Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Your Instagram account has 5,000 followers, and your last post got maybe 23 likes. Your Facebook page has 2,800 followers, and your posts reach maybe 100 people. You're spending hours every week creating content, right? Taking photos, videos, writing captions, and engaging through the comments. And for what? Where's the revenue? Traditional social media marketing is dead. Not social media itself, trust me. That is still important. But the old playbook of posting pretty food photos and hoping people show up, it doesn't work anymore. So today we're going to talk about what actually does work in 2025. All of that on today's episode of Restaurant Strategy.
[00:00:40] There's an old saying that goes something like this. You'll only find three kinds of people in the world. Those who see, those who will never see, and those who can see when shown. This is Restaurant Strategy, a podcast with answers for anyone who's foreign.
[00:01:11] Hey everyone, Chip Close here. I am, your host. This is the Restaurant Strategy podcast. We're talking about social media, we're talking about social media marketing all today, but not the way that most people think about it. We're going to talk about strategies that actually drive revenue and build sustainable businesses. And I know this is going to be controversial, but I need to say it most Restaurant social media marketing is a waste of time and a waste of your money. You're playing a game where the rules keep changing, reach keeps declining, and therefore the ROI keeps getting worse and worse.
[00:01:45] What's the food cost for your third best selling entree? You don't know. With Margin Edge, you could know instantly. Margin Edge is a complete restaurant management software that I like to recommend to all of the P3 members, all the clients I work with. Why? Because it helps them improve profitability. With Margin Edge, you just get to snap pictures of your invoices as they come in and you get real time data in every area of your business. You can see plate costs in real time. You get daily P Ls. Your inventory count sheets are automatically updated. It saves you a ton of time and lets you make informed decisions. So I got a client P3 member gather brewing down outside of San Antonio. They started using Margin Edge a month after they joined my program and within one month of them bringing on Margin Edge, their food costs went from 38% to 28%. It was incredible savings. That's 10 points that dropped straight to the bottom line. There's a reason I recommend Margin Edge to so many of the P3 members. It's because I know it works. If you're Interested in learning more or you want to see how Gather brewing went from 38% to 28% food costs? Head over to margin edge.com chip. There's an incredible video there that talks about their story, talks about their journey with the Plat platform. Again, margin edge.com chip see a really great, see a really great story about the folks at at Gather Brewing. Go do that now. Of course, that link is in the show notes.
[00:03:11] Let me tell you about a P3 member. For the sake of this conversation, let's call her Lisa. Lisa runs a farm to table restaurant out west. Let's say it's in Boulder. Beautiful food, gorgeous plating, perfect for Instagram. I'm telling you, everything she posts is amazing. It looks incredible.
[00:03:27] She was spending as much as 10 hours a week on social media, taking photos and videos and editing them, writing captions, putting them together, responding through the comments, engaging with other accounts. All this stuff that all the gurus tell you to do. And Lisa had 4200 Instagram followers, something like that, and 1800 Facebook followers. And it sounds impressive, right? For a small farm to table restaurant. Quality ingredients, you know, small, tight, very passionate following.
[00:03:55] But when we tracked her social media roi, we discovered that her social media efforts were generating maybe 400 bucks a month in trackable revenue. 10 hours a week times four weeks is 40 hours a month. That's $10 an hour for her time. Lisa could make more money working at McDonald's. And now, now even if you outsource that, meaning you delegate that or, or give that to an agency, you've got that cost to, to fold into it as well. Which is why Lisa was doing it herself. She felt like it was important that she put herself out there and she knew it needed to get done.
[00:04:30] So even if she outsourced it to free up that time, it still wouldn't be worth the expense she was, she was putting into it. And this is the dirty little secret of restaurant social media marketing. The numbers just don't add up anymore. Instagram's algorithm shows your post to maybe 5, maybe 10% of your followers. And Facebook is even worth. So your 5,000 followers might see 500 people who actually see your posts. And of those 500 people, how many are actually in your market? Meaning how many are likely to visit your restaurant this week or next week? How many will take action based on your post?
