recent changes, Facebook improved its Jobs feature to help small businesses fill vacant positions. Simply go to the Jobs tab on your Page, click Create Job and fill out the fields (i.e. job title, description, wage and job type) to create a new post. Once published, your job opening will appear on your restaurant’s Business Page, on the new Jobs bookmark and on Marketplace for people to view.
Plus, Facebook makes it easy for interested parties to apply by pulling information from their personal profile and including it directly on the application. New submissions will show up in your Messenger Inbox, where you can easily track and review applications, contact applicants and set up interviews.