Top 5 Social Media tips to make your cafe shine above the rest.

By now in 2017 everybody knows that your Cafe needs Social Media pages. There is no if or but about you it need one whether you know how to do it or not. People now turn to Facebook or Twitter to see opening times, prices and menus and most of all reviews. I personally no longer go anywhere with out having a look on Instagram to see the food and drinks (I love coffee art!).

This means you have to be in touch with social media if you want your Cafe business to grow, reach new customers and keep the existing ones coming back. Knowing what to put on your social media pages can leave even the best of us scratching our heads so I have come up with a few ideas and tips to make your cafe shine brighter than the rest!

1. Facebook Cafe Templates

Facebook has had a new update recently meaning you can verify your page so you get that almighty tick next to your name and also released its new feature of templates. This means Facebook has looked into what would be the best layout for each industry and you’re in luck! Facebook has created a template specifically for restaurants and cafes with features to make sure all  the essential info is there on your newsfeed.

2. Ask for reviews!

The saying “you don’t ask, you don’t get” strongly applies here! There is a very small chance that a customer will leave a review unless they’ve had an extremely good experience or a really bad one! Try and post a couple of reminders to review your social media pages every week or so. Receiving reviews is valued by search engines like Google as fresh and relevant content which will boost your cafe up higher in the ranks on search engines. This is also a good tool to find out from your customers first hand what they like and don’t like so you can improve to be the best you can be.

3. Tell Staff Stories

If your staff have something exciting coming up like a competition, event or charity then share it (even if it is in the past)! I’m sure they will appreciate the recognition and if is a good way to get customers to engage with your staff to build report with your customers. Customers will want to engage with you personally, they want to feel like they are friends and want to get to know your staff. It also will make your cafe look great that your are supporting local causes and charities. This will get a lot of customers returning knowing that they are supporting a cause. Not to mention people love to share a charity to their friends which helps your staff out and gets your name in front of loads of new people!

4. Engage

Engagement’s important as it gives you a better image, loyal customers and improve your reach to how many people see your content as it is valued as genuine content by social media pages.

So often I will see a cafe with great reviews (and some pretty bad ones!) and the page hasn’t responded! A customer has gone through the effort of leaving a review to your page which either means they really enjoyed their experience or they really didn’t. Either way they are seeking a response. When you have a good review you could respond by telling them what a pleasure it was to have them and leave a question such as “we hope you will be returning soon?” this way you are inviting them back to your cafe as a valued customer.

In the unfortunate event of receiving a negative review you can still use this as a good opportunity. A gracious reply apologising for their experience and that you will find out why it happened is great to turn the negative into positive. This shows that you accept that you are only human and make mistakes sometimes but you are making an effort to keep on top of any mishaps and improve where you can. This may change the OP mind as they have been listened to and you are willing to make it right. Even if they still aren’t happy it lets other readers know that it won’t happen again as you have taken the comment on board!

You can also engage other ways such as replying comments and engaging in conversation, this builds up a relationship and loyalty with your customers to keep them coming back time and time again.

5. You need to be prepared!

Social Media is time consuming and difficult to keep on top of when you aren’t prepared. Set yourself a time in the week to think about what you want your customers to see on your page and schedule the whole week in. It won’t take long to knock up the text then you can rinse and repeat. Use the text time and time again (not consecutively) and change the image around every so often. This eliminates wondering what to post in 10 minutes time and where you’re going to get it from.

Now although Facebook allows you to schedule your posts in advanced, you aren’t so lucky with other social media platforms so it is worth while looking into a social media management program such as Hootsuite or Buffer which allows you to control all of your social media platforms from on place and schedule all your content across every platform.

Check us out on Facebook for more tips to the trade!