The 10 biggest mistakes restaurants make on Instagram
Social media tips for restaurants on Instagram
From dodgy camera angles to neglecting video content, are you guilty of any of these social media no-no’s?
1. Bad angled food photography
One of the biggest faux pas in food photography is choosing a bad angle. The way you position your lens in front of your food can make or break the shot - no matter how beautifully presented your dish.
Each plate, bowl or board will be different, but as a rule of thumb we’d avoid just whipping your camera out whilst you’re sitting in front of the food. Always stand up and experiment with different angles.
An overhead shot (sometimes referred to as a flatlay) is a great way to show off a beautiful plateful of food, or a feast shot with lots of dishes together. To show some height and depth in your food - e.g. a juicy, stacked burger, try crouching down low and shooting straight-on. Always avoid shooting with a slanted angle and keep your horizon lines straight by turning on your grid guidelines in your phone’s camera settings.
2. Adding links into captions
This is a common mistake made by businesses who are trying to add a link to a website page within a caption. Simply copying and pasting a URL into your Instagram captions doesn’t work, as the link will not be clickable.
Instead, make sure your links are updated in your bio. Instagram now allows you to add up to five links to your page, or you can use a third party tool like LinkTree or Flodesk to create a landing page with more links.
3. Neglecting Instagram reels
Instagram reels are the number one way to reach new audiences (and potential new customers) on the platform, but we see a surprising amount of restaurants shying away from video content. If you’re guilty of avoiding posting Instagram reels and solely relying on photography, you are missing a fantastic opportunity to showcase your business and reach your target customers by neglecting a major feature on the app.
4. Filming horizontal videos
Any videos on Instagram reels and stories should be filmed and posted as a vertical video, not a horizontal one. 98% of Instagram users access the platform on their phone. To remember this rule, just think of when you’re scrolling on Instagram (or TikTok), you are holding your phone vertically, so all content you would like to share on these platforms should be fit for purpose. Save the horizontal videos for YouTube.
5. Posting story content on the grid
This is one of the most common mistakes we see made by restaurants on Instagram. You should be treating your Instagram feed posts (anything that lives permanently on your grid) as your digital shop window, offering a flavour of all you have to offer, injecting your brand’s personality, and enticing prospective new customers through the door. To entice, you need to do one of three things: entertain, educate, or inspire.
Anything outside of these parameters should likely belong on your Instagram stories. For example, any time sensitive, unsexy, admin messages such as ‘we’re closing early today due to a power cut’ or ‘we have a last minute table for tonight’ should just go on your stories, which will expire after 24 hours.
The power cut you had last Wednesday doesn’t deserve a place in the shop window, but your incredible food and drink, passionate team of people, unbelievable views, and gorgeous interiors do!
6. Forgetting to tag a location
Don’t miss an opportunity to reach the people searching for places to visit in your local area. Instagram is used more and more as a search engine, especially when it comes to dining out and travel. With just a few extra clicks, you can tag your location in your post and be included in the search results.
For example, if you own a restaurant in Battersea, London - by tagging London as your location, your post will be in amongst all of the others that have tagged London (probably quite a few!). If you tagged Battersea, you’re narrowing the search down slightly, and someone looking for a place to go for dinner on Friday night in Battersea may find you.
It’s also smart to include your location to simply remind people where you are. The worst thing you can do is assume everyone who follows you knows exactly what you do or where you are. Don’t leave any room for confusion.
7. Bad lighting
Lighting is everything when it comes to photography. If you take just one thing away from this article today, let it be this. Always take your food or drink to a table with natural light. Ideally, a table with side-lighting is best. Don’t shoot with the light source behind your subject as this will create a silhouetted effect. For clear, crisp photos of your beautiful food, natural light is the easiest way to bring it to life on camera.
8. Food on the pass
This is one of our favourite tips for restaurants on Instagram. Stop taking photos of your food under the heat lamps on the kitchen pass. The metallic surfaces, kitchen spills, blue roll in the background, and the intensely warm, artificial light makes for awful photos that truly don’t do anyone’s food justice.
9. Sharing menus and posters on the grid
Instagram is an extremely visual platform and you’re competing against hundreds of different posts at a time to capture someone’s imagination and attention. A screenshot of the PDF for your new season menu or the poster for your next event may seem like a logical way to show off what you’re selling, but the likelihood of that getting anyone’s attention is slim.
We all eat with our eyes, so a much smarter strategy would be to tease the menu with some utterly mouthwatering shots of some of the dishes - think cheese pulls, chocolate sauce drizzles, egg yolk pops. Make your audience hungry, entice them in with a hook, e.g. ‘is this our best menu yet?’ followed by a call to action to ‘head to the website to check out the full menu’.
This captures attention, engages an audience, and drives traffic to your website where your dream customer can then easily book a table. The more engagement you get on your content, the higher Instagram’s algorithm will rank it, and the more accounts it’ll be served to - meaning more eyes on your restaurant.
10. Forgetting to be human
There’s a reason it’s called ‘social’ media. Although Instagram is a marketing platform for your business to make money, it’s also a unique opportunity to really connect with your customers and build a sense of community. Be sociable on the app, reply to all your comments, and engage on the platform with other content in your niche.
Instagram stories are also a great place to add a human element to your content, so share more candid, behind-the-scenes content, get team members who are happy to be photographed or filmed in front of the camera, use features like polls or question boxes to ask your followers for their opinions or feedback. As long as you don’t go too far in oversharing and remember that you are posting as a business, you shouldn’t be afraid to show off your restaurant’s personality.
Did we list any mistakes that you’ve been making?
No judgments here, we promise! If you’re running a restaurant and looking for some more guidance with your Instagram strategy, check out our social media services and get in touch to book a free discovery call.
