My name is Andres De Oliveira, I'm the executive chef at SOYA Sushi Restaurant in Miami, FL. I'm also a content creator known as AndresCooking. My content revolves around food, recipes, and anything related to the kitchen. I love working in front of the camera, but my real passion is cooking in the restaurant and solving the challenges that come with running a successful business.
Marketing a restaurant using social media is a must in today's digital age. With millions of people using social media platforms, they are the perfect place to promote your restaurant and attract potential customers. In this blog post, I will show you how we were able to go viral and draw lots of attention to the restaurant with a simple video about how to use a can opener properly.
The strategy
The problem with most restaurant’s social media pages is that they are filled with delicious food photos, but little that audiences can engage with. Social media is saturated with this kind of content; pretty pictures are nothing new. So we decided to go the opposite route and, instead of showing food, create a series of useful kitchen hack videos. We hoped that creating shareable information would allow us to reach new audiences that would follow our restaurant social media page and eventually become customers.
The hooks
The idea was simple: let’s teach people tips and hacks that we’ve learned from working in a professional kitchen. We decided to make the videos catchy and short, and to shoot them inside the restaurant, where you could see the restaurant name in the sign hanging behind me.
We started the can opener video with a catchy line: “I’m going to show the correct way to use a can opener…” We wanted to immediately hook the audience by making them think, “Wait, is there an incorrect way to use a can opener? I’ve got to see this.”
Next, we showed them how we used the can opener—opening the can from the side and not the top. Whoa! Folks were genuinely blown away by this, so they shared the video with their friends. The video went viral, and as more people saw it, we got more followers.
I made sure to close the video by saying, “I hope you liked this video from SOYA Sushi Restaurant,” without adding anything more than that. I believe that was so important, because I wasn’t hard-selling people in the restaurant or feeding them an ad; instead I was giving them useful information. People definitely appreciated that.
The results
We made close to 100 kitchen hack videos, and in just four months our Instagram page went from 30K to 90K followers. We had to rent a bigger restaurant space, and went from 45 to 120 seats in order to accommodate all the new customers we got. We couldn’t be happier! As for that can opener video? It has gotten over 1.4M views!
As you can see, social media is a powerful tool to market your restaurant and attract potential customers. By creating a social media strategy, you can effectively promote your restaurant and drive sales.
At this point you might be thinking, How can I apply this to my own restaurant or small business? Well, just think about what makes you and your business unique. Maybe your business is located in a historic neighborhood that you can highlight in your videos, or your employees are a fun bunch that you think others need to see. Use this uniqueness to your advantage, and let the world know about your business from your distinct point of view.
Thank you for taking the time to read about our marketing adventure. Hopefully this has given you an idea you to think outside of the box when it comes to your small business. Cheers!