[00:05:09] That funnel gets smaller and smaller and smaller until you're left with maybe 5, 10, 20 potential customers per post.
[00:05:18] But here's the thing. I am not anti social Media. I am anti bad social strategy. There are restaurants crushing it on social media and they're not doing what everyone else is doing. They're not posting pretty food photos and hoping for the best. So let me tell you about this restaurant. It's just outside Union Square in New York City. They don't just post photos of their food. They post videos of their staff. They share behind the scenes content. They highlight their suppliers and their relationships with local farms. They tell stories about their community involvement. But here's the key.
[00:05:49] They're not trying to go viral. They're trying to build relationships with their neighborhood. Their social strategy is about becoming part of the fabric of their community, not about getting likes from strangers.
[00:06:01] So what actually works? First, micro influencer partnerships. Instead of trying to build your own following, partner with people who already have engaged audiences in your market who are passionate about what you have. I'm not talking about celebrity influencers with millions of followers where you got to pay them thousands of dollars to come. I'm talking about local food bloggers with 2,000, 5,000, maybe 10,000 followers. Neighborhood moms with a thousand followers, fitness instructors with 3,000 followers. Real people who have real influence in your community.
[00:06:36] So I worked at a taco shop just outside of San Diego. They partnered with 12 local micro influencers. It was part of the six month plan. Partnered with two of them every single month over the course of six months. Let's see what happens now. These people again weren't celebrities, just people who were active in the community and engaged social media followings. They were food bloggers, yoga instructors, local business owners, firemen, stay at home parents, all of whom were active on social and in neighborhood Facebook groups. Each influencer got a free meal for two in exchange for an honest review and social media posts. The restaurant spent something like $485 on free food. The campaign generated over 50,000 impressions, drove 127 new customers just in that first month. Not even looking at the ent sixth month. Just in that first month, through the first two influencers and revenue from those new customers, we could track $3,800 in revenue from those 127 new customers. That's a almost 700% ROI. And many of those customers then became regulars. Because we had a solid retention plan in place, we knew that if we could get people in, we knew we had a system to get them back.
[00:07:51] So the key to micro influencer marketing is relevance, not reach. You want people whose followers are actually likely to become your customers. So a local mommy blogger with a thousand Followers who all live within 5 or 10 miles of your restaurant is by definition more valuable than a food blogger. With 50,000 followers that are scattered all across the country.
[00:08:14] This is super important. We've been talking about influencers, how they've been getting more and more popular and a more reliable source of, of grabbing attention. It works. Here's the second strategy. Employee advocacy. Your staff members can be your best ambassadors, but most restaurants don't leverage this. So think of it. Your servers, bartenders, your kitchen staff, they have friends, they have family, they have social media followers. And they can be incredibly effective at promoting your restaurant. But you can't just tell them to post about work. You need to make it easy and you need to make it rewarding.
[00:08:51] Create social media content that your employees actually want to share. So behind the scenes videos, staff highlights, team events, new menu items that they're excited about and you're excited about. Because if they're excited, you're excited. I promise you, your followers will also be excited. So I'm working with a brewery out in Portland and they implemented literally this employee advocacy program. They created a private Facebook group, actually for all the employees and for their employees, families, and they share exclusive content. They announced new beer before they're released to the public. They celebrate employee achievements not publicly, but privately. And this sounds counterintuitive, right? We're talking about getting as much reach as possible, but this is about quality, not quantity. It was that scarcity thing, that insider piece that made this so impactful. Employees naturally share this content with their personal networks. The brewery's organic reach actually increased by over 300% without spending a dime on advertising. And it was a big by taking this counterintuitive approach.
[00:09:55] More importantly, employee referrals now account for over 20% of their new customers. They figured out a way to track it and they can prove it. Here's the third strategy. User generated content. You run campaigns to try to generate that ugc. Instead of creating all of your content yourself, get your customers to create it for you. It's more authentic, more engaging. And guess what? Actually requires less from you. So. But man, don't just bug people and ask them to tag you in their photos. Create specific campaigns with clear. With clear calls to action and incentives for participation. Actually, make it cool to take photos. When I go to a place and something looks really impressive, either some, some decoration, flourish or the presentation, you know, something steaming, something's on fire, things that I want, that I know, my friends and family on social media are going to get a kick out of that makes me want to do it. So make stuff that wants to be photographed and video.
