Guide
Social media marketing for restaurants
Most restaurant social media fails for one reason: it is inconsistent. Not because the food is wrong, not because the account is cursed. This is the plan we run for independent restaurants, written so you can do it yourself between rushes.
Start with the job, not the platform
Every post should do one of four jobs: reach people who have never heard of you, make a local hungry right now, build enough trust that they choose you over the chain, or push a booking. If a post does none of those, it is a diary entry. Decide the job before you pick up the phone, and the shot list writes itself.
Which platforms actually matter
For a single location restaurant, the order is simple. Instagram Reels and TikTok do the discovery, because both push short vertical video to people nearby who do not follow you. Facebook still reaches an older local crowd and takes the same video with no extra work. YouTube Shorts is a free re-post. Your Google Business Profile is the one nobody uses and the one closest to a booking, because the person reading it is already searching for somewhere to eat.
A posting cadence you can keep
| Format | How often | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Short vertical video | 4 to 5 a week | Reach new locals who have never heard of you |
| Photo or carousel | 1 to 2 a week | Show the menu clearly for people already deciding |
| Stories | Daily, 2 or 3 frames | Stay top of mind with people who already follow you |
| Google Business post | 1 a week | Catch the people searching your area right now |
Four honest videos a week beats fourteen posts one week and silence for a month.
What to film on your phone
You do not need a camera crew. You need close, loud, well lit moments: the cheese pull, the sauce pour, steam coming off the pass, the knife through the crust, the drink build from ice to garnish. Shoot vertical, get within arm's reach, keep each clip 3 to 6 seconds, and film more than you think you need. Our filming guide has the lighting and phone settings, and the blog has ready made shot ideas.
The one week loop
- Monday: pick three dishes you want to sell more of this week.
- Tuesday: film them during prep, 6 to 10 short clips per dish, phone locked at 4K and steady.
- Wednesday: cut the clips into vertical videos with a hook in the first second.
- Thursday: write captions that name the dish, the neighborhood and the reason to come in.
- Friday and the weekend: post at lunch and again before the dinner rush, then reply to every comment.
Captions that reach locals
Name the dish, name the neighborhood, and give one reason to come in this week. Put the searchable words in the caption itself, not only in hashtags, because both TikTok and Instagram read caption text as search terms. Keep hashtags short and local: your city, your neighborhood, your cuisine, the dish.
Measure covers, not likes
Track three things weekly: views from people who do not follow you, saves and shares, and profile taps to directions or your booking link. Likes tell you nothing about tables. If a video gets reach but no profile taps, the hook worked and the offer did not.
The part restaurants cannot keep up with is the editing
Filming takes ten minutes. Cutting, captioning and scheduling is what quietly kills the habit. Chef Social takes the raw clips off your phone and returns finished vertical videos with captions and post times, so the only thing you have to keep doing is pointing the camera at your food.