Connect with your customers: Using Facebook to drive sales

The largest social network, with more than 1.15 billion global users, is Facebook. The behemoth network is only nine years old and attracts users from a wide range of demographics, gender, race and age levels.

The brilliant thing about Facebook, from a marketing standpoint, is that users provide all of the data that allows you to target them. Steve Governale, industry manager, restaurants at Facebook, said, “We’re not reliant only on behavioral data or cookies to infer who people are or what they’re interested in – we understand people based on information they share, in addition to standard targeting features available across the web.”

Additionally, Facebook has the largest share of mobile engagement, meaning you can target users before they get out of bed, during their morning commute, or while they are watching television at night – those times they are not at their home or office computers.

Most operators have their restaurant’s business page set up on Facebook (if not, you can start here). A business page is your restaurant’s main presence and the key way for customers to interact with your brand on Facebook.

Beyond just responding to posts on your wall or sending out text-based updates, push yourself (or your social media team, if you are blessed to have one) to publish more interesting content such as photos (try using Instagram), blog content (Tumblr), promotions, and events.

Photos, as always, are the most eye-catching items to post. When listing your daily specials, include a photo of each dish. Do you have seasonal ingredients sitting around the kitchen? Post a close-up photo of those and challenge readers to guess what it is. Share photos of beloved regulars with the chef (especially on a birthday or anniversary).

To take your page to the next level, consider doing the following:

· Put your standing menu in a tab

· Include a Facebook Offer when customers check in at your location

· If you have one, list the link to your mobile application prominently

“We know value matters more than ever in the industry and many restaurants are re-thinking coupons and deals by taking advantage of Facebook Offers for in-restaurant redemption,” said Governale. “We've particularly seen strong adoption of Offers in both casual dining and home meal replacement as our Offer solution can be a faster and more cost-effective way to drive redemptions compared to traditional free standing inserts (FSIs). We've also seen Offers successfully used to drive specific promotions during specific days of the week, which is also a reinvention of a common restaurant practice.”

Governale said operators can also work with Facebook preferred marketing developers (PMDs) to integrate dayparting advertisements – or ads that are set to run during specific times of the day to help restaurants drive the right message at the right time. Similar to scheduling tweets, you will be able to post deals at just the right mealtime (think about Millennials who want late night food or takeout deals an hour before a football game).

If you want to get really creative, Facebook is a great place for it. Recently, Wendy’s created a series of #PretzelLoveSongs videos to launch its Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger. The videos reached 83 million people, many of who only saw these ads on Facebook, not on television.

TacoBell also recently leveraged Facebook to announce its latest Doritos Locos Taco, in this case utilizing an Instagram video TacoBell also released advertising on television, but the financial cost difference between television ads and Facebook ads is striking.

Some other restaurants doing it right on Facebook:

· Pizza Hut

· White Castle

· Dippin’ Dots

· Ben & Jerry’s

· The Coupe

· The Handlebar