[00:10:54] I work with a pizza place just outside of Chicago that created a Pizza Face Friday campaign. It couldn't make this up. Not my idea. It's theirs. Every Friday they repost customer photos of people enjoying their pizza with the caption Pizza Face Friday. Customers who get featured receive a free appetizer on their next visit. Simple. It's effective though. That campaign generates 30 to 40 new user generated posts every Friday, reaching what has to be thousands and thousands of people. Not a.
[00:11:26] Not across the country, not across Chicagoland, but specifically in their delivery area. Because the people you connect most with are your friends, your family, the parents of the kids who your kids are in school with, the other moms from the dance studio, the gymnastics studio. There are people in your community, otherwise known as your delivery area. The featured customers come back to redeem their free appetizer. And guess what? They usually bring friends. Or they're ordering food on a Friday night when they're having friends and all the kids over, so they're introducing your stuff to other people. The average group size for Pizza Face Friday redemptions is 3.2 people with an average check of $67. Again, they're not just ordering pizza for them and their wife. They're ordering pizza for their family, for an extended family, for the neighbors.
[00:12:13] Okay, here's the fourth strategy. Community building. Not broadcasting, but actually building community building relationships. Stop thinking of social media as a megaphone and start thinking of it as a community center. Your goal isn't to broadcast messages like you're on TV so as many people as possible can see it. No. Your goal should be to create a space where your customers feel connected to your restaurant and connected to each other because of your restaurant. This means engaging, yes. In real conversations, not just posting content. Respond to comments thoughtfully. Ask questions that actually generate discussion. Share content from your customers and community partners. Be a participant in your local social media ecosystem. Not just a broadcaster.
[00:12:58] There is a. There is a blogger. There's a, you know, an influencer that I follow. He's a golf influencer. So you guys know I love to golf. It's what I do in my free time. It's my meditation. It's what brings me peace. A four hour walk through the park. There's a guy I follow who literally posts his natural reactions. He says, okay, you know, here are my five favorite courses in California and my five least favorite courses in California. Here are my five favorite golf logos in the entire United States. Here are my five. Or he'll do a post that says, here are the five most overrated, expensive, sought after golf courses in the United States. Or here, here are the five most overrated golf logos. He does this thing to try to generate reaction at the end of every post. He even says in the comments below, tell me what I got right, Tell me what I got wrong. Tell me what I overlooked. And then it gets people saying, hey, the five best sleeper hit golf courses in Massachusetts. Man, you forgot about this one. You forgot about this one. Have you thought about this one? Other people are stepping up and evangelizing for these different golf courses, right? They are. They're telling this guy, you got it wrong. You are missing this Cinderella. You are missing. You are missing this diamond in the rough. And I'm telling you, it works. All right, let's talk about a barbecue restaurant. It's famous. Maybe you heard of it. It's called Franklin Barbecue. They have a relatively social, modest social following, but their engagement rates are through the roof. You don't believe me, Go check it out. Why? Because they're not just posting photos of their famous brisket. They're sharing the story of their craft. They're engaging with other pitmasters. They are celebrating their customers. They are participating in the broader barbecue community. They're not stupid. They understand they are the pinnacle of Austin barbecue. They know they are the first mover. They are the top of the mountain. They are certainly, if not the Mount Rushmore, they are on the Mount Rushmore. So they understand that they have a responsibility to bring others with them and to make sure that they are the center of those conversations. And their social feed feels like a conversation.
[00:14:57] Not with, you know, not. Not a broadcast, not a speech, but a but. But real engagement, friends. So it doesn't feel like a marketing campaign. That's why people drive from all over the country and wait for hours in line for famous Franklin Barbecue. Okay, fifth strategy. Local partnerships and cross promotion. Instead of trying to build your own audience from scratch, why not tap into audiences that already exist in your community?
