How to Use Restaurant Instagram Stories to Grow Your Business

Instagram Stories are big business. Any business in any industry or niche can use Instagram Stories to deliver content to engaging content to their customers, with many statistics to showcase how well it pays off. If you’re trying to connect with your potential restaurant guests, Instagram Stories will help you do it. However, some businesses find it harder to use Stories than others. As a restaurant, what should you include, and how are you supposed to portray yourself? We’ll explore everything you need to know about using Instagram stories to grow your restaurant business.

Restaurant Instagram Stories — Before you Begin

If you already have an Instagram profile for your restaurant, go ahead to the next section. If you still don’t have a profile, don’t worry! Here’s our article with tips on creating a compelling Instagram profile for your restaurant! 

Connect with Food Bloggers

“Food bloggers are a great way to connect to people who will be interested in what you have to offer. If you can get food bloggers talking about your restaurant, you’re going to cause a stir within both your community and theirs. This hack is all about brand exposure and getting your name out there,” says Laura Andrews, a business writer at Boomessays.com and Stateofwriting.com. Food bloggers can be expensive depending on the follower count profiles you’re looking to engage, but posting “foodporn” on your Stories, i.e., mouth-watering imagery and accounts they’ll want to follow, is a great place to start.

Show Behind-the-Scenes Peeks

Many enjoy a “sneak peek” of what goes on behind businesses’ closed doors, particularly restaurants. It’s why pop culture is awash with content about working in restaurants. This “look behind the curtain” personalizes the business, and followers can get a feel for the particular nuances of how they run the operation. It’s intriguing, and if done in the right way, very entertaining. If your stories make your followers smile, laugh, and enjoy what you’re offering on Instagram, you’ll imprint in their minds. The impression will make them far more likely to come and eat with you when they’re choosing a place to eat.

Highlight New Dishes and Menus

Chances are, you’re going to have limited menus and offerings, and there’s no better place to advertise them than on your Instagram stories. Make sure you’re taking delicious photos to tantalize your followers and get creative, like using text tags to highlight the ingredients. You can use staged photos to up the dishes to look as good as possible, or you can take a more casual approach, like showing the meal in the process of cooking, adding GIFs or user testimonials of the dish, or in the best-case scenario, using all of the above.

Feature Customer Content

“A great way to connect with people is to share the content they’re creating on your story. You can create a hashtag with your restaurant, and then when people come to eat, they can take photos to share on their Instagram profiles, which you can then share on your story,” explains Jordan Taylor, a marketing blogger at Australianhelp.com and Paperfellows.com. This content makes your customers feel valued. Everybody feels excited when someone else, especially a service they’re using, shares and interacts with their content! You could even encourage these posts with a giveaway voucher or monthly discount code for the best posts. Surely you can think up some more creative ideas.

Make Sure Links Are Easy to Click

There’s a bit of a problem with linking on Instagram. You can have one link in your profile, and if you have over 10k followers, on your stories. These stipulations mean you’ll want to grow to 10k followers as quickly as possible (without buying any) because it enables you to use the “swipe up” feature. With the feature, you can add links to your stories, create content that draws people in, and then interested followers can swipe up to be taken to the page and make a reservation. Always make following through with your content as effortless as possible.

Restaurant Instagram Stories — Conclusion

There are so many ways to utilize Instagram Stories for your restaurant business, but the most important thing to do is get creative and be yourself. The more you can stand out, the more engaging you’ll be, and the more customers will want what you’re offering. Subscribe to the blog for more interesting restaurant content!

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About the Author

Kristin Herman is a food blogger and restaurant owner writing for Ukwritings.com and Academized.com online writing services. She writes articles for online food and influencer magazine and blogs, such as Essayroo.com, and others.