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Social Media Marketing Can be Confusing
Victoria CayceFri, Feb 08, 2019 @ 10:17 AM4 min read

The Awkward Truth About Social Media and Restaurants: Why it’s Easy to Get it Wrong (And What You Can do About It)

Please sit down. We need to have a talk. It’s about your social media engagement.

How do we put this delicately?

It kinda sucks.

Now please don’t be offended. Executing an effective social media campaign that converts to actual pizza sales can be about as straightforward and simple as teaching your labradoodle to ride a bicycle. It’s doable, but not necessarily easy. And truthfully, you may not have any clue as how to begin.

 

Surprise! Social Media Marketing Can be Confusing

If social media seems confusing, that’s because it is. While per Statista, 9 out of 10 American businesses use some form of social media to market themselves - most of them are doing it wrong.Social Media Marketing Can be Confusing

Even companies that have run some successful social media campaigns may not know why something worked, or how to do it again. This is especially true of smaller companies such as independent pizzerias who may not have the resources to hire whiz-bang marketing companies to help them trend or even invest the time it takes to understand the metrics that drive authentic social media engagement.

 

Only 17% of Companies Can Identify Their ROI on Social Media

If you are confused, you are not alone. According to an article by Forbes, only 17% of companies can point to accurate data measurements concerning critical factors such as conversion rates.

In other words, the bulk of companies (including your competitors) are probably just as lost as you may feel when it comes to identifying and quantifying how well a given social media campaign is really doing, or why.

 

Why is Social Media Marketing So Hard to Master?

On the surface, social media seems rather simple. You come up with ideas and share them out where customers (or potential customers) will see them. After all, an awful lot of people are online every day.

Per a 2018 survey by the renowned Pew Research Center, 68% of adults in the U.S. have at least one social media site they follow, and 74% of American internet users check their Facebook account at least once a day.

Somewhere, somebody should be seeing what you share leading to more sales. Except in most cases, it’s more like losing your socks in the dryer. You know you put them in there, yet somehow, they were sucked into the void, never to be heard from again.

The truth is that social media is a powerful tool. But like all tools, you need to know how to use it. To that end, below are some tips that help you level up your social media game.

 

Tips to Boost Your Pizza Sales Using Social Media

Imo's Pizza Facebook PostFirst things first. When you plan a social media campaign, make sure you know your target audience. You want your posts to be relevant and engaging to the people who are going to buy your pizza.

If you have no idea how to target your particular audience, take a look at how bigger pizza chains like Imo's Pizza are doing it. What is their core message, and how are they gaining and maintaining traction? We are not saying that you should steal their material but emulating them may not be a bad idea to help you cut through the social media noise.

 

Facial Images Improve Response Rates

Next, consider that research has shown that posts with images get more than double the response than posts without them. Images that include faces are also more likely to rank, as the human brain is hard-wired to recognize and respond to faces. While you should avoid overly generic images, the right image can dramatically increase engagement.

 

85% of Social Media Users Turn Off Video Sound

Another way to rank is to remember that only 15% of Facebook users watch videos with the sound on (according to Facebook itself). Simply adding interesting subtitles can increase your chance of being seen and or shared by the 85% of social media users that mute the sound.Add subtitles to social marketing videos!

Additionally, using emoticons has been shown to increase engagement by as much as 33% than those without, per a study from HubSpot. Videos with both captions and emoticons have the highest rates of engagement, but be careful, as too many can be distracting.

 

Be Prompt

Research shows that people who complain on Twitter about a problem with a given restaurant, expect an answer within an hour. Simply monitoring your feed and being responsive can resolve problems and protect your sales. Carefully handling a customer can change a problem into a loyal repeat customer. With a little thought and planning, you too can own social media like a boss. Stay tuned for more helpful blogs to help you thrive in a world of digital marketing. Click here to learn more about Thrive's robust point-of-sale systems that help you manage online ordering, loyalty marketing. order tracking, deliveries,  and more.

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Victoria Cayce

Victoria Cayce is a highly-accomplished Texas-based blogger, copywriter and a regular Thrive Blog contributor.

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