[00:15:22] Partner with local businesses, nonprofits, schools, the fire department, community centers, things that already exist in your neighborhood. Cross promote each other and each other's content. Participate in local events. Share the experience on social media. Ask that they do the same. Become part of that local ecosystem. Be the center of this so that there's an entire world that revolves around you. So I'm working with this coffee shop down in Nashville, and they do this. They. They do it brilliantly. They partner with a local business Every single month they feature the business on their social media feeds. They offer discounts to those businesses employees. They host joint events, right? The local yoga studio promotes the coffee shop to their members. The bookstore features the coffee at their author readings. The bike shop recommends them to cycling groups and vice versa. This creates a network effect where multiple businesses are promoting each other to other audiences. Because guess what?
[00:16:16] The bookstore isn't competing with the coffee shop. The bike shop isn't competing with the coffee shop. They are symbiotic. You can go get a coffee and then go to the bookshop or vice versa. You can go drop your kids at dance class and then go get a salad for dinner while you're waiting for them. These can be symbiotic and they should be right because of this. Again, it creates a network effect. In the coffee shops, social reach has tripled over the course of the last year. More importantly, their customer base has diversified and therefore it has strengthened. So now let's talk about what doesn't work anymore. Right? Stop posting generic food photos with generic captions. Stop posting this. Eat here now Content, right? It doesn't work. Every restaurant posts photos of their food. Your chicken parm looks just like everyone else's chicken parm. Unless you're doing something truly unique to food. Photos alone won't drive engagement. They won't drive traffic. They won't drive revenue.
[00:17:15] Stop trying to go viral. Viral content is usually irrelevant to your business goals. A funny meme might get thousands of shares, but it won't bring customers to your restaurant. Focus on content that drives local engagement and revenue. And I can speak firsthand about this. I post videos on social every single day. Just about and about a year and a half ago, I went viral. I had one of my posts get picked up and I grew. I'm literally, I grew by 20,000 followers. I went from like 2500 followers to 27,000 over the course of about an eight week span. Literally, because that one video went viral. I don't think it's any better or any worse than any of the other stuff. And I certainly didn't try to go viral. It just happened. But I promise you that my business did not 12x when my followers 12x I kept doing all the things that I know how to do. Keep growing my email list, keep providing content, keep providing value, keep running ads and driving the action that I know that actually generates revenue for me. My coaching business, right? Going viral will not help you achieve your, your, your revenue goals. I can pretty much, I can pretty much guarantee it here's also what you got to stop doing. Stop posting without a strategy. Every post needs to have a purpose. It needs to drive traffic or build relationships or showcase your team or promote an event or some support a community cause.
[00:18:40] If you can't articulate why you're posting something, just simply don't post it. Now let's talk about measurement. Let's talk about how we measure success. Because vanity metrics continue to kill restaurant social media roi. You gotta stop worrying about follower count, you gotta stop worrying about likes, you gotta stop worrying about shares. Start caring about reach in your market engagement from local customers and try to track that revenue. Create unique promo codes for each social media campaign so you can track revenue directly. Use Google Analytics to see how much traffic actually comes from social media to your website and then track to see whether that traffic actually converts to reservations or orders. Track customer acquisition costs for social media versus any of your other marketing channels. Right. So I worked with a restaurant that was obsessed with their Instagram follower account. A bunch of mine, a bunch of my clients end up being talking a lot about this and I sort of talked them out of it. This one restaurant was obsessed with followers. They had 8,000 followers and they were proud of hitting five figure reach on some on almost every post.
[00:19:46] But when we dug into data, we discovered that 73% of their followers were actually outside of their market. They were reaching food bloggers in New York and Los Angeles, but they were located in the middle of Nebraska. So we refocused their strategy on local, local engagement, local reach and their follow.
[00:20:05] Their follower count actually dropped and went from 8,000 to about 6,000 over the course of six months. But their local reach increased by over 200%. More importantly, their social media driven revenue increased over 300% because they were reaching, finally reaching the right people.
