We’re in a new year, and social media is bigger than ever. It can frustrate a lot of people and now your posts aren’t getting as much engagement.Today, I’m going to give you my five best tips for to maximize your social media in 2019.

Five tips for crushing social media in 2019

The great thing about these tips – If you’re watching this in 2030 they are still going to be great, this I promise you.

1. Use social media for conversations, not statements. Social media is an awesome way for you to engage and create conversations with your customers that you wouldn’t normally be able to do. They don’t want to be laying in bed at night or skipping out on work and only see sales messages from you. They want to share and converse. They want to answer questions and to be part of a community. So use social media to create more conversations than just continually saying “Look at our special! Look at our special! Look at our special!”.
2. Ask a lot of questions. One of my favorite social media posts, for example, is a picture of all of your wine by the glass program or you could take a picture of your tap handles, remove one tap, and say “What’s missing?” or “What should we put here today?”. If you’re thinking about running a special, first ask your guests what they want to see on the menu. If there’s a menu change coming up, ask what should go and what should stay. Get your customers engaged in conversations.
3. Use more video. Smartphones these days have an amazing camera and microphone. Table top mounts are about $5 on Amazon or use a selfie stick. People love video and it gets great engagement.
4. Level up. Social media is no longer something unique or something that sets you apart from others. Remember when having a website is all you needed? It didn’t need look or function good, you just needed a website. Now look at some websites…they’re super lame, old, they don’t work anymore, and they’re ugly. I’m not going to come to that restaurant with that website. Social media is the same way. It’s no longer enough to say, “At least we’re doing something on social media.” Social media is here, it’s part of your business, and it’s got to be legit. Get good at social media. You can’t be pumping out the same junk you’ve been pumping out, so let 2019 be the year that you level up.
5. Know your audience. It’s important not just for social media but for everything you do in marketing. It’s frustrating how many times I get on the phone with struggling restaurant owners who say their target customer is everyone. No! Your restaurant can serve everybody, but not all of them are your target customer. You can’t have a target audience of grandparents and single 27 year old women who wear yoga pants to work. Those both can’t be your target audience. They aren’t interested in the same things, don’t listen the same music, drink the same beer or wine. Once you identify your target customer, then you talk to them.

I hope you enjoyed today’s video and I look forward to bring you another one just like this next week have a wonderful day