[00:20:24] So here's a framework for social media that actually works. Monday, I don't know. Share a behind the scenes content. Right? So staff preparing for the week, new deliveries, kitchen prep, working on menu development for specials for the week.
[00:20:37] Tuesday, feature one of your team members, tell their story, have them talk about their favorite dish, why they love working at their restaurant, where they came from, what brought them to this restaurant. Wednesday, repost some user generated content. Right. Repost photos, reviews, videos. Thursday, do a community spotlight. So feature a local business or a non profit or community event. Friday, do your weekend promotion or some event announcement.
[00:21:01] Bottom line is to keep it simple, keep it local, keep it authentic. Make sure you're focusing on local and expanding those conversations. You are not famous Most of you listening to this are not famous. You're not the kind of restaurant that's going to get somebody to get on a plane, fly five hours to come to your restaurant. If you are running French Laundry, yes, that is how you make your money. People have to get on a plane, come all the way up there to Yountville to be a part of the restaurant. But anything short of that, that's not what you're about.
[00:21:28] So your homework for this week. First, I want you to audit your current social media performance. Not your follower counts, but your actual roi. I want you to understand how much time you're spending to do this and I want you to look at how much revenue all of your activity is generating. What you're going to do is you're going to calculate your cost per acquisition from social media.
[00:21:46] Second, I want you to identify 10 micro influencers in your market. Again, these are local food bloggers, neighborhood leaders, pta, you know, head of the pta, the police chief, whatever, business owners, fitness instructors, parents who are active in the community groups. And if you go into these groups, you will find the people that have clout, the people that people listen to, research their audiences, understand their engagement rates. Third, create a user generated content campaign. It can be anything. Give it a catchy name if you want. Create a simple hashtag and offer a simple incentive for actually participating and launch it next week and track the results over the course of the week. Right. So again, Lisa's restaurant, again we're going to call her Lisa, the one I mentioned at the beginning, completely changed her social media strategy. She stopped posting daily food photos, started focusing on community building. And she partnered with local micro influencers, created an employee advocacy program, launched that UGC content campaign again, calling it Farm Fresh Friday. Her follower account dropped again. We see this. It went from like 4,200 to 3,800. But her local engagement increased by 250%. More importantly, her social media driven revenue went from that like 400 bucks a month to almost $2,000 a month. Because they could track it. They knew same time investment, right? Because she still felt like this is an important task for her to do. She didn't want to outsource it, but 400% better results.
[00:23:13] That is social media marketing that actually works in 2025. And if I'm really honest, I think that was what all these platform founders really wanted. They wanted to be the town square, the town hall. It's why it's called social media. They didn't want just media media. They didn't just want a bunch of billboards, but they wanted you to be social. Social with pictures, social through text, through the videos. They want you to capture your life and talk about what mattered and simply explain to people why they think it mattered to them as well.
[00:23:43] Next week, we're going to talk about hyper local marketing. It's. It's two sides of the same coin, right? How to dominate your immediate neighborhood and become the restaurant that locals cannot live without.
[00:23:54] Guys, I appreciate you listening. My name is Chip Close. This is the Restaurant Strategy podcast. Again, one final, one final ask here if you are struggling with profitability. I run the P3 mastermind. It's a group coaching program that I've grown over the last four and a half, almost five years. We've grown it from 10 people in a single group now to over 150 members spread across four different groups. It doesn't grow because I'm so special, because I'm really good at this. It grows because the community helps each other and the program actually works. It helps people make more money. If you want to make more money doing what you love, I want to chat with you. RestaurantStrategyPodcast.com Schedule Grab some time on the calendar. You'll chat with me or someone from my team. Let's just get to know each other, see if we think you're a good fit. If you're not, we're not going to try and talk you into it. We're really good about finding people that we can help, but if we can help you, I'd love to talk to you about how we can help again. RestaurantStrategyPodcast.com Schedule as always, that link is in the show notes. Appreciate you guys being here. I will see you next